Character, Style, and I2V Tests — 2026-07-27

Experiment ID: EXP-TLC-001
Status: Completed exploratory pass; character sheets and style remain candidate
Models: Anima Base v1.0 stills; Wan 2.2 14B I2V with LightX2V four-step LoRAs
Review system: SmartGallery / Media Depot

Questions

Can two recurring children remain recognizable across unrelated environments using text prompts alone?
Which visible anchors survive independent Anima generations?
Which prompt patterns produce clean, full-bleed editorial frames?
Can the visual family of the Mia Reading Nook image be repeated through a fixed text style block?
Can the local dual-A4000 ComfyUI system execute two Wan 2.2 14B Turbo I2V tests in parallel?

Still-image configuration

Field	Value
Runtime	Local dual-instance ComfyUI
Model	`anima-base-v1.0.safetensors`
Text encoder	`qwen_3_06b_base.safetensors`
VAE	`qwen_image_vae.safetensors`
Dimensions	864 × 1152, 3:4 portrait
Steps	30
CFG	4
Sampler / scheduler	`er_sde` / `simple`
Batch strategy	Independent seed per frame; one queue per GPU

Character direction tested

The first pass used the working names Lumi and Pip and deliberately exaggerated their contrast: twin navy buns and teal eyes for Lumi; a large auburn cowlick, scarf, and satchel for Pip. The silhouettes read clearly, but the designs felt more like stylized mascots than ordinary recurring children. Lumi also drifted more than Pip across facial structure, skin tone, clothing, pendant size, and body proportions.

The owner approved the names Mia and Henry and requested familiar, everyday-child styling.

Mia candidate

Chestnut-brown chin-length bob with a simple side part.
One small teal hair clip.
Warm brown eyes and light freckles.
Teal zip jacket, cream T-shirt, denim pants, cream sneakers.
Tiny round pendant as a secondary detail.
Calm, observant movement language.

Henry candidate

Compact tousled medium-brown hair with one small cowlick.
Warm brown eyes and light freckles.
Mustard zip jacket, navy T-shirt, denim pants, simple sneakers.
Short burnt-orange neckerchief and small blue satchel as secondary details.
Energetic, physical movement language.

Do not prompt a height relationship between Mia and Henry. The experiment showed that explicit height language can exaggerate scale differences and make one child read as substantially older.

Candidate reference images

Purpose	Candidate
Mia solo	`Mia-ReadingNook-v007_00001_.png`
Henry solo	`Henry-Soccer-v007_00001_.png`
Henry alternate	`Henry-Pond-v007_00001_.png`
Pair	`Mia-Henry-AutumnWalk-v007_00001_.png`
Pair alternate	`Mia-Henry-Farm-v008_00001_.png`

These are not locked reference sheets. They are the strongest candidates from this pass for the next reference-guided experiment.

Anima findings

What worked

Strong, simple anchors survive better than personality adjectives.
Mia's bob, teal clip, teal jacket, brown eyes, and freckles formed a much more stable everyday design than the twin-bun concept.
Henry's brown cowlick, mustard/navy block, and orange accent remained broadly recognizable.
The teal-led Mia and mustard-led Henry remained separable in shared scenes.
Ordinary, lived-in locations produced stronger emotional readability than abstract creation imagery.
Two GPUs processed independent still candidates reliably in parallel.

Failure patterns

Solid-color borders, white margins, circular vignettes, floating dioramas, and poster-like negative space.
Two-panel or duplicated scenes when a prompt implied multiple sequential actions.
Clothing, pendant, scarf, satchel, skin tone, eye shape, and body-proportion drift under text-only generation.
Complex hand and prop actions increased anatomy defects.
Text occasionally appeared in maps, exhibit labels, or artwork despite a no-text instruction.

Prompt rules adopted

Begin with single continuous camera image, one frame, one moment.
Require a full-bleed environment from corner to corner.
Use one simple, visible physical action.
Name exactly which characters are visible.
Put stable hair, face, and wardrobe blocks before environmental detail.
Ban borders, margins, vignettes, dioramas, posters, split screens, panels, storyboards, duplicated scenes, text, and watermarks in the model adapter.
Do not state a height relationship.
Treat pendant, scarf, and satchel continuity as secondary until references are conditioned directly.

Style test

Mia-ReadingNook-v007_00001_.png became the working style target. Ten new images reused one verbatim style block across different characters, environments, lighting, and actions.

Closest text-only matches:

Style-Mia-Breakfast-v009_00001_.png
Style-Mia-FlowerShop-v009_00001_.png
Style-Henry-Attic-v009_00001_.png
Style-Pair-Cookies-v009_00001_.png
Style-Pair-CabinMap-v009_00001_.png
Style-Pair-Porch-v010_00001_.png

Observed drift:

One frame moved toward glossy 3D rendering.
Cool or rainy environments changed the palette and line treatment.
Some frames became flatter or more graphic despite identical style text.

Conclusion: fixed text can create a recognizable style family, but it does not lock the exact Reading Nook rendering. The next style experiment should condition on an approved image reference or test a dedicated style LoRA.

Wan 2.2 14B Turbo I2V tests

Two full-frame stills were uploaded to separate local ComfyUI instances and animated concurrently.

Test	Source	Motion intent	Prompt ID	Result
Snow Village	`Pair-SnowLanterns-v005-FullFrame_00001_.png`	Slow forward walk, scarf movement, lantern sway and flicker, falling snow, gentle backward track	`f5036d1f-362f-4bf8-86fc-dc94b5a8098c`	Technical success
Pip Bakery	`Pip-Bakery-v005-FullFrame_00001_.png`	One restrained kneading cycle, blink, cloth settling, oven flicker, slight push-in	`c178465d-fc56-4c0f-b6a4-ac7c916be7d4`	Technical success

I2V configuration

Field	Value
Models	Wan 2.2 I2V 14B FP8 high-noise and low-noise
Acceleration	`wan2.2_i2v_lightx2v_4steps_lora_v1_high_noise.safetensors` and low-noise counterpart
Steps / split	4 / 2
CFG	1
Sampler / scheduler	Euler / simple
Output	480 × 640, 5 seconds, 16 fps
Runtime	Approximately 2 minutes 20 seconds per test while running concurrently

The first tests prove that the workflow executes successfully on both A4000s. They do not yet approve motion quality, identity preservation, or Turbo as the final production setting.

Decisions and next experiments

Approved

Character names: Mia and Henry.
Do not prompt a height relationship.
Reject solid edges, blank margins, vignettes, dioramas, split panels, and duplicated scenes.

Candidate

The revised everyday Mia and Henry appearances.
Mia Reading Nook as the style target.
The current LightX2V four-step Wan I2V workflow.

Select exact Mia, Henry, and pair references.
Build the required turnaround, expression, action, seated, and neutral two-shot pack.
Test reference-conditioned character generation.
Test image-reference style matching or a dedicated style LoRA.
Compare the same approved first frame in Wan Turbo and the full 20-step workflow.
Review face, hands, accessory continuity, texture crawl, flicker, and motion quality before selecting an I2V workflow.

Character-Style-and-I2V-Tests-2026-07-27