Fictional characters are used to tell stories and convey important messages and life lessons that we carry with us throughout our lives. It's been like that for thousands of years. In ancient times, many different gods represented both the negative and positive sides of people and were used to teach valuable lessons.

Today, we're introduced to fictional characters from a very early age. It doesn't matter if these characters are animals, humans, robots, or anything else. They serve one primary purpose - to help us learn. Or at the very least, they can entertain us.

It's not easy to create memorable characters, even if you have great design skills. I should say that it wasn't easy to create them because generative text-to-image models made this job a lot easier. And you're going to see that in this article.

Today, I'm going to use the Dall-E 3 AI model to create 14 different characters. Tools powered by artificial intelligence can take your content to a whole new level. Apart from making interesting characters with this model, you can take it one step further and bring them to life with a tool like Runway Gen-2. By using both of these tools, you can take a basic text description and end up with an animated video.

How to Write Dall-E 3 Prompts for Characters

I know that many people still feel a pretty strong aversion towards generative AI models. They think that using them requires a lot of skill, as well as knowledge of how artificial intelligence works. I'm here to tell you that's not the case. All you need to know is that a tool like Dall-E 3 can transform text into images.

In fact, Dall-E 3 is the easiest text-to-image model that exists today. You don't even have to write detailed prompts if you don't want to. Instead, you can simply write a message to the AI model and explain in plain English what you want generated. You can say something like "create an image of a 3D animated fictional fox character wearing a puffy jacket", and the AI model will create a fantastic result.

Although I love the fact that you can write a simple instruction in Dall-E 3 to get good results, my primary goal is to show you how to get the AI model to generate results that really stand out. To achieve that, you'll need to write what many consider advanced prompts.

I don't personally think that writing advanced prompts is a complicated process, but it will take some time getting used to. Here are some things you should keep in mind when writing Dall-E 3 prompts for characters:

• Clearly specify the style of an image. Although you can create 2D characters with Dall-E 3, I think that the model really shines when you create 3D characters.
• Keep your prompts concise and remove any unnecessary details. This will help you get consistent results.
• Try to imagine the character you're creating in great detail and use that for your prompts. For instance, describe what the character is wearing, their facial expression, the surrounding environment, and so on.
• Think carefully about which adjectives you'll use in your prompts as they'll have a lot of impact on the generated results.
• Use keywords at the end of your prompt to further describe the image.

I have to mention that these aren't rules that you have to follow when you're writing prompts. Instead, they should serve as guidelines that you can use if you want to. I use at least a combination of 3-4 of the tips I shared above. Let's see what type of results you can get when you put this strategy to use.

14 Dall-E 3 Prompt Examples for Characters

Dall-E 3 is currently one of the best text-to-image models available to the public. There are also other impressive models like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion that you can use if you want to. I want to share my article on Midjourney prompts for characters as well as the Stable Diffusion version of the same article so that you can compare the generated results.

prompt #1: 3D animated sloth dressed in business attire, wearing glasses and holding a clipboard, sitting at a desk piled with paperwork, yawning and stretching, portraying the challenges of a slow-paced office worker, workplace comedy film, cartoon, endearing

My prompts when I'm using text-to-image models are usually a bit shorter. However, there are many important details that you have to mention when you're creating fictional characters. If you ever watched the movie Zootopia, you likely remember the hilarious sloths featured in it.

I must've seen the scenes with the sloths from Zootopia a hundred times, and they'll always be funny to me. They stuck with me ever since the movie was released, hence why I wanted to create something similar with Dall-E 3. I can just imagine this sloth not getting any work done and instead just piling up paperwork that'll never be completed.

prompt #2: character design, 3D animated, quirky inventor squirrel with a monocle and a lab coat, experimenting with bizarre gadgets in a cluttered treehouse, surrounded by blueprints and malfunctioning contraptions

Wow! The details featured in this image are spectacular. I have been analyzing them for more than 10 minutes and I'm genuinely impressed with how the AI model created the interior of this treehouse. The squirrel also looks quite quirky and appears as if it would be a great character to include in an animated comedy film.

prompt #3: elderly robotic butler with a metallic exterior and glowing eyes, serving tea in a futuristic space station, 3D animated, sci-fi character, holographic interfaces floating around

While I could see the previous two characters that I created actually coming to life and being used in animated clips, this character serves a bit of a different purpose. Let's say that you're a content writer who's making a few articles on futurism. You mention at one point in your article that we might not be too far away from robot butlers, and you include this image to go along with your point.

I'm just giving a silly example, but you can see how you can use fictional characters to enhance your written content. The best part about it is that you can create countless images with Dall-E 3 every day.

prompt #4: curious and adventurous baby giraffe exploring a colorful savannah, animated film scene, 3D animated, encountering friendly animals and learning life lessons along the way, heartwarming, vibrant

This baby giraffe is adorable. Just look at its green eyes. It's one of the cutest 3D characters I've ever seen. The only thing that might be a bit weird is that it looks bigger than some of the adult giraffes in its proximity. Nevertheless, you can always instruct the Dall-E 3 model to create another image while making sure that the baby giraffe is smaller.

prompt #5: cartoon character, 3D animated, futuristic cat DJ spinning holographic turntables at a high-tech nightclub, surrounded by neon lights and dancing robots, electronic music, vibrant, energetic

There are many people who use social media platforms like Twitter but would prefer to stay anonymous. That's why they create pseudonyms and mask themselves behind a fictional character. This image looks like it would be a great profile picture for someone who wants to be pseudonymous online. It's a great choice especially if you like cats and EDM.

prompt #6: 3D animated kangaroo chef in a bustling kitchen, using its powerful tail to whip up culinary masterpieces, surrounded by bouncing ingredients and a team of energetic sous-chefs, cooking competition, vibrant

Just imagine an animated comedy film about a kangaroo with dreams of becoming a professional chef. That would be hilarious. It would be constantly hopping around the kitchen, picking fights with the other chefs, and causing chaos. I would pay to watch a movie like that.

prompt #7: 3D animated explorer armadillo in a steampunk desert, equipped with a telescope and a map, embarking on a quest to uncover hidden treasures, adventure animation, mechanical marvels, determined

I'm not sure why, but it seems like the combination of an armadillo and the steampunk art style seems like the perfect choice. There is perhaps too much going on in the background. When I wrote this prompt, I envisioned it would focus primarily on the character but it's nice to see the background being filled with interesting structures.

Notice how I mentioned in my prompt that the armadillo should be holding both a map and a telescope. The AI model generated both of those items. That attention to detail is not something you can usually expect from the generated results, but Dall-E 3 absolutely nailed this one.

prompt #8: animated comedy film scene with a tech-savvy robotic beaver building an extravagant dam using unconventional materials, 3D animated, slapstick construction chaos

This image is really funny. For one, the beaver is much bigger than I expected it to be. If you look at the background, it seems as if it had too many failed attempts to count. It's worth noting that I didn't have to mention which materials the beaver is using to make this image funny.

I simply wrote 'unconventional materials' and the AI model knew exactly what to do. As you can see, it included lightbulbs, metal spheres, toys, and other items that would never be used for building dams.

prompt #9: character design, 3D animated, sophisticated snail conductor leading an orchestra of insects in a magical garden, waving its antennae like a conductor's baton

I wonder what type of music snails would be playing if they could play instruments. I don't think any human would have the patience to listen to a melody played by snails. Think of how slow the conductor would be moving its baton.

prompt #10: 3D animated in a bamboo forest, attempting to climb trees with its clumsy yet adorable antics, with a watchful panda parent nearby, heartwarming, charming, family-friendly

This one is adorable. Both the baby panda and the parent look really cute. This feels like a scene from a family-friendly animated film. Note how the bamboo forest also looks clean. Almost everything is perfect about this image.

What played a very large role in how this image was generated are the keywords that I used. For this prompt, the keywords were 'heartwarming', 'charming', and 'family-friendly'. SEO marketing has been my profession for a long time, so I can come up with relevant keywords for a prompt almost instantly. But if you're not used to doing that, I suggest that you work on developing this skill because it will take the images you're creating to a whole new level.

prompt #11: cartoon character, 3D animated, adventurous platypus archaeologist delving into ancient ruins, equipped with a waterproof explorer hat and a map, discovering hidden secrets, archaeological exploration

This one made me chuckle as soon as I saw this. This character looks like the clumsiest archaeologist ever. It also appears to be looking at the wrong side of the map. Platypuses are quite funny, especially when anthropomorphized. The ancient ruins in this image also look incredible and fill up the background well.

prompt #12: character design, 3D animated, magical snow leopard sorcerer casting spells in a snowy mountain range, surrounded by swirling snowflakes and mystical auroras, fantasy animation, majestic, spellbinding

This character looks like it would fit well in the Frozen film series. The snow leopard looks majestic, and I like the aura surrounding it. Although I mentioned that the character should be surrounded by auroras, I didn't expect to see it in the night sky. But after looking at this image, it was an obvious oversight on my part.

prompt #13: cartoon character, 3D animated, high-flying parrot pilot navigating the skies in a feathered aircraft, delivering packages to exotic locations

I like the fact that the colors of the aircraft match the colors of the parrot. That's such a nice touch to the overall image, and I likely wouldn't have thought of it. That's not to say that you'd always get a result like this from the prompt above. Oftentimes, the randomization factor that comes with using text-to-image AI models makes the image generation process really fun since you never know what to expect.

The small details are where Dall-E 3 shines, which you can see if you look closely at the image. For instance, the propeller is spinning which is definitely a nice touch. You can also see that the aircraft is moving by looking at the visual effects below it.

prompt #14: character design, 3D animated, wise and ancient jellyfish oracle residing in the depths of the ocean, illuminating the underwater world with bioluminescent wisdom, animated aquatic mythology, ethereal, mysterious

There is a sense of tranquility that I get by looking at this image. If there was ever a jellyfish oracle, I want it to look exactly like this character. Note the keywords I used here, such as 'bioluminescent', 'ethereal', and 'mysterious'. I know I already mentioned it a few times, but you really need to pay attention to which keywords and adjectives you're using in your prompts as they'll have a huge impact on the overall aesthetic of an image.

Final Thoughts

As long as you channel your creativity and clearly describe what you imagined in your prompts, the Dall-E 3 generative AI model will create amazing results. Tools powered by artificial intelligence are already popular, but I'm pretty confident that they'll be even more widespread in the future.

It's important to note that this is the third iteration of the Dall-E model. I personally wasn't too impressed with the previous two iterations, but this one is on a whole new level. The level of detail that's featured in these images is truly remarkable.

In my opinion, the Dall-E 3 model provides the best results when you use it to create illustrations. And the best part is that you get access to it (and to ChatGPT 4) for a price of $20 per month. That's quite affordable considering how much it can boost your productivity.