3.3 – Generating Key Reference Images Lesson

Lesson Overview

This lesson focuses on the practical generation of foundational reference images for your movie project using AI. You’ll use prompts saved in a notepad—crafted in the previous step—to create images that represent your most important scenes. For example, you might generate an exterior shot of a barn, then follow up with an interior shot that matches the same style and mood. The process is conversational and highly flexible, letting you fine-tune images by asking for modifications, like adding moonlight or switching angles. This is especially helpful for developing a cohesive visual direction before investing time or resources into detailed production.

The ability to request new images that reference earlier results—in matching style, lighting, or composition—is a major advantage over traditional, more rigid tools. If an image doesn’t come out as expected, quick revision is possible through simple text prompts. You’ll practice matching different perspectives and refining details, building up a toolkit of reference images for your creative vision. This stage sets up your visual roadmap, making future creative and planning decisions easier for you or your collaborators.

Who This Is For

This lesson is valuable for anyone who wants to visualize and communicate ideas for an AI-driven movie project, including:

• Creators needing visual references for storyboarding or pitch decks
• Filmmakers seeking mood boards or scene guides
• Writers exploring scene visualization for scripts
• Educators leading projects with visual storytelling elements
• Solo artists building concept art in a fast, iterative way
• Anyone wanting to control creative direction without advanced technical skills

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Generating key reference images is an early but critical part of the AI movie creation workflow. After establishing your shot list and crafting scene prompts, this lesson equips you to translate written ideas into visual assets. You might use your reference images to guide further AI scene generation, to anchor discussions with collaborators, or to visualize narrative structure for your project. For example, a director and a production designer can use these images to get aligned on tone, or an individual creator can clarify their own vision before moving into animation or editing. This step lays a strong visual foundation for every scene that follows.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Traditional image generation often involves trial, error, and technical prompt tweaking—which can be slow and frustrating. In contrast, this approach uses ChatGPT’s conversational prompts to get results faster and with more intuitive control. When an initial image, such as a barn interior, isn’t quite right (for example, too dark), you can simply ask for a tweak like adding moonlight. This saves significant time compared to opening new sessions or manually editing images. The AI also maintains visual consistency between related shots, such as producing an interior that matches an exterior—a common challenge with other tools. For anyone working on multiple scenes, this streamlined process boosts quality and productivity, making it easier to build a set of images that feel truly connected and purposeful.

Practice Exercise

Open your notepad of prompts from earlier in the course and identify the five most important shots in your scene.

1. Use ChatGPT to generate your first key reference image with the appropriate aspect ratio, such as three by two for wider shots.
2. Request at least two follow-up images—one from a different angle, and another with a slight lighting adjustment (for example, ask for moonlight or a new perspective).
3. Compare your generated images. Do they share a consistent style and mood? Which changes were most effective at achieving your vision?

Reflect: How did iterative prompting improve the visual consistency between your images?

Course Context Recap

This lesson follows the prompt development stage, moving you from written shot descriptions to usable, visual reference images. You’ve now taken the first steps in visually designing your movie concept, building a resource you’ll refer back to throughout the project. Up next, you’ll expand on this process—generating the rest of your images from the full shot list. Continue through the course to keep developing your skills and bringing your movie’s visual world to life.