Welcome to Part 1 of our 4-part blog series on Google Flow! Over the next four blogs, we will dive deep into everything Flow has to offer: from characters and avatars to the intelligent Google Flow Agent and the built-in tools for both images and video. Today, we are kicking things off with one of the most exciting features: Character and Avatar Creation.

What is Google Flow?

Before we dive into character building, let’s briefly cover what Google Flow actually is. Google Flow is an AI creative studio designed to support your entire creative journey, from brainstorming and proof of concepts to final creations. Powered by Google DeepMind’s most advanced models like Veo, Nano Banana, and the new Gemini Omni Flash, Flow allows you to generate, refine, and seamlessly edit videos and images using just text prompts and conversational language.

Read our previous blog about Flow 👉 Flow: Google’s AI-Powered Platform for Storytellers and Filmmakers

What are Characters and Avatars in Google Flow?

One of the biggest challenges in AI video and image generation is keeping your subjects looking and sounding consistent from one scene to the next. Google Flow solves this by allowing you to build a “recurring cast” for your projects.

Instead of typing out a long, detailed description of a person for every single prompt, Flow lets you bundle specific visual references, an audio profile, and personality traits into a single, reusable entity known as a Character. Avatars take this a step further by allowing you to securely bring your own real-life face and voice directly into your creations.

How to Create a Custom Character

Creating a character in Google Flow is a straightforward process that locks in your subject’s look and feel.

1. Generate the Visual Base

To start, head to the “Characters” tab on the left-hand menu and click “New Character”. You have three main ways to build their appearance:

Templates

You can select a preset template (like “the fantastical”), which automatically populates a prompt that you can tweak.

From Scratch

Use the standard Nano Banana Pro or Nano Banana 2 models to write a highly specific prompt (e.g., “A woman in his 30s with short hair, smiling”) to generate your base image.

🌟 There is an optional but incredibly powerful feature called “Character info”. Here, you can describe your character’s baseline personality, quirks, and mannerisms.

This is crucial because this description feeds directly into the Google Flow Agent. When you brainstorm a scene or write a script, the Agent automatically understands how your character behaves, meaning you do not have to explain their personality in every single prompt.

Upload/Import

You can directly upload an image from your computer or import an existing character image from another Google Flow project.

2. Add Extra Views

Once you have your initial image locked in, you can generate a second reference image to capture different angles of your subject. Flow will ask you to describe their body and outfit (e.g., “dark navy sweater and cargo pants”), giving the AI a comprehensive 360-degree understanding of what your character looks like.

3. Giving Your Character a Voice

A character is not complete without a voice! Once your visuals are set, you can assign them an audio profile.

Preset Voices

Flow offers a variety of voice templates that you can instantly audition and add to your character.

Custom Voices

If the presets are not quite right, you can choose a base voice, name it, and write a description of how you want it to sound, like asking for a “fast-paced, slightly raspy” tone. Note that you currently cannot upload external audio files to clone a voice; you must build from Flow’s templates.

How to Create “Me”: Building Your Personal Avatar

If you want to star in your own AI-generated videos, you can use the experimental Avatar feature.

To set this up, go to your Account Settings on your computer and click “Create avatar”. You will be prompted to scan a QR code with your mobile phone or tablet to open the Gemini app. From there, you will record a short selfie video to capture different angles of your face and read a few numbers out loud to capture your exact voice profile.

Important Avatar Limitations: Because this uses your real likeness, avatars are tied exclusively to your private account and cannot be shared publicly or via Flow Tools.

Casting Your Characters in Prompts

Once your characters and avatars are saved, putting them into a scene feels like magic. Whenever you are typing a prompt, simply type the @ symbol followed by your character’s name (e.g., @Lana). If you want to use your personal avatar, just type @me.

The best part? Even though your character’s identity is locked, they are highly flexible. You can still prompt the AI to change their clothing, put them in a completely different environment, or make them perform new actions.

⭐⭐⭐

Google Flow’s character and avatar systems completely change the game for AI video and image consistency. By allowing creators to build a reusable cast of actors with locked-in faces, custom voices, and distinct personalities, you can finally focus on directing your story rather than fighting the AI to keep your subjects looking the same.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, where we will explore the Google Flow Agent, your built-in creative collaborator that can write scripts, batch edit clips, and organize your entire workspace while you watch!

Contact us today to learn more about Flow and discover how Google’s AI filmmaking tools can transform your storytelling and marketing campaigns.