Designing a unique anime character is not an easy thing. You need a lot of design principles and a great source of references. One of my favorite ways to find character design references and brainstorm is by using Midjourney AI. However, you will still require prompt engineering skills and keyword lists for character design.

Don't worry! In this blog post, I'll share some of my top Midjourney prompts to help you create cool character design references on your own!

These prompts are designed to expand the imagination and will enhance your design skills. The AI can assist you in creating anime characters that are unique and captivating and they'll help you bring your creativity to new heights.

What's great about these AI prompts is that you can use them individually or mix and match them to fit your unique character design preferences. This flexibility allows you to create the character that truly reflect your creative vision and push the boundaries of traditional character design.

So, don't be afraid to experiment and see what works best for your unique design style.

Before we begin, if you're new to the generative AI, you may heck out my AI related articles here. I've wrote tips and prompts for NovelAI as well.

What's Midjourney?

Midjourney is a text-to-image AI platform based on Stable Diffusion and Discord that has exploded in popularity, boasting a community of over a million members as of last year. It's one of my all-time favorite AI platforms. One of the reasons for this is that it serves as a fantastic source of inspiration and imagination for my character design references!

With its well-trained AI model, Midjourney enables users to create stunning anime character design references with ease. It's a valuable resource that every anime artist and designer should have in their toolkit.

You require a Discord account in order to use Midjourney and you'll get the free 25 credits when you first start.

Let's learn the basics of using Midjourney from the video below!

What's the Midjourney AI Model?

Midjourney trained their own AI model, which has evolved over time. Each model will give you various image styles, and you can switch the model by typing “/settings” and selecting your model preferences.

Even if you use the same prompt, using a different model will give you a different result. You may look at the difference between each model in the picture below.

In this blog post, the main models I'll use are “Niji Mode” and “v4” since these two models give the best result in anime style.

The Basic Structure of Prompts for Midjourney to Generate Anything!

Understanding the basic structure of prompts for Midjourney is key to generating anything you can imagine. By breaking down the prompt into distinct categories, you can guide the generative AI towards creating designs that meet your specific vision. When I write a prompt in Midjourney, I separate the structure of my prompt into 6 parts as follows.

1. Art Type

When it comes to art type keywords, they are essential inputs that help define the type of art you want such as “concept art”, “pixel art”, clear vector art”, “illustration”, and so on.

2. Image Details

Then describe what you want in that image. For example “anime girl”, “blonde hair”, “holding gun”, “jumping”, “under the water”, and so on.

3. Image Styles

Sometimes I'll use the names of popular games and shows to direct the particular style of the image, such as “Granblue Fantasy,”  “Final Fantasy XIV,”  “Arknights,”  and so on. You may experiment with a different name and get a different outcome. You can also tell the AI what rendering method or art media you want for example, “hyper-ralistic”, “3D render”, “cel-shading”, “digital art”, “watercolor painting” etc.

4. Quality Keywords

I'll tell the AI I want the great results by using phrases like “beautiful detailed of,” “masterpiece,” “4K,” “highly detailed,” “trending on,” and so on.

5. Image Resolution

You can direct the image resolution of the outcome in Midjourney by using the tag “––ar” and then the image ratio. For example, “––ar 2:3”, “––ar 16:9”, “––ar 3:2”, and so on.

6. Unwanted Elements

When you want to eliminate something such as text, a watermark, or any elements in the image, you can use the tag “––no” followed by the undesired content such as “––no text, no watermark, no username”.

By using this technique, you can generate images that are similar to those in your imagination.

Recommended Midjourney Prompts for Character Design

Below is my recommended prompt for you to create anime character design. By understanding the structure of the Midjourney prompts as I mentioned, you'll be able to adjust and tweak them to fit your unique creative vision.

#1 Futuristic Girl with a Gun

#2 Jelly Fish Motive Girl Character

#3 Cyborg Girl Character

#4 Fantasy Warrior with Full Armor

#5 Armor Character in Dark Fantasy Style

#6 Villain Character with Purple Theme

#7 Idol Girl on Stage

#8 Fairy Girl with Butterfly Wings

#9 Cool Male Character with Hoodie

#10 Chibi Style Character Design