Cast AI characters by name — consistent faces and voices with Ask

You built Mina once: her face, her voice, the rooftop bar she keeps ending up in. Setting her up again in every tool is the tedious part — mention her, find the place, choose the voice, write the prompt. With Ask, you say her name and the setup follows.

Ask is the bar at the top of the studio home. The rule behind this guide fits in one line: characters and elements you name in a sentence join the render's cast and elements. Name a character in a voice request and her voice comes along. Below: how that plays out in each tool, the one rule that decides whether a face actually renders, and the habits that keep a cast consistent.

Say the name, get the cast

make a clip of Mina at the Rooftop bar, golden hour, vertical
→ Plan · 9:16    [Approve]

Clap's plan casts Mina and the Rooftop bar in the clip, with the prompt it wrote from your words (in English, for the engine) one click away and the exact credits; Approve renders it in the chat. Say "open it in Video" and a grey line announces the setup instead: Open Video → takes you to Video with that prompt in place and Mina and the Rooftop bar @mentioned in it, which is how a tool casts them.

Ask only sets what you asked for. You named no engine, so Clap picks one and the plan names it; on the page, the engine stays the one it is on — the last engine you used, or on a new account eroq's own Motion One, 145 credits for five seconds. Motion One reads no look sheets yet: for Mina's face, pick an engine that does, like Seedance 2.0 Mini at 75 credits or Kling. Name an engine and a length, and they're set too:

make a 10-second clip of Mina at the Rooftop bar, golden hour, vertical, with Kling
→ Plan · Kling 3.0 · 10 s · 9:16    [Approve]

"Kling" means Kling 3.0, the family's standard engine — the Pro only if you say Pro. Ten seconds on it is 540 credits, on Approve or at Generate, from the Hobby plan up. On a plan that doesn't include it, Clap says which plan unlocks it; set up in Video, a plan badge sits next to the Open Video → button, and the page opens with the engine's Unlock button. Which engine Ask picks covers the rest of the settings.

Two names, two cast members. Image works the same way:

make a square photo of Mina and Theo at the Rooftop bar
→ Plan · 1:1    [Approve]

The look sheet rule

A name only puts a face on screen if there is a face to put. A character appears in renders only once it has its look sheet, made in the character's Identity tab in Characters. Until then it is flagged Needs a look sheet, and naming it in a sentence doesn't change that.

Places and objects work the same way: a place or an object in Elements needs its look sheet before it renders. Styles need no sheet.

So the order of work is:

1. Build the character, the place or the object.
2. Make its look sheet on its Details tab, right under its photos.
3. Ask for it by name.

From then on, every clip or image you ask for by Mina's name casts the same look sheet. The Elements guide covers building places, objects and styles worth reusing.

Make Mina say it

Name a character in a voice request and the line is planned in her voice; Approve renders it, and it plays in the chat. Say "open it in Voice" and Voice is set up with her voice instead:

make Mina say: "You're late. Again."
→ Plan · Voice One · Mina    [Approve]

The line goes in as you wrote it. Unlike video and image prompts, a voice line is not translated into English — it keeps its language and is spoken as written. The roster voices (Aria, Orion and the 22 others) and your cloned voices work by name the same way:

have Orion read: "Doors open at nine. Don't be late."
→ Plan · Voice One · Orion    [Approve]

A plan reads the line on Voice One, 3 credits per 100 characters; on the Voice page, Voice Turbo is 2.

One thing Ask won't fake: eroq has no lip-sync. Ask for Mina's lips to move with the line and it says so instead of pretending. The voice line is audio.

A text scene with a character

write a story with Mina: she finds a letter under her door at midnight
→ Text    [Open Text →]

The button opens Text with Mina as the character and your opening as the prompt. Each reply bills 3 credits on RP+, or 1 on RP mini.

@mentions in the bar

You don't need the @ — Ask finds names in a plain sentence. But the bar takes @mentions like the tool composers do: type @ and a list of your characters and elements opens; pick one and it goes into the sentence.

make a clip of @Mina walking into the @Rooftop bar, slow push-in
→ Plan · 1 render    [Approve]

A mention counts like a typed name: the character joins the cast, the element joins the elements. The list helps most when you don't remember exactly what you called something — the Rooftop bar, or was it the Roof terrace?

Ask casts a name only when you write it as one: "Rose" at the start of a word, or "@Rose" — a character called Rose stays out of "a red rose on the table". Distinct names still keep sentences unambiguous, and the cast is there for you to check before anything renders: in the production panel beside the chat, or on the page before you click Generate.

Follow-ups keep the cast

The thread remembers what you said. After the first Mina clip:

make it 5 seconds
now as an image

Each follow-up keeps what you said earlier, so Mina and the Rooftop bar stay set. Iterating by conversation goes further. For a film, "make a short film: Mina meets Theo at the Rooftop bar" starts a production in the chat with both in its cast: Clap asks what it needs, writes the storyboard and plans the renders, and the cut opens in Cinema. To write it yourself, "set it up in Cinema" opens a new film whose scene one is your description; from one sentence to a short film walks through it.

What casting costs

Naming a character costs nothing: it is part of asking, and asking on Auto is free. The render is what you pay for, at the price the plan shows before you approve, or at Generate on a tool page, with the usual credit check and plan unlock.

FAQ

Why doesn't my character appear in my AI video?

It has no look sheet yet. A character appears in renders only once its look sheet exists — made under its photos on its Details tab — and until then it is flagged Needs a look sheet. Make the sheet, then ask again. Or the clip is on Motion One, which reads no look sheets yet: name an engine that does, such as Seedance 2.0 Mini or Kling.

Do I have to type @ before a character's name?

No. Ask finds your characters and elements by name in a plain sentence. Typing @ in the bar opens a list to pick from, which helps when you don't remember exactly what you called something.

Can I make my AI character talk?

As a voice line, yes: "make Mina say …" plans the line in her voice, spoken as written (or sets up the Voice tool with it, when you ask for the tool). eroq has no lip-sync, and Ask tells you so rather than pretending.

Do places, objects and styles need a look sheet?

Places and objects do, exactly like characters. Styles need no sheet.

Can I cast two characters in one sentence?

Yes — name both. "Make a square photo of Mina and Theo at the Rooftop bar" puts both in the cast and the Rooftop bar in the elements; each still needs its look sheet to render.

Does casting a character with Ask cost credits?

No. Naming a character is free, and so is asking on Auto. You pay for the render, when you approve its plan or click Generate on the page: 75 credits for five seconds on Seedance 2.0 Mini, for example.

Open Characters, give Mina her look sheet, then ask for her by name.