Building a Reusable AI Character Bible for a Teach Series

Building a Reusable AI Character Bible for a Teach Series

Prevent character drift across a multi-week series with a reusable AI character bible: face, wardrobe, props, lighting, and do/don’t fields—plus a weekly QA checklist. Educational Reel series lose trust when the host’s jacket, age, or palette mutates every episode.

A bible is not a novel. It is a short, boring control document you approve once and reuse as reference across episodes.

Core bible fields

Pair with still-package discipline (consistency tips for character stills).

How to build it in one afternoon

1. Generate or photograph candidate stills (not full videos)
2. Pick one hero still; reject near-misses ruthlessly
3. Fill the field table above in a one-pager
4. Add three “fail” examples (wrong wardrobe, wrong age, busy bg)
5. Store stills with stable filenames / IDs
6. Reference those IDs in every scene card—do not re-describe the face in prose each time

Marketers without designers can still run this if the bible exists before briefing (brief without a designer).

Weekly QA checklist

Run before the week’s batch renders:

• Same host still IDs as last week
• Wardrobe matches bible (no “seasonal refresh” without version bump)
• Palette hex / swatches unchanged
• Props list not expanded casually
• No new readable logos
• Aspect safe zones intact (ratio lock)
• Drift examples attached if any scene failed

If drift appears, regenerate the scene—not the entire bible—unless the bible itself was wrong (regeneration mistakes).

Versioning without chaos

• v1 — launch look
• v1.1 — micro fixes (collar, lighting) after first week QA
• v2 — intentional wardrobe refresh announced as a new season

Never silent-v2 mid-series. Audiences notice even when you pretend they do not.

Series example: 8-week “ops SOP” teach track

Bible: Host B clay-style, teal apron prop (stylized), desk set, checklist icon family. Episodes 1–8 reuse stills; only diagrams change. That is how batching one outline into many clips stays coherent (batching weekly teach content).

Still package contents (minimum)

Store alongside the one-pager. Editors should open the folder, not reinterpret prose.

Lighting and camera rules that prevent drift

Write boring constraints:

• Key light direction
• No hard rim light unless bible says so
• Focal length family (e.g. “normal, not ultra-wide face distortion”)
• Camera height (eye-level default)

AI tools invent glam lighting when prompts get excited. The bible exists to be unexciting.

Guest experts and temporary hosts

If a guest appears for one episode:

• Mark as guest_v1 outside the main bible
• Do not update Host A stills “to match the guest energy”
• Return to main bible next episode without blending

Series trust > one-episode novelty.

Naming conventions that save hours

Use stable IDs:

• hostA_hero_v1.png
• hostA_mid_v1.png
• bg_desk_v1.png
• palette_series_ops_v1.png

Never final_final2_really.png. Scene cards should reference IDs. When v2 happens, bump the suffix and leave v1 archived read-only.

Gesture vocabulary

List allowed gestures (neutral open hand, nod, point to card) and banned ones (finger guns, exaggerated shrugs, pointing at invisible UI). Gestures drift as badly as faces and read as a different personality week to week.

Field note 1

When this workflow feels slow, remember regenerating motion for unclear intent is slower. Spend the minutes on the board: nouns, timing, and approval owners. The publish cadence stays weekly only if the control documents stay boring and current.

Field note 2

When this workflow feels slow, remember regenerating motion for unclear intent is slower. Spend the minutes on the board: nouns, timing, and approval owners. The publish cadence stays weekly only if the control documents stay boring and current.

Field note 3

When this workflow feels slow, remember regenerating motion for unclear intent is slower. Spend the minutes on the board: nouns, timing, and approval owners. The publish cadence stays weekly only if the control documents stay boring and current.

Soft tool note

Whatever stack you use, approve stills once and reuse them as reference across episodes so character drift does not eat the series. Platforms such as Scro are built around storyboard-first still approval; the bible fields above work in a shared drive folder just as well.