Recently Midjourney introduced a new capability called Character Reference. It allows you to make images while consistently showing the same character.

So, for fun I decided to make a little tour using this loveable scamp:

Hiya!
Prompt: full-body photo of a sleazy man in a pinstripe suit, with slicked back hair and a pencil mustache and a creepy grin --ar 3:4 --style raw --stylize 75

Meet Marcus Smelvy (I’m terrible at names). One big ball of… misplaced self-confidence. In this post we’re going to use him as our character reference for several new scenes.
The way this works is you use the --cref <url> parameter as a reference to what the character in the image should look like.

Let’s try something simple and put him to work in an ice cream shop.

No, I don’t have any bodies in the freezer
Prompt: a man running an ice cream shop --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI
The URL is an internal reference to our original Midjourney image of Marcus

Marcus is in color! But… urgh… he looks really out of place in his suit. This is definitely a mob front :)
The prompt itself is very simple and makes no reference to Marcus’ appearance, which shows how much of an influence the character reference has.
Thankfully we can change the weight of the character reference with the --cw parameter. A value of 100 will include everything of the character including the clothes. A value of 0 will only focus on the face.

Let’s get rid of that suit and see if that will make him a bit more approachable.

I hate my job
Prompt: a man running an ice cream shop --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI --cw 0

This is a lot more appropriate, though he’s definitely not enjoying himself.
Let’s try something a bit wilder:

The new summer collection
Prompt: a man posing in a fashion show --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI --cw 0

Again, it’s a very simple prompt, but the character reference works like a charm.

But what about something a bit more… fantastical?

Thank you, I’ll be here all night!
Prompt: a fantasy bard singing at a tavern --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI --cw 0

Even with a medium change to drawings, Marcus is still recognizable.

Basically you can create a character and put it in any situation you like.

For the emperor!
Prompt: a space marine firing his gun at an alien horde --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI --cw 0

You can even play with the --cw parameter and use a value in the middle to get some really weird effects.

For my hairline!
Prompt: a space marine firing his gun at an alien horde --ar 4:3 --cref https://s.mj.run/bn8kg8YiQDI --cw 50

And there you have it, a short run-through of what you can do with character reference. It’s still in a testing phase, so I guess it’ll get even more accurate. But for now the results are already quite amazing.
The ability of making a consistent character has a lot of interesting potential.

I’ll leave you with a few more bonus images :)