What is a Cast — and why does yours stay on-model?

Updated September 13, 2026 · 5 min read

A Cast is your World’s roster of recurring people: each member is a drawn Character with a locked look, a name, and whatever the Bible remembers about them. Because every Scene draws from the same locked reference, your Cast looks like themselves in episode nine the way they did in episode one — that’s the whole reason the Cast exists.

What it is: Your recurring people
Made from: A photo, or invented
Key marker: The Locked pill
Lives in: Your World
Studio surface: Cast

The Cast row inside the Studio — four locked character cards ready to be placed into any Scene. — A seated Cast: four locked members, ready to walk into any Scene you write.

A Cast is the people your World knows
Every member is a card: a drawn portrait, a name, and a reference the Studio draws from. Three things on the screen do the work — the card itself, the Locked pill under it, and the dashed add slot for the next member.
The Cast answers the question every Scene asks first: who’s in this? Tag a member and they arrive already drawn in the World’s Look — no re-description, no re-upload, no hoping the face comes out the same.
The Cast screen: each card is a person the World can put in a Scene.
1. A Cast member’s card — portrait, name, and the reference the Studio draws from.
2. The Locked pill — this look is the reference now; every Scene matches it.
3. The add slot — seat a new member any time, from a photo or invented.
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Members come from a photo — or from nothing
Two ways in. Drop a photo and the Studio translates the person into the World’s Look — your face, drawn the way this show draws faces. Or invent someone: a name and a line about them is enough for the Studio to draw a lead from scratch.
Either path ends at the same place: a Character whose look you can keep. “Me and friends” seats up to five people at once during first run — one photo each, one Cast when it’s done.
A photo becomes a Cast member in the World’s Look — or skip the photo and invent one.
“Locked” is the consistency contract
When you keep a Character’s look, the Locked pill appears — and that’s a contract, not decoration. The kept design becomes the reference: the same face structure, the same wardrobe, the same silhouette, reused as the starting point every time they appear in a Scene.
This is what separates a Cast from generated lookalikes. An unseated drawing can drift between renders; a locked Cast member has a canonical design the World treats as truth, and every draw starts from it.
Building a member: one reference becomes the design the Locked pill protects.
The drift check is the proof
Consistency claims are cheap; the check is whether it holds. Put the locked Cast reference beside a recent Episode still — the identity detail (the glasses, the scar, the haircut) should read identical in both frames, not approximately.
That comparison is what “on-model” means in practice: not similar-looking strangers episode to episode, but the same person the World drew last time. When a Scene draws a member, it’s working from their kept design — which is why the drift check passes.
The drift check: the kept reference on the left, a later Episode on the right — same person.
Add members as the story needs them
A Cast isn’t fixed at first run. The dashed add slot seats someone new whenever the story calls for it — a rival in episode three, a love interest in episode five. They go through the same keep-the-look contract as the founding members.
One honest limit from the product: one Character a day is the free rhythm. Plan the additions the story actually needs rather than stocking a roster nobody uses — a Cast earns its seats by appearing in Scenes.
The add slot in use: a new member joins the row, subject to the same Locked contract.
One Cast, every Episode
The payoff is cumulative: the same faces in episode one, episode five, episode nine — not by luck but by reference. Each new Episode draws the Cast it already has, so the series accumulates people the audience actually recognizes on sight.
And because the Cast belongs to the World — not to one Episode — a member written out for a while stays seated in the row, ready to walk back into a Scene the moment the story wants them again.
Episodes 01, 05, and 09: one Cast member, nine episodes of the same face.
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Made this way

Dev — one member, one silhouette.
Wiz — a Cast works when every member reads alone.
Miles — three silhouettes, zero overlap.
The same Cast contract in an anime World.

Generated in Character App · example stills, not a live product demo

Common mistakes

Seating lookalikes instead of members. If a Character’s look was never kept, the World can’t reference them — the Locked pill is the difference between a person and a portrait.
Too many seats too early. A Cast earns members by the story needing them; five unused seats are five people the audience has to keep track of for no payoff.
Same silhouette, different names. Members who read alike at a glance blur together in fast Scenes — distinct silhouettes and one signature detail each keep the Cast legible.
Re-uploading the photo for every Episode. The photo’s job ended at the lock; the kept design is the reference now, and it’s more consistent than the original photo was.

Questions

How many people can be in a Cast?

First run seats up to five photos at once, and the add slot grows the Cast afterward — one new Character a day on the free rhythm. There’s no hard cap worth worrying about; the practical limit is how many people your audience can track.

Can a Cast member appear in more than one World?

Cast is seated per World — a member lives where their look is locked. The same person can be drawn again in another World, but each World keeps its own seated version and its own memory of them.

What if I want to change a member’s look?

The lock is the point, so treat it as canon — a haircut episode or a costume change is a story event, and the Bible can carry it. Deliberate change beats accidental drift.

Do Cast members remember what happened to them?

Their look is locked and their facts live in the World’s Bible; recent Episodes inform what the Director writes next. Memory belongs to the World — the Cast supplies the people it happens to.

Can I cast real people — friends, family?

Yes, with their photos and their consent — “Me and friends” exists for exactly that. Likeness is treated as permission, not raw material; the consent guide covers the guardrails.