# Character Portrait

> Use when generating a single, polished bust/portrait of a character for dialogue UI, character-select screens, lore cards, or codex entries. One character, locked composition, VN-style. Trigger on "character portrait", "dialogue portrait", "VN portrait", "character bust", "headshot", "character select image", "lore card art".

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-summerengine-summer-engine-agent-character-portrait`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [SummerEngine](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/summerengine)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Content & Media](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/content-and-media)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [SummerEngine](https://github.com/SummerEngine)
- **Source:** https://github.com/SummerEngine/summer-engine-agent/tree/main/skills/2d-assets/character-portrait
- **Website:** https://summerengine.com/

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-summerengine-summer-engine-agent-character-portrait
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# character-portrait — Locked Bust for Dialogue UI

This skill produces ONE polished character portrait — bust or shoulders-up framing, neutral or stylized background, designed to drop into a dialogue UI, character-select screen, or lore card. It is the **opposite** of `summer:2d-assets/concept-art`: concept art explores; this skill commits.

The single biggest failure mode is **inconsistency across a cast**. Generating five party members one at a time without a locked anchor produces five images that look like they're from five different games — different lighting, different angle, different palette, different rendering style. This skill makes you write a **locked anchor suffix** the first time and re-use it verbatim for every subsequent portrait.

If the user is still exploring the look, this is the wrong skill — route to `summer:2d-assets/concept-art` first, lock a direction, then come back here. The `summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy` meta-router asks **"Quick check — exploring the look (3-4 variants for art direction) or generating a final character portrait for dialogue UI?"** to disambiguate.

## When to use

- "Generate a portrait for the merchant NPC."
- "I need a character-select image for the four playable heroes."
- "Make a lore-card image of the king."
- "Add a VN-style dialogue portrait for Aria."
- The cast is locked and the visual direction is locked; you're producing finals.

## When NOT to use

- The user is still exploring → `summer:2d-assets/concept-art`.
- The user wants pixel art → `summer:2d-assets/pixel-art`.
- The user wants a full-body 3D model → `summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy`.
- The user wants 4+ animated expressions of the same character — generate one base portrait here, then use img2img with the base as `referenceImageUrl` for each expression.

## Steps

### 1. Read or establish the locked anchor

Check `.summer/portrait-anchor.md` first.

```
Read .summer/portrait-anchor.md
```

If it doesn't exist, this is the first portrait in the cast — you must define the anchor now. Ask the user (or infer from `.summer/GameSoul.md`):

- **Framing:** bust (chest up) or shoulders-up?
- **Angle:** straight-on, three-quarter left, three-quarter right?
- **Lighting:** soft front, dramatic side, rim-lit, golden-hour?
- **Background:** flat color, soft gradient, painterly blur, in-world environment?
- **Rendering style:** painterly, anime, semi-realistic, line-art-with-flat-color?

Write the anchor to `.summer/portrait-anchor.md`:

```
## Portrait anchor (re-use verbatim for every cast member)

framing: bust, shoulders to crown of head visible
angle: three-quarter view, slight turn to character's left
lighting: soft warm key from upper right, cool fill from left, gentle rim
background: muted painterly gradient, dark teal to deep brown, no scene detail
style: semi-realistic painterly, soft edges, oil-painting feel
aspect: portrait_4_3
```

Every subsequent portrait in this cast appends the anchor to the prompt verbatim. **Do not edit the anchor mid-cast** unless the user explicitly says "I want the new ones to look different."

### 2. Search for an existing portrait

```
summer_search_assets(query=" portrait", filter={ kind: "image" })
```

Reuse beats regenerate. If the user wants to iterate on an existing one, pull its URL and pass it as `referenceImageUrl` for img2img.

### 3. Build the prompt — character + anchor

Pattern:

```
. 
```

The character description should include: identity (age, build, hair, distinctive features), expression, costume/equipment, any signature prop. Keep it under 60 words including the anchor.

### 4. Confirm and call

> Generating Aria the witch portrait — 1 image, ~$0.02, model nano-banana-2, anchor locked from `.summer/portrait-anchor.md`. OK?

```
summer_generate_image(
  prompt="Aria, young witch, mid-twenties, pale skin, long black hair with silver streak, sharp green eyes, half-smile, wearing dark indigo robes with silver embroidery, raven on shoulder. ",
  model="nano-banana-2",
  style="none",
  options={ image_size: "portrait_4_3" }
)
```

`style: "none"` because the anchor's "semi-realistic painterly" already specifies style; the preset would fight it.

### 5. Import and wire into UI

```
summer_import_from_url(
  url="",
  path="res://ui/portraits/aria.png"
)
```

For dialogue UI nodes, wire the texture into a `TextureRect`:

```
summer_set_resource_property(
  nodePath="/root/UI/DialogueBox/PortraitRect",
  resourceProperty="texture",
  value="res://ui/portraits/aria.png"
)
```

For character-select with multiple portraits, name files consistently: `aria.png`, `borin.png`, `cael.png`, `dara.png`. Index-able from code via `"res://ui/portraits/%s.png" % character_id`.

### 6. Iterate (img2img) instead of regenerating from scratch

If the user wants the portrait tweaked ("smaller smile", "darker robes"), use img2img with the existing image as `referenceImageUrl`. Preserves identity and lighting.

```
summer_generate_image(
  prompt=" with a smaller, more subtle smile",
  referenceImageUrl="",
  model="nano-banana-2",
  style="none"
)
```

## Prompt patterns

| Goal | Prompt skeleton (subject part only — append anchor verbatim) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Generic NPC | `,  , , , , wearing ` | Identity-first; no scene context |
| Hero / protagonist | `,  , , , confident , wearing , holding ` | Adds prop for memorability |
| Antagonist | `, , , wearing , ` | Antagonists need visual asymmetry |
| Lore card / king | `, , regal , wearing , , formal portrait pose` | Formal pose overrides anchor's three-quarter |
| Expression variant | ` with ` + `referenceImageUrl: ` | img2img preserves identity |
| Younger / older variant | ` as a ` + `referenceImageUrl: ` | For flashback / time-skip portraits |

### Bad prompts (and why)

| Bad | Failure mode |
|---|---|
| `cool warrior portrait` | No identity, no anchor. Returns generic stock art. |
| `the witch but make her sad` (no img2img ref) | Without `referenceImageUrl`, you get a *different* witch who is sad. Identity drift. |
| Anchor inconsistent across cast | Each portrait looks like a different game. The cast doesn't read as a cast. |
| `full body portrait` | "Portrait" implies bust. If you want full body, say so explicitly AND switch to `image_size: "portrait_4_3"` framed full-body — but that's a different asset class; consider `concept-art` or 3D pipeline. |
| `transparent background` for a painterly portrait | Painterly + transparent fails on most models. Use a flat or gradient background, then alpha-cut in an editor if you must. |

## Anti-patterns

- **No anchor file.** Every cast member generated ad-hoc looks unrelated. Define the anchor on portrait #1, re-use for the rest of the cast.
- **Editing the anchor mid-cast.** If you change lighting from "warm key" to "dramatic side" halfway through, the cast splits visually. Either commit to the change and regenerate everyone, or stick with the anchor.
- **Regenerating from scratch when img2img would do.** Identity drifts every regen. Iterate via `referenceImageUrl`.
- **Using the portrait as a 3D reference.** Portraits have dramatic lighting, painterly backgrounds, and cropped framing — all of which corrupt 3D generation. For 3D, generate a separate clean white-bg full-body T-pose via `summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy`.
- **Using `style: "realistic"` or `"cartoon"`** when the anchor already names a style. The preset overrides the anchor.

## Edge cases

- **Character has a non-human silhouette (lizardfolk, demon, robot).** The anchor still applies — framing, lighting, background, rendering style. Only the subject description changes. Verify the model can hold the silhouette under "bust framing" — some models default to humanoid.
- **Player wants to swap costumes mid-game.** Generate one base portrait per costume (`aria_traveler.png`, `aria_robes.png`, `aria_armored.png`) and switch by index. Use img2img from the base for consistency.
- **Cast of 12+ characters.** Anchor discipline gets harder as fatigue sets in. Print the anchor as a header in your generation script and don't write any prompt without it.
- **User wants the portrait to "read at small size" (32×32 in a portrait list).** That's pixel-art territory; route to `summer:2d-assets/pixel-art`.

## Fallback (no MCP)

Print the prompt and the call:

```
summer_generate_image(prompt="", model="nano-banana-2", style="none", options={ image_size: "portrait_4_3" })
```

Tell the user to run via the Summer dashboard, then `summer_import_from_url` the result to `res://ui/portraits/.png`.

## Handoff

After the portrait is wired:

- **More cast members** → re-invoke this skill with the same anchor. Don't redefine.
- **Expression variants** → re-invoke with `referenceImageUrl` set to the base portrait.
- **Pixel-art version of the same character** → `summer:2d-assets/pixel-art`.
- **3D model of the same character** → `summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy` (the portrait is NOT a usable 3D reference; generate a separate T-pose).
- **Dialogue system wiring** → `summer:scene-composition` for the UI hierarchy.

## See also

- `summer:2d-assets/concept-art` — explore the look first if not yet locked.
- `summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy` — meta-router and the 3D pipeline.
- `summer:scene-composition` — wiring the portrait into a dialogue UI scene.
- `references/mcp-tools-reference.md` — `summer_generate_image` parameter schema.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [SummerEngine](https://github.com/SummerEngine)
- **Source:** [SummerEngine/summer-engine-agent](https://github.com/SummerEngine/summer-engine-agent)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://summerengine.com/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-summerengine-summer-engine-agent-character-portrait
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/summerengine
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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