Overview

Creating expressive animated character portraits is essential for various use cases, such as in games and interactive media. These portraits help breathe life into characters, enhancing their emotional depth and engagement with audiences. This tutorial outlines a streamlined workflow using Scenario's AI tools to easily adjust facial expressions, making character portraits adaptable for evolving storylines or creating multiple variations, such as for animating speech or other dynamic interactions.

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This multi-step process involves two main approaches for creating expressions:

1. Generating Base Portraits

2. Modifying Expressions in Canvas using only Masking

3. Creating Precise Expressions in Canvas using Sketching (Optional)

A video tutorial is also available on our YouTube channel.

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1. Start with a Base Portrait

(Note: if you already have generated images, skip to Step 2)

Begin by generating portraits. You can use a base model (like Flux) or a custom-trained model that aligns with your character's style and features (e.g., “style model” or “character model”). Scenario offers a range of models suited to various themes, or you can use your own, whether it's a single LoRA, multi-LoRA, or an uploaded model.

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Once your model is selected, click Generate with This Model to begin. Use a prompt that describes your character in detail. For instance, using “The Sorceress” model and the prompt "Close-up portrait of a white-haired sorceress wearing a blue hat and robe, smiling softly with twinkling blue eyes. The hat features a belt and buckle. Whimsical 3D cartoon style, cute and exaggerated". 

2. Masking & Prompting  

To modify facial expressions, load the base image into Scenario’s Canvas tool by clicking Edit Details in the top menu.

Use the mask tool to select the areas to change, such as the mouth, eyes, eyebrows, or nose, depending on the expression you want to adjust. Update the prompt to match the desired expression (e.g., "smiling" or "angry"). You can adjust influence of the masked area using the influence slider. A value of 25 typically balances the changes well, but you can increase or decrease it depending on how much creative freedom you want to give the AI. The lower the influence, the more creative the AI becomes; while higher values retain more of the original image. You can also slightly increase the “guidance” parameters to give more importance to the prompt.

For instance, a prompt like“portrait, happy, joyful, mouth open” with generate the new expression below. You can select one or more outcome(s) to the left, which will then load as layers to the right. These layers can be kept as is, or merged before exporting.

This method can also be used to create multiple variations, such as animating your character to appear as if they are speaking, by adjusting the mouth and other facial features across different frames.

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3. Guide with a Sketch

If the desired expressions aren't easily achievable using masking and prompting alone, you can opt for more precise control with the Sketching tool. First, add a new layer before sketching. While optional, this "non-destructive" approach allows you to more easily modify or revert changes. Sketch your portrait to adjust features like the eyebrows, mouth, or eyes. Use the color picker to match tones for consistency.

Apply a mask over the sketched areas and refine your prompt. Adjust the influence based on the precision of your sketch. A value of 25 is a good starting point, but higher values may work better for precise sketches as they limit the AI’s creativity and maintain the original likeness. In this case, the prompt is "Portrait, suspicious expression, eyes peeled, unhappy face".

Here’s the character with a new facial expression, influenced by the prompt and enhanced by the additional sketch applied over the base image.

Conclusion

Scenario allows you to quickly modify facial expressions for animated portraits with ease. Whether using simple mask adjustments or detailed sketching, this workflow helps create dynamic and consistent character portraits suited for any game or project. Additionally, this method can be used to create character variants for specific animations, such as making your character appear to speak.

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