INSIDE THIS AI SKILL
The craft behind its decisions.
These are the principles and procedures the skill applies. You can understand the reasoning without having to perform every production task yourself.
Most character bibles record the interesting things and omit the load-bearing ones.
Backstory is interesting. What she is wearing in episode four and whether she has read the letter yet are the things that actually break, because they are the things every shot has to inherit.
01 / Character bible
The two halves, and which one people skip
A usable bible has a visual half and a narrative half. Almost everyone writes the visual half, because it is the one that looks like work. The narrative half is what catches the errors an audience actually notices.
- Face and body references at real coverage angles
- Expression range: the emotions this character has
- Costume states, each tied to a story day
- Distinguishing marks, and when they appear
- How she moves and holds herself
- What she knows, and from whom she learned it
- What she is carrying, and who gave it to her
- Physical state carried from earlier episodes
- Her relationship temperature with each other character
- What she wants in this episode, specifically
02 / Character bible
Building one that survives production
- 01List the coverage the show actually uses
For vertical serialized work that is mostly close and mid, often at night. Build references for that, not for a flattering three-quarter portrait.
- 02Build a reference set, not a reference
Front, profile, low light, and the framing the show lives in. A single image is the most common cause of a character who collapses in episode two.
- 03Define an expression range
Three to five emotional states this character genuinely has. A range guides performance without changing who she is.
- 04Tie every costume to a story day
Not to an episode. Two episodes can be one evening, and wardrobe has to know that.
- 05Write the knowledge timeline
What she learns, in which scene, from whom. This is the single highest-value page in the document and the one most often missing.
- 06Write the relationship matrix
One line per pair: what happened, and where the trust currently stands.
- 07Approve it, then stop editing it casually
From approval onward a change is a scoped canon change with a visible downstream effect, not a quiet edit.
03 / Character bible
How large a cast can you actually hold
Relationships grow faster than cast. Three characters produce three relationships; five produce ten; eight produce twenty-eight. Every one of them is a piece of state that has to be correct in every scene those characters share.
That arithmetic is why the launch constraint is three principal characters and four recurring locations. It is not a technical limit. It is the size at which a small team can keep the narrative half honest.
Questions about this skill
Can the AI Director build my character sheets?
Yes. Provide a character idea and any references you want to preserve. The Character Bible Skill prepares appearance, costume, voice and story-state guidance that your AI Director can carry into subsequent scenes. You can review that creative preparation yourself or use the Auto mode you have chosen for story and assets.
Is a character bible the same as creative canon?
A bible is a document people read. Canon is state the production system reads, inherits and checks against. A good bible is the best possible input to canon, but it cannot block a render, scope a change, or be compared against a generated frame.
How many reference images does one character need?
Enough to cover the framings the show actually uses, which for vertical drama means close and mid, in the show's light, including at night. The number matters less than the coverage - ten flattering portraits are worth less than four honest ones.
What is the most commonly missing piece?
The knowledge timeline. Almost every bible records who a character is and almost none record what she currently knows, which is the state that produces the continuity errors audiences actually catch.
Can I add a character mid-season?
Yes, as a scoped canon change: new references, new relationships against every existing character, and a decision about what the audience is told and when. You see the downstream effect before you approve it.
Do I need a bible if I already have a script?
Yes. A script tells you what happens; a bible tells the production what must remain true between the things that happen. Scripts are particularly bad at recording costume state and possession, because a reader supplies those automatically and a generation model does not.