Character Preservation
Fitness Test
Prompt Tested
-Extreme 85mm portrait of a 36-year-old woman standing in deep shadow beside a window. -Soft natural daylight enters from one side, gently illuminating only part of her face while the opposite side falls into rich cinematic shadow. -Detailed eyes and eyelashes, natural eye moisture, authentic facial anatomy, natural makeup, realistic skin translucency, subtle skin texture, individual hair strands, natural catchlights in the eyes. -Photorealistic. -Feature-film cinematography. -Ultra-high-end cinema photography. -Shallow depth of field. -Beautiful natural skin. -Emotional realism. -Soft roll-off between highlights and shadows. -Natural color grading. -Shot on a full-frame cinema camera with an 85mm lens at f/1.8.
Can Current Models Reproduce a Human Accurately
Our goal in this test is to evaluate which models have progressed to reliably recreate a targeted character. Older models are well known to struggle with character consistency and adherence to established likeness.
Seedance2.0
This model took a big liberty by blasting light onto our subject - without any reaction of the subjects pupils. Lips have a warble and overall the emotions read uncanny all the way (to me, the reviewer). That said, it's succeeded at preserving the character and does a great job with hair.
Veo3.1
Overall, this is the best of the group. Good job resolving into an OTS - and eyeline actually works pretty well. Skin detail is realistic and emotions are fairly naturalistic. Pupils are static in diameter, which may explain why they feel off a bit. That said, pretty good results.
Wan2.2
Good adherence to ingoing identity and environment. Facial performance is… odd - and not very comforting to the viewer, almost feels like a robot trying a few things out. Camera work is floaty.
LTX2.3
Though the facial texture is soft, there's something about the performance of this character I actually think is pretty good.
Kling
The model added an unrequested 'step back' by the avatar - but notice the resulting focus pull impacts vegetation edges - which is what I'd expect from a real camera. Facial details and emotion are pretty good, though identity softens a bit as she steps from camera.
The Verdict
This test demonstrates that prior concerns of genAI being able to faithfully reproduce the likeness of a supplied character are a thing of the past - all models passed this test. But, we now focus on likeness PERFORMANCE - not just the geometry or symmetry of a face. It's clear here that some models are better than others, and that eye details like pupils or direct-able micro expressions are the next barrier to cross.
