AI Image & Video Prompt Pipeline: From Beginner to Advanced

The hardest part of an AI short isn’t “generating one good frame” — it’s keeping character and scene stable across dozens of seconds. Here is the prompt pipeline distilled from real production.

1. Asset locking first (4 layers)

1. Region lock: fix aspect ratio, main palette, light direction.
2. Asset lock: write a character sheet (appearance / outfit / colors) as a fixed prefix, reused every shot.
3. Shot split: cut 15 seconds into several shots, write a prompt per shot.
4. Constraint layer: state the “don’ts” (e.g., deformation, style drift).

2. Per-shot reference table (9 columns)

One row per shot: shot # / framing / subject / action / background / camera move / style / lock prefix / notes. The model generates from the table — consistency jumps.

3. Multi-shot continuity

• Same character uses the same character prefix + the same seed range.
• Adjacent shots share background description — avoid “shot 1 is daytime, shot 2 is night.”
• For video, prefer image-to-video, feeding the previous shot’s last frame or keyframe.

4. Common failures & fixes

• Character face breaks → lock prefix + reference image + inpainting.
• Broken hands → explicitly constrain “complete hands, natural pose” in the prompt.
• Style drift → global style lock + unified post-processing filter.

Pipeline beats inspiration. Lock assets and structure so you can produce reliably instead of rolling the dice every time.