How Do I Re-use a Face that Grok Produces? [Using the Edit function in Grok to storyboard]

It happens frequently. You work hard on a meticulously crafted prompt and you roll the dice to see what kind of image output you get. And you aren’t going to just use the first image that pops up – you’re looking for that combination of face and body and features that matches what was in your head.

And you find it!

But now you have another problem.

Your perfect digital dream girl [or guy] is stuck in this one meticulously crafted scene. And most of the stories you want to tell are not going to take place in a single room. Maybe there’s lots of stories you want to tell with this character.

So how do you break them out of the confines of their base image to be able to re-use them in.

There’s a feature in Grok that is a very powerful tool, but it’s not explained well and when you first start off using Grok [especially if you’re making NSFW content] you may have ignored it thinking that Grok can’t edit NSFW images.

Grok CAN edit NSFW images that were created with Imagine. BUT, it’s virtually impossible to do it with an uploaded image due to the ever tightening safety measures that have been rolling out since January.

And that’s fine. We don’t need to upload images to make this work – but sometimes you do have to think ahead and be creative.

Let’s use an example from something I’ve been playing around with since the Quality setting came out. If you put this prompt into Quality, you’ll get some images that look like this:

a highly detailed and realistic still frame from a science fiction film from the 1970s with muted colors, Kodachrome film aesthetic, film grain, low quality, 85mm lens view. A nude female with short brown hair in a curly hairstyle, a slender athletic body, small breasts, wide hips, and visible pubic hair. She is sitting on a captain’s chair on the deck of a spaceship with a biomechanical design similar in style to H.R. Giger and Paolo Serpieri designs, with some stylistic influence from Moebius. The spaceship deck has seating for a first mate, a science officer, a communications officer, and other auxillary crew. The technology seen is retro-futuristic, in the style of casette futurism, with a mixture of digital screens and analog control systems.

And those aren’t bad, but I don’t like the hair – or the pendant. So let’s revise this a bit:

a highly detailed and realistic still frame from a science fiction film from the 1970s with muted colors, Kodachrome film aesthetic, film grain, low quality, 85mm lens view. A nude female with shoulder length brown hair in a wavy hairstyle, a slender athletic body, small breasts, wearing a silver cross on a chain around her neck, and wide hips. She is sitting on a captain’s chair on the deck of a spaceship with a lived-in retro-futuristic design that looks cluttered and claustrophobic. The spaceship deck has seating for a first mate, a science officer, a communications officer, and other auxillary crew. A discarded uniform is sitting on the floor near her feet. The technology seen is retro-futuristic, in the style of casette futurism, with a mixture of digital screens and analog control systems.

And I have to say that for this, the Quality setting is perfect – it does a great job of capturing all the little details that make the world feel lived in.

And this was the image I liked the most:

So great, now I have my main character in an interesting setting, but, I’m stuck with this base image, right?

Actually, we’re not.

So the way Grok and Imagine are set up, it’s not immediately apparent that you can do this – and there’s no explanation of what the Edit function REALLY does.

It looks like this:

The idea is that you click on the text box underneath your prompt and type in a change you want to make to the image you generated.

The way it’s presented, it makes it appear as if what you’re able to do are simple edits. For example:

Dress her in a skimpy black tank top and tiny black thong panties

You can also making changes to posing:

Change her pose so that one leg is raised and bent at the knee, her foot resting on the edge of the seat

Change her pose so that one leg is raised and bent at the knee, her foot resting on the edge of the seat

And Edit can obviously do that, but the Edit function is a very powerful tool that allows you to create dynamic camera shots within your base image and generate entirely new images while re-using the same character.

Let’s say I want to start a shot with a medium shot of her in the captain’s chair. I could try to do a video prompt for that, but I have to tell Grok to do a jump cut and it won’t always work the way I want it to.

Or I can create a new image with the shot that I want. Here’s the prompt that I used with the base image:

Medium shot of her

Or maybe I want a low angle shot to emphasize the space she’s in:

Low angle shot

We can fix that extra leg problem too:

Remove the extra leg

Cross her legs

Or some close ups:

medium close up of her face

close up of her breasts, stomach, and hips

What if I want to have another character in the scene? Edit can do that. This is the prompt we’ll use for the base image:

Create a new image of her based on the following prompt: a highly detailed and realistic still frame from a science fiction film from the 1970s with muted colors, Kodachrome film aesthetic, film grain, low quality, 85mm lens view. A nude female with shoulder length brown hair in a wavy hairstyle, a slender athletic body, small breasts, wearing a silver cross on a chain around her neck, and wide hips. She is standing in the medical wing of a spaceship with a lived-in retro-futuristic design that looks cluttered and claustrophobic. The technology seen is retro-futuristic, in the style of casette futurism, with a mixture of digital screens and analog control systems. Her back is to the camera and she is looking over her shoulder. She is standing in front of an older man wearing a lab coat over a black uniform

[NOTE: I AM HAVING HER LOOK OVER HER SHOULDER PURPOSELY – I WANT HER FACE VISIBLE FOR VIDEO PURPOSES – IN A VIDEO, IF THE CAMERA LOSES TRACK OF HER FACE IT WILL STOP CREATING A CONSISTENT FACE; I CAN ALWAYS PROMPT TO TURN HER HEAD AWAY, BUT I CAN’T EVER GET THE ORIGINAL FACE BACK]

But I don’t want them talking on the bridge. So let’s change the background using this prompt:

Create a new image of her based on the following prompt: a highly detailed and realistic still frame from a science fiction film from the 1970s with muted colors, Kodachrome film aesthetic, film grain, low quality, 85mm lens view. A nude female with shoulder length brown hair in a wavy hairstyle, a slender athletic body, small breasts, wearing a silver cross on a chain around her neck, and wide hips. She is standing in the dimly lit medical wing of a spaceship with a lived-in retro-futuristic design that looks cluttered and claustrophobic. The technology seen is retro-futuristic, in the style of casette futurism, with a mixture of digital screens and analog control systems. There are several examination tables and a medical assistant droid. Her back is to the camera and she is looking over her shoulder. She is standing in front of an older man wearing a lab coat over a black uniform

So now’ere in a completely different part of the ship. And our main character is still looking consistent with her original image.

Of course, now we can create some scenes within this new image:

Change her pose so that her head is turned looking at him, she is holding her hands behind her head and standing with her legs apart

And our doctor probably needs to do more of a tactile examination:

Change his pose so that he is standing close to her and holding his outstretched hand between her legs

It might be necessary for him to get down for a closer look:

Change his pose so that he is kneeling close to her and holding his outstretched hand between her legs

I don’t want to keep using the same wide shot though, so let’s change the camera angle:

Medium close up of him examining her

And one thing I appreciate about the Edit function is that while you can be very specific and escriptive with it, you don’t have to be. Some degree of natural variation can be hlpeful.

Maybe the doctor has decided she needs an extended period of rest:

Create a new image where she is asleep and floating in cryogenic tube in a dimly lit laboratory with the same retro futuristic aesthetic

And notice that my prompt for the background was not detailed at all – but I wrote just enough for Grok to understand it was supposed to take place in a different location than the base image and it was supposed to still look like the aesthetic of the base image.

Things do occasionally go wrong when you’re in a cryotube:

create a new image where the cryogenic tube is sitting among the debris of a wrecked spaceship on a planet with an ice covered surface

And that has to be a bad way to wake up:

Create a new image of her based on the following prompt: A highly detailed cinematic still frame from a gritty 1990s science-fiction film, moody dramatic lighting with cool blue-cyan tones, harsh fluorescent accents, and deep volumetric shadows, retro-futuristic brutalist architecture and clinical set design. Inside a stark prison medical ward with raw concrete walls, exposed pipes, and humming cassette-futuristic medical equipment. A slender nude woman with wavy brown hair lies on a simple medical bed, looking up wearily, her knees bent, her legs apart, and one hand protectively covering her pubic area. Explicit nudity is implied but not shown. Beside her, a doctor in a long white lab coat leans in and talks to her seriously. Tense clinical atmosphere, subtle film grain, practical 1990s special effects style, photorealistic yet stylized, medium two-shot composition with sharp focus on the interaction.

And it probably raises some questions about how you got here if they can’t verify your story:

Create a new image of her based on the following prompt: a highly detailed and realistic still frame from a science fiction film from the 1970s with muted colors, Kodachrome film aesthetic, film grain, low quality, 85mm lens view. A nude female with shoulder length brown hair in a wavy hairstyle, a slender athletic body, small breasts, wearing a silver cross on a chain around her neck, and wide hips. She is sleeping on a bed in the dimly lit prison of spaceship with a lived-in retro-futuristic design that looks cluttered and claustrophobic. There is a handcuff on her wrist that is chained to the frame of the bed. The technology seen is retro-futuristic, in the style of casette futurism, with a mixture of digital screens and analog control systems.