Short answerWrite the face and the body, not the wardrobe. Hair, build, skin, distinguishing marks and one or two fixed features belong there; clothing comes from the year, the scene and the script and should not be pinned in the appearance note.
What the field is for
The Appearance note on a character card is the text the portrait generator reads when it draws the character's anchors and four-view sheet, and it travels with the character into every render. There is no length limit, but every word is a constraint the model will try to honour in every shot.
Put these in
- Hair: colour, length, texture, how it is worn.
- Build and height impression: slight, broad, tall, stooped.
- Face: shape, notable features, a scar, a mole, heavy brows.
- Age impression if the preset age stage is not enough.
- One signature detail that must always be there: an eye patch, a birthmark, spectacles.
The preset attributes above the note (gender, age stage, body, skin, ethnicity, entity) are controlled vocabularies and are read first; use the note for what the presets cannot say.
Leave these out
- Clothing. "Wears a grey hoodie" turns a 1587 magistrate into a modern one in every scene, because the note is applied everywhere. Costume comes from the series year and the scene; if a specific garment matters to the story, it is a prop or a line in the script.
- Emotions and poses. "Always smiling" fights every dramatic shot.
- Story facts. Who they love and what they want belong in the bible, not in the portrait prompt.
- Language. The note is about how the character looks, not how they sound. Voice has its own field, and it describes timbre, never a language.
Aliases matter as much as looks
Under the name, the Aliases list shows every name the scripts use for this character with a hit count. A missed alias means the character is not recognised in those lines and may be drawn as a stranger. Add any nickname, title or short form the scripts use.
Props with the character
Small items the character always carries, a cane, a jade pendant, a ledger, go on a prop card with this character as owner. Owned props appear in videos and are drawn consistently; unowned props are archived as clues and never rendered.
Still stuck? Email support@dawnwood.ai with your account email, the series, the episode and the segment or group — see what to include.