Why do my characters look different from scene to scene?

Atlabs keeps a character looking the same across scenes when the video model can use your character as a reference. If a character changes, gets duplicated, or looks different in any scene, it's usually one of the causes below.

Why it happens

Some video models only animate the first image (start frame) of a scene. They can't read character tags.@name). If a scene has no image yet, the model builds the video from the text prompt alone, and the characters won't match.

How to fix it

Option A: make the scene image first

1. Open the scene and generate the image with your characters.
2. Then generate the motion from that image.

Option B: use a reference model

1. Open the scene's motion settings and change the model to Seedance 2 Mini Reference Generation.
2. Add your characters as reference images.
3. Tag them with @ in your prompt, for example @Giggle waves at @Chiku.

If you uploaded your own character

1. When you add the character, choose Keep uploaded look.
2. Leave the Clothing box empty. Anything typed there can change your character.
3. Don't also apply a style conversion to an already-styled image.

Only fix the wrong scenes

You don't need to remake the whole video. Regenerate just the affected scenes, for example, scenes 3, 7, and 17. Regenerating the same image usually fixes duplicates and extra characters.

Example

"I specified a male and a female, but after 2 seconds both look female."
Check the model used for that scene. If it's a start-frame model, generate the scene image with both characters first, then animate it.

Limits

• AI models can still get a few scenes wrong. Occasional misses are normal. If many scenes are wrong, send us the story link and scene numbers.
• Regenerating costs credits. Fix the image first, because images cost less than video.

Still not right?

Send us your story link and the scene numbers through chat.

Frequently Asked Question

Why do my characters look different once they move?
Motion models don't read character tags. Generate an image with your characters tagged first, then generate motion from that image. Make sure the character exists in the story. You can try choosing a different model; check the credits before generating.

Updated on: 10/07/2026