How To Create Consistent Characters In Midjourney V6 Using Image References (cref tutorial)

Midjourney V6 introduced two new features: cref and cw. The cref feature accepts a URL to the character reference image. And cw is followed by a number from the range between 0 - 100, which is character weight. Set cw to 100, which is the default, and you get complete similarity for face, clothes and hair style. Set it to 0 to make the character keep the same face, which is great to changing character attributes like shirts, hair styles, etc.

With cref (character reference) and cw (character weight) features, Midjourney 6 now allows you to dramatically improve character consistency for your illustration books. It works particularly well on illustrated character designs, but it is likely to fail more often on photorealistic characters.

So how does it work?

Well, watching this video is the fastest way to learn about this new feature:

Create consistent characters in Midjourney 6 using cref and cw keywords.

To create consistent characters in V6 with cref and cw features, follow these steps:

• Add --cref URL after your prompt.
• Make sure the URL points to your character reference image.
• Use --cw modifier between 0 to 100 to strengthten character likeness.
• Use --cw 100 default to focus on face, hair and clothes attributes.
• Use --cw 0 to just focus on the face, which is good for changing outfits and hairstyle.

The cref feature makes your image more aware of specific characteristics of the character. Think of it as an improved seed feature for memorizing clothes, faces and hair color and style.

This is great news for Amazon KDP illustrated book creators. You no longer have to "trial and error" yourself into oblivion trying to get that similar character look across multiple pages just right.

The new cref feature creates an almost production-ready comic book characters, consistent across all of the panels. You may still need to touch up a bit, but not as much as in previous versions.

As Announced By David Holz On March 12 2024

Hey @everyone @here we're testing a new "Character Reference" feature today.

This is similar to the "Style Reference" feature, except instead of matching a reference style it tries to make the character match a "Character Reference" image.

How it works

• Type --cref URL after your prompt with a URL to an image of a character.
• You can use --cw to modify reference 'strength' from 100 to 0.
• strength 100 (--cw 100) is default and uses the face, hair, and clothes.
• At strength 0 (--cw 0) it'll just focus on face (good for changing outfits / hair etc.)

What it's meant for

• This feature works best when using characters made from Midjourney images. It's not designed for real people / photos (and will likely distort them as regular image prompts do)
• Cref works similarly to regular image prompts except it 'focuses' on the character traits
• The precision of this technique is limited, it won't copy exact dimples/ freckles / or tshirt logos.
• Cref works for both Niji and normal MJ models and also can be combined with --sref

Advanced Features

• You can use more than one URL to blend the information /characters from multiple images like this --cref URL1 URL2 (this is similar to multiple image or style prompts)

How does it work on the web alpha?

• Drag or paste an image into the imagine bar, it now has three icons selecting these sets whether it is an image prompt, a style reference, or a character reference. Shift+select an option to use an image for multiple categories

Remember, while MJ V6 is in alpha this and other features may change suddenly, but V6 official beta is coming soon.