BENEATH THE
DYING SKY.

## UNIVERSAL CHARACTER PROMPT — “BENEATH THE DYING SKY”

### USER INPUT

Upload **one character reference sheet** depicting the character to be used in the artwork.

The uploaded character sheet is the **absolute authority** for the character’s established identity, including:

-  facial structure and proportions 
-  apparent age 
-  hairstyle, length, texture, and hair color 
-  eye shape and eye color 
-  skin tone 
-  body proportions 
-  scars, tattoos, markings, piercings, facial hair, or supernatural traits 
-  clothing, footwear, gloves, jewelry, weapons, and accessories 
-  overall visual identity 

Study the supplied character sheet carefully.

**Do not recreate the character sheet itself.**

Instead, place the exact character from the reference sheet into the cinematic composition described below.

Do not replace their established clothing with the outfit from the inspiration image.

Do not redesign, beautify, simplify, sexualize, age up/down, feminize, masculinize, or otherwise alter the character.

The final character must remain immediately recognizable as the exact person depicted on the uploaded reference sheet.

---

# FORMAT

Vertical **9:16** composition.

Ultra-detailed professional anime key visual with a dark cinematic atmosphere.

High-end digital illustration featuring:

-  extremely crisp anime linework 
-  sophisticated cel shading 
-  selective painterly texture 
-  subtle realistic surface detail 
-  dramatic volumetric lighting 
-  deep blacks 
-  muted atmospheric colors 
-  strong contrast 
-  soft film grain 
-  slight lens distortion 
-  cinematic depth of field 

The finished image should feel like a dramatic frame from a prestige dark-anime film rather than a standard portrait.

---

# CAMERA & COMPOSITION

Recreate the distinctive **extreme low-angle, ground-level composition** of the inspiration image.

The camera is positioned **very low, almost touching the earth**, pointed steeply upward toward the character.

Use an approximately **18–24mm ultra-wide cinematic lens**.

The character occupies primarily the **lower-middle portion of the frame**, while the enormous sky dominates roughly **two-thirds of the image**.

The perspective should feel exaggerated and imposing:

-  legs and lower body appear significantly closer to the camera 
-  torso becomes progressively smaller with distance 
-  head appears farther away against the sky 
-  foreground terrain stretches dramatically toward the viewer 

Do NOT use a normal eye-level portrait.

Do NOT crop tightly around the character.

The image should feel enormous, open, lonely, and cinematic.

---

# CHARACTER POSE

The character is positioned on rough barren ground in a **low kneeling / crouched pose**.

One knee and lower leg should project prominently toward the foreground because of the extreme perspective.

The second leg remains bent underneath or beside the character.

Their torso is mostly upright but carries a subtle relaxed twist through the waist and shoulders.

The pose should feel natural rather than symmetrical.

One arm rests lower near the thigh, knee, hip, or ground.

The opposite arm is raised slightly away from the body, with the hand relaxed and fingers naturally separated.

The hand gesture should feel casual and expressive rather than posed like a spell-casting stance.

The character looks downward toward the low camera.

Their expression should retain whatever personality is most appropriate to the supplied reference sheet, but the overall mood should remain:

-  quiet 
-  detached 
-  confident 
-  melancholic 
-  slightly mysterious 

Do not dramatically exaggerate their expression unless the reference sheet calls for it.

---

# CHARACTER FIDELITY

Preserve the character's exact:

-  face 
-  eye shape 
-  hairstyle 
-  hair color 
-  skin tone 
-  body structure 
-  tattoos 
-  markings 
-  scars 
-  piercings 
-  supernatural characteristics 
-  costume 
-  footwear 
-  jewelry 
-  accessories 

Any coat tails, long fabric, hair, straps, belts, chains, ribbons, or similar elements from the character sheet may react naturally to the wind.

**Do not copy the inspiration character's gothic clothing unless those garments already exist on the uploaded character sheet.**

The inspiration image controls the **pose, camera, lighting, atmosphere, terrain, and composition only.**

The character sheet controls the **character.**

---

# ENVIRONMENT

Place the character alone in a vast, desolate landscape.

The ground is uneven, rough, and dry, consisting of:

-  compacted dark soil 
-  cracked earth 
-  scattered stones 
-  shallow depressions 
-  dirt ridges 
-  sparse dead vegetation 
-  subtle debris 

The immediate foreground should be somewhat blurred from the shallow depth of field.

The terrain continues toward an extremely low distant horizon.

Avoid buildings, forests, or elaborate scenery.

The environment should feel nearly empty.

A few extremely subtle distant vertical shapes such as dead posts, thin poles, or skeletal vegetation may appear along the horizon, but they should never compete with the character.

---

# SKY — CRITICAL ELEMENT

The sky is one of the most important parts of the composition.

Create a **massive dramatic storm sky** filling most of the image.

Use enormous layered clouds with powerful vertical structure.

The upper frame contains heavy charcoal-gray and blue-gray storm clouds.

Near the horizon directly behind the character, the clouds break apart enough for the dying sunlight to shine through.

Create:

-  dark towering clouds 
-  soft steel-blue atmosphere 
-  warm peach-orange cloud rims 
-  dim gold sunlight 
-  subtle pale cyan openings in the cloud cover 
-  strong atmospheric depth 

The brightest portion of the sky should sit roughly **behind and slightly to one side of the character's head and shoulders**, creating a natural backlight.

The sunlight should never become a giant visible sun disk.

Instead, it should appear as diffuse light leaking through clouds.

---

# LIGHTING

Use dramatic **backlighting from the horizon**.

The character should remain predominantly shadowed from the front.

Warm sunset illumination catches:

-  edges of the hair 
-  cheek 
-  shoulders 
-  arms 
-  coat or clothing edges 
-  silhouette contours 

Create a restrained warm rim light around the character without turning it into a glowing outline.

The darker front-facing side of the character should retain enough detail to clearly recognize their face and costume.

Lighting should feel natural and atmospheric rather than studio-lit.

---

# DEPTH & LENS EFFECTS

Use strong cinematic depth.

Foreground:

-  slightly out of focus 
-  enlarged by wide-angle perspective 
-  dark and textured 

Character:

-  primary point of focus 
-  crisp facial features 
-  detailed clothing and materials 

Background:

-  increasingly softened by atmospheric haze 
-  horizon nearly disappearing beneath the giant sky 

Introduce subtle wide-angle distortion toward the edges of the frame.

Do not create fisheye distortion.

---

# COLOR PALETTE

Base palette:

-  charcoal 
-  black 
-  gunmetal gray 
-  desaturated navy 
-  dusty blue 
-  muted brown 
-  pale cyan 

Sunset accents:

-  faded orange 
-  warm peach 
-  dusty gold 
-  restrained red-orange 

Keep overall saturation relatively low.

The warm sunset should provide selective accents rather than making the entire scene orange.

If the supplied character has highly distinctive colors, preserve them accurately while harmonizing them naturally with the environment.

---

# ATMOSPHERE

The image should communicate:

**one solitary figure beneath an impossibly large sky.**

The character feels small compared to the scale of the world, yet the extreme perspective simultaneously gives them a powerful physical presence.

Balance:

-  loneliness 
-  calm 
-  confidence 
-  melancholy 
-  beauty 
-  ominous stillness 

It should feel like the quiet moment immediately before or after something catastrophic.

---

# FINAL VISUAL TARGET

The finished piece should resemble a premium cinematic anime key visual captured from ground level:

**a recognizable character crouched in a barren wasteland, viewed through an extreme low-angle wide lens, their foreground leg looming close to the camera while their body rises against a gigantic storm-filled sunset sky, warm dying sunlight breaking through clouds behind them, dark earth stretching toward a nearly invisible horizon, subtle wind moving their clothing and hair, with haunting scale and atmospheric depth.**

The viewer's eye should move:

**foreground terrain → character → face → glowing horizon → enormous clouds.**

---

# NEGATIVE CONSTRAINTS

Avoid:

-  character-sheet layouts 
-  turnaround views 
-  reference boxes 
-  labels or text 
-  copied clothing from the inspiration image 
-  eye-level camera angles 
-  normal portrait framing 
-  standing poses 
-  symmetrical posing 
-  exaggerated pin-up posing 
-  unnecessary sexualization 
-  distorted anatomy 
-  malformed hands 
-  extra fingers 
-  extra limbs 
-  shortened legs from bad perspective 
-  fisheye distortion 
-  oversaturated sunsets 
-  bright daytime skies 
-  busy backgrounds 
-  cities 
-  buildings 
-  excessive props 
-  magical effects unless inherent to the supplied character 
-  giant glowing auras 
-  generic fantasy scenery 
-  flat lighting 
-  excessive bloom 
-  washed-out shadows 

**Priority order:**

**character-sheet identity → extreme low-angle perspective → pose → enormous dramatic sky → sunset backlighting → barren environment → cinematic anime rendering.**