How to write for it
Write six short parts, in this order. The phrases under each part are from prompts on this page.
- 1SubjectWho or what it is, in one sentence. Give an age, a trade or a material.
a halfling river smuggler in her forties
a ship’s compass of tarnished brass
a toll town built along the back of a fallen stone giant
- 2DetailsThings you can see. Then check the picture: ours changed two of the five.
a small scar through her upper lip
grey-streaked curly hair under an oilcloth hood
a cracked glass face
- 3ActionWhat it is doing. One action is enough.
She leans on a barge pole and looks past the viewer.
mends a fishing net by candlelight
- 4Place and lightWhere it is, and where the light comes from.
Dawn mist on a canal behind her, low warm light from the left.
Warm candle light, with cool moonlight from a round window.
- 5FramingHow close, and from where.
Waist-up, 85mm portrait framing.
Medium shot from slightly above.
seen from directly overhead with no perspective
Wide establishing shot
- 6FinishThe look. Name it, or the model picks one for you.
Painterly fantasy illustration with visible brushwork.
Oil painting with soft edges.
hand-painted tabletop map style
The six parts together
Portrait of a halfling river smuggler in her forties. Sun-browned skin, a small scar through her upper lip, grey-streaked curly hair under an oilcloth hood, a patched waxed coat with brass toggles. She leans on a barge pole and looks past the viewer. Dawn mist on a canal behind her, low warm light from the left. Waist-up, 85mm portrait framing. Painterly fantasy illustration with visible brushwork.
Open in studio fills in the model and the prompt. Set the size and the quality there. The studio shows the price before you make anything.
Two words against six parts
Low, Medium and High
The wanted poster prompt at three quality settings.
Every word is right at all three, and the long line stays on one line. The reward is on two lines at Low and Medium and on three at High. Only the Low run drew the dwarf with one eye.
What else to know
It fills out your prompt before it draws. On CharGen, Prompt Expansion starts on for this model, and all our runs had it on. So a short prompt comes back as a full picture: “a wizard” gave a painted wizard on a cliff under an aurora.
Name the finish to hold the look. We built the portrait prompt one part at a time. The first three pictures were smooth illustrations and the next two were close to photos. “Painterly fantasy illustration with visible brushwork” gave paint with clear brush strokes.
Lettering is its strong point. Every word on the wanted poster is right at Low, Medium and High, and the long line did not wrap.
Check the small details. The scar came out on the lower lip, the hood as a headscarf, and the one-eyed dwarf with two eyes at Medium and High.
Use compass words to place things. North-west corner, east half, south wall. The battle map put all three where the prompt said.
Small states can get lost. The heron was to be asleep. Its head is down, but its eye is open.
It adds the marks of the kind. The halfling got a pointed ear and the bugbear got tusks. Neither was in the prompt.
Six table jobs
The same six jobs go to every model, so you can compare one model with the next.
Character portrait
- Name things you can see, then check them.The hair, the patched coat and the toggles came out. The hood is a cloth headscarf, and the scar is on the lower lip, not the upper.
- Say where the light comes from.“low warm light from the left”
- Give the crop and the lens.“Waist-up, 85mm portrait framing.”
Portrait of a halfling river smuggler in her forties. Sun-browned skin, a small scar through her upper lip, grey-streaked curly hair under an oilcloth hood, a patched waxed coat with brass toggles. She leans on a barge pole and looks past the viewer. Dawn mist on a canal behind her, low warm light from the left. Waist-up, 85mm portrait framing. Painterly fantasy illustration with visible brushwork.
Paint with clear brush strokes. She holds the pole and does not lean on it, and she got a pointed ear that the prompt did not ask for.
Token
- Call it a round game token.“Round game token of a bugbear tollkeeper.”
- Say where the light is.“lantern light from below” lit his face from below, with no lantern in the picture.
- It does not cut the token out.“Nothing outside the ring” gave a white ground. This model has no Background setting.
Round game token of a bugbear tollkeeper. Head and shoulders, facing the viewer, heavy brow, an iron-banded leather cap, lantern light from below. A thick dark bronze ring around the token. Painted fantasy style. Nothing outside the ring.
A clean ring on a white ground, with warm light from below. The rune marks on the ring and the tusks were not in the prompt. For a cut-out, take the picture to Token Maker.
Battle map
- Lock the view.“seen from directly overhead with no perspective” gave a view from above, but the walls still show depth.
- Place things with compass words.“in the north-west corner”, “along the south wall”, “the east half”
- Ask for one view.“One single view that fills the whole frame.” The map fills the frame, with no title, legend or grid.
Top-down battle map of a flooded cellar under a tavern, seen from directly overhead with no perspective. Flagstone floor. The east half is under knee-deep green water. Stacked barrels along the south wall, a collapsed wooden staircase in the north-west corner, a small rowboat tied to a stone pillar in the water. Even light, hand-painted tabletop map style. One single view that fills the whole frame.
The staircase, the water, the barrels and the boat on its rope are where the prompt put them. It added a door, a bench and things that float in the water.
Item
- Say it is on its own.“One magic item on its own” gave a plain off-white ground.
- Give the material and one odd detail.“tarnished brass”, “the needle is a sliver of blue ice”
- The finish words did not give paint here.“Painted fantasy item art, crisp edges.” gave a 3D render look.
One magic item on its own: a ship's compass of tarnished brass with a cracked glass face. The needle is a sliver of blue ice that sheds faint frost. Three-quarter view, soft light from above. Painted fantasy item art, crisp edges.
The cracked glass and a blue needle are there, with a little frost. The case is eight-sided, the view is straight on and not three-quarter, and the letters on the dial are wrong. The ground is plain, not transparent.
Scene
- Open with the shot.“Wide establishing shot of…”
- Put something in the foreground.“A mule caravan crosses a causeway in the foreground.”
- Give the time of day and two colours.“Late afternoon, long shadows, muted greens and rust.”
Wide establishing shot of a toll town built along the back of a fallen stone giant. Houses line the spine, rope bridges hang between the ribs, market smoke rises. A mule caravan crosses a causeway in the foreground. Late afternoon, long shadows, muted greens and rust. Painterly fantasy landscape.
The whole giant is there, on its back: a head, a chest of ribs, both arms, an open hand and a knee. Houses stand on the chest and the knee, with rope bridges between them. The caravan crosses a wooden walkway in front. There is chimney smoke, but no market.
Handout with lettering
- Name the thing the words are on.“A weathered wanted poster nailed to a wooden post.”
- Give each line its place, and its words in quotation marks.“Heading in heavy black printed letters: "WANTED".”
- “One line of text” is kept.The long line stayed on one line at Low, Medium and High.
A weathered wanted poster nailed to a wooden post. Heading in heavy black printed letters: "WANTED". Below the heading, an ink sketch of a one-eyed dwarf with a braided beard. Under the sketch, one line of text: "Brannoc Vale, for the theft of the Tollkeeper's Seal". At the bottom, in large letters: "REWARD 500 GOLD". Torn corners, rain stains, old paper.
Every word is spelled right. The long line stayed on one line, and the reward took two. The sketch is ink with a grey wash. The dwarf has a braided beard and two eyes.
Edit with a reference
Say what stays first, then what changes. In the studio, add your picture as a reference before you paste the prompt.
Keep her face, her hair, the hood and the coat exactly as they are. Change the time to night. Rain falls. One lantern on the right lights her face. The canal behind her is dark.
The same face, headscarf and coat, with the scar in the same place. Night, rain and one lantern on the right. The canal is hard to see in the dark.
Limits on CharGen
- Price
- 5 gold at Low, 9 at Medium, 30 at High
- Sizes
- 1k and 2k
- Shapes
- 7, from 16:9 to 9:16
- Quality
- Low, Medium and High
- Reference images
- Up to 5
- Negative prompt
- None
- Who can use it
- Members on a plan
| Size setting | What we got |
|---|---|
| 1k | 1024 × 1024 (1:1) · 864 × 1152 (3:4) · 1280 × 720 (16:9) · 896 × 1184 (the edit of a 3:4 picture) |
| 2k | 1728 × 2304 (3:4) · 2496 × 1664 (3:2) |
