AI Character Art Glossary
Every term in AI character generation, defined clearly. From turnaround sheets to non-photorealistic rendering — find the definition and learn how it applies to your work.
- Character turnaround sheet
A character turnaround sheet is a production reference showing a character from 5 standard angles — front, ¾ front, profile, ¾ back, and bac...
- Model sheet
A character model sheet (or character bible) is the complete visual specification for a character — including orthographic turnarounds, expr...
- Sprite sheet
A sprite sheet (or texture atlas) is a single image file containing multiple animation frames of a game character — idle poses, walk cycle f...
- Character consistency
Character consistency is the property that a character looks identical across multiple images — same facial features, same body proportions,...
- Orthographic reference
An orthographic reference is a set of character views — front, profile, and back — rendered without perspective distortion, typically at mat...
- Expression sheet
An expression sheet is a reference grid showing a single character expressing 6–12 emotions — neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared,...
- Character reference sheet
A character reference sheet (or ref sheet) is a visual specification document showing a character from multiple angles, with expression samp...
- Multi-angle character views
Multi-angle character views are a set of images showing the same character from different camera angles — typically front, ¾ front, profile,...
- Cel shading
Cel shading (or toon shading) is a non-photorealistic rendering technique that produces flat colour regions separated by hard shadow edges —...
- Character drift
Character drift is the gradual, often subtle change in a character's appearance across multiple AI-generated images — eye colour shifts a sh...
- LoRA fine-tuning
LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) is a fine-tuning technique that trains a small set of additional weights on 20–40 reference images of a specific ...
- Live2D
Live2D Cubism is a 2D animation technology that deforms a layered character illustration to create the illusion of 3D movement. It is the st...
- Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR)
Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) encompasses all rendering techniques that intentionally depart from physical realism — cel shading, water...
- Base mesh
A base mesh is the low-polygon foundational 3D model of a character — the sculpting equivalent of a rough sketch. 3D artists build it from o...