Characters
Work in Progress
This documentation is still being expanded and refined. Features, screenshots, and descriptions may change until Talescape's public release. If something is unclear or you need help, please ask on the official Talescape Discord. We're happy to clarify or update pages as needed.
Characters in Talescape are primarily a convenience feature that helps you organize and manage recurring figures in your story. They aren’t required for creating scenes or dialogues, but they make working with portraits and voice assets much easier. Especially in larger projects.
1. Purpose
Characters serve as global references for people or entities that appear multiple times throughout your story. By defining a character once, you can reuse their name, portrait, and poses in multiple dialogues or scenes without reconfiguring them each time.
This saves time and ensures visual and stylistic consistency across chapters.
2. When to Use Characters
You should use characters when:
- The same person appears in multiple dialogues or scenes.
- You want to manage portraits and poses centrally.
You can also choose not to use characters at all. For example, short stories or one-off scenes can define dialogue speakers directly without creating character profiles.
3. Character Setup
To create a character, open the Characters panel and click Create new Character. Each character includes a few basic fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The character’s display name (used in dialogues). |
| Portraits / Poses | Image variations representing different expressions or postures. |
Once created, you can assign these characters in:
- The Dialogue Editor (as the speaker for lines or choices).
- The Scene Editor (as image elements or overlays).
4. Global Pose Management
When you update a character’s portrait or add a new pose, those changes are applied automatically wherever that character appears. This lets you adjust expressions, outfits, or visual styles globally without manually editing each dialogue or scene.
5. Optional Use
Characters are completely optional. You can still:
- Create dialogues with custom speaker names.
- Add images or voices directly to scene elements.
However, using characters can greatly improve organization and reduce repetitive setup in larger or branching stories.
6. Best Practices
- Use clear and consistent naming for characters, especially in multi-chapter stories.
- Store all poses under one character to avoid duplicates.
- Reuse poses and portraits to keep tone and emotion consistent.
- Use global characters for major figures, and inline names for minor or one-time appearances.