A prompt is the text description you generate from. One clear sentence beats a paragraph of adjectives, and the structure below works on every model Mage runs.
What a prompt needs
That is a complete prompt. Light and framing are the two people skip, and they are the two that separate a generated-looking image from a photographic one.
Calling a Character or a Reference
If you have built a Character or a Reference, call it with an @ and its name. The rest of the prompt works normally around it.
That is how you hold the same face, outfit, or location across a whole series. See Characters and References.
Tag-style prompts
Anime models such as Anima and the Illustrious and Pony checkpoints also take comma-separated tags. On Anima, escape literal parentheses as ( and ), because parentheses otherwise read as prompt weighting. Pony checkpoints respond to score tags at the front of the prompt.
Making a result repeatable
When a generation works, save the prompt and the seed together. Those two plus the model and its settings are what let you return to a look weeks later, or produce the variation a client asked for.
Changing one thing at a time
The fastest way to lose a good result is to rewrite the whole prompt at once. Change the light, or the lens, or the model, and regenerate. If the base model is the problem, more words will not fix it; switch models. See which model should I use.
What prompting cannot fix
Resolution is set by the model and your plan. Asking for 8K in the prompt does not raise the output resolution; the Image Enhancer app does. Hands, text, and fine repeated detail remain the common failure points across every model, so check those at 100% before you use an image commercially. Last modified on September 14, 2026
