Seasonal and market variants of one approved shot

One approved shot, many versions: a new season, a new market or faction, a restyled room. Whatever the variant, the approved original is the base, what stays fixed is named before anything changes, and every version is checked against that base. This page runs the job four times, from the tightest change to the widest: one zone of a product shot (original, autumn courtyard, winter courtyard, a cold-weather bench, every pixel outside the zone identical), one autumn theme across a restaurant's key art, items, banner and a clip, a game faction reskin, and an airport lounge in three looks. For marketing, brand and game teams refreshing approved work per season, promotion or market.

The brief

The bases:

• Part 1: the entryway scene from Product lifestyle scenes; the series continues in Ad variations and Key art and store assets.
• Part 2: approved pieces of Ember & Bun, an invented burger chain: the corner restaurant at dusk and the Double Ember product shot, both signed off earlier, and three menu cutouts approved earlier. The evergreen banner is generated in the first run here, from the product shot, and approved before the theme touches it.
• Part 3: Cinderthrone is a fantasy battle arena game in painterly splash-art style. Its Sunforged faction has an approved set of six legendary items and a champion, Vael. The rival Tidebound faction needs the same set in its own look. The player must recognize each item and the champion at a glance, so shapes, positions and pose stay put while materials and colors change. The ability icons and the weapon ladder for the same factions are in Make a consistent game icon set.
• Part 4: the lounge belongs to Northvane, an invented airline.

Approach

Every variant follows the same rules. Edit the approved original, never a previous variant and never a fresh generation from text. Attach it as the only reference. Name what stays fixed before you name what changes. Check each version against the original, by measurement where you can. What differs between the parts is how tightly the fixed part is held, and that depends on how much of the image the variant touches:

• One zone changes (Part 1): mask the zone, edit, then composite the base back. Pixel exact.
• One theme across every piece (Part 2): a theme block written once, a keep-list per type of piece, the original's edges laid over each result.
• New materials on the same objects (Part 3): a keep sentence and a change sentence written as "X instead of Y", an outline overlay.
• Most of the image changes, the architecture stays (Part 4): a keep-list read from the photo, a closed list of what may change, a flip check.

One zone: mask, edit, composite

Even with a mask, the model re-renders the whole frame. In this run every raw edit redrew the shoe: laces, knit and wordmark moved slightly (normalized RMSE about 0.05 on the shoe, invisible at thumbnail size). Outside the zone the raw edits differed from the base by about 0.03, with or without a mask. Chain three edits and the product drifts three times.

So mask the zone, edit with a prompt that names only it, then composite the base back over everything else (Let code own what must be exact). Always edit from the approved base, never from the previous edit.

Models, as of October 2026: GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst at high quality, the mask passed as a separate image. GPT Image 2.5 Flare takes the same mask and costs less; the composite protects the product either way.

In the app: Retouch (asset ... menu, or Create > Retouch) for a painted mask, Edit with Prompts for prompt only (Edit one thing).

One theme across a kit

• Approved originals first. A theme edits something signed off; pieces generated from text are a new campaign to approve again.
• One theme block, written once, pasted unchanged into every edit:

Lantern Night autumn festival: a blue-hour dusk sky in deep plum and amber,
warm light from strings of small round paper lanterns in copper, amber and
plum, a few rust and gold maple leaves, a light autumn haze.

• A keep-list per type of piece. Scenes keep composition, building, sign and people. Products keep every layer, shape, size and position. Items keep silhouette, angle and fill; their theme is light and a seasonal topping, with no decorations in the cutout.

Models, as of October 2026: GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst at medium for edits, Reframe for formats, Minimax H3 for the clip. The runners-up, Flare and Seedance 2.5, are in the captions below.

A faction reskin: keep and change

• One original in, one reskin out. Attach the original as the only reference. A second image, even one meant only for the theme, pulls the result toward it (see Check the result).
• Split the prompt into "keep" and "change" (Write a keep-list). The keep sentence lists what the player uses to recognize the asset; the change sentence touches only materials, palette and effects, each written as "X instead of Y" (Decide what stays fixed).
• A set approved as one image can be reskinned as one image. The six items were approved together and sit too close to crop cleanly, so the set image was the original. For a long icon list (40 inventory icons), run one icon per run.

The item set prompt as run (the Cinderthrone style paragraph is appended to every prompt of this world):

Reskin the item set in the reference image for the Tidebound faction, the
sea-throne rivals of the Sunforged. Keep exactly the same six objects in the
same order and the same positions, with the same silhouettes, sizes and
angles, the same dark slate surface, camera and composition, and the small
pool of light under each item. Change only materials, palette and motifs:
pearl, mother-of-pearl and verdigris bronze instead of burnished bronze and
gold; engraved waves and spiral shells instead of suns; coral and aquamarine
instead of rubies and crimson cord; a cold bioluminescent teal glow instead of
fire and embers. The lantern holds glowing sea water instead of coals, the
halberd blade is translucent aquamarine sea glass, and the banners behind
become deep teal with a white spiral-shell emblem. Style: painterly champion
splash art at the level of the top arena games: confident brushwork, crisp
edge control, strong diagonal composition, gold and teal rim light,
atmospheric depth, rich armor and cloth detail. No text.

Models, as of October 2026:

• Item set: GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, the top pick for reference-based edits. It held all six positions.
• Champion: Nano Banana 2.1 kept Vael's face and halberd closest. Sunburst made richer armor but redesigned the halberd head.
• Single-region changes (only the cord color, only a gem): Edit with Prompts. See Edit one thing.

A room restyle: a keep-list from the photo

Restyling is an edit where most of the image must stay. Write the fixed list from the photo itself, element by element, and paste it into every prompt (Decide what stays fixed).

Then close the list of what may change: "Only furniture, lamps, pendants, bar stools, rugs, plants, colors of movable objects and decor may change." A closed list holds better than "keep the architecture", which the model reads loosely.

• Describe the photo as it is. The keep-list in this run said "three tall bays" for the glass wall. The photo has four, and all three outputs kept four: the reference won over the text. Count from the photo so the text and the picture agree.
• Read an App's prompt before trusting it. The platform Room Redesign App is a fast start, but it writes its own prompt. On this brief it turned the onyx bar front into wood, kept the two travelers and reframed the shot.

Models, as of October 2026:

• Capability: image to image with one reference.
• Model used: GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst at high quality, at the photo's size (2048x1152).
• Alternative tested: the Room Redesign App, rejected for this brief (see the check below).

Steps

Part 1: one zone, per season and promotion

With the Scenario MCP: upload the masks with upload_asset, then model_run on model_openai-gpt-image-2-5-sunburst with referenceImages: ["<base id>"], mask: "<mask id>", the prompt, the base's width and height, and quality: "high". Start all variants from the same base with wait: false, collect them with jobs_wait, and composite each.

Part 2: one season across a kit

Edit the photograph in the reference image. Keep exactly: the composition and
framing, the camera angle, the corner restaurant building with its brick
facade, windows, doors and awnings, the red neon EMBER & BUN sign and its flame
mark exactly as they are, the people inside and the cyclist in the same places
with the same poses, the street, wet sidewalk, trees and distant skyline in the
same layout, the same photographic style and lens. Change only the time of
day, light, palette and seasonal decorations, for the <THEME BLOCK>. Lanterns
hang in strings along the facade and across the street. No new text, no new
signs, no other logos.

Formats and the clip

The first 9:16 pilot asked to "continue the scene naturally above the image". The model filled the new space with more lanterns, maple-leaf lanterns and an arched window. The fix names where the new space goes and what it must not hold.

Extend the canvas upward only. Above the original image, continue the same
deep plum painted brick wall in soft amber light; the thin cords of the
existing paper lanterns run straight up and out of the top of the frame. Do
not add, repeat or copy any lanterns, leaves, windows or objects in the new
area: it is an empty plum brick wall kept free for copy. No text, no title, no
letters, no labels, no signs, no logos.

Both clip models got one prompt: locked camera, swaying lanterns, a few drifting leaves, the cyclist riding out, small motions from the guests, and the sign unchanged.

Watch the video: https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/42ff5660a2ac1e6a1d51c6c42157d9f82f5a14cb9ee72cde065fdfe3fdd1eb64.mp4

Part 3: a faction reskin

The champion prompt as run (style paragraph appended):

Create a Tidebound faction skin of the champion in the reference image. Keep
exactly the same character: her face, skin tone, hair, body proportions, the
leap down from the shattered cathedral arch, the shape and grip of her
halberd, the camera angle and the composition. Change only materials, palette
and effects: armor in pearl and verdigris bronze engraved with waves and
spiral shells instead of burnished bronze with suns; the torn tabard in deep
teal instead of crimson; the halberd blade made of translucent aquamarine sea
glass with water swirling inside instead of molten glass; bioluminescent sea
spray and drifting droplets instead of embers; the stained-glass shards
tinted sea green and pearl.

With the Scenario MCP: call model_openai-gpt-image-2-5-sunburst (or model_google-gemini-nano-banana-2-1 for a character) with referenceImages: [original_id], the filled template and wait: false, once per original; then one jobs_wait for all. Keep a table of original id to reskin id.

Part 4: a room restyle

The three kept looks1 / 3

With the Scenario MCP: model_run on model_openai-gpt-image-2-5-sunburst with referenceImages: ["<room photo id>"], the prompt, width: 2048, height: 1152 and quality: "high". The three looks can start together with wait: false.

The App test was workflow_run on wflow_room-redesign with the photo as image1 and the style phrase as text1.

Check the result

One zone

Why mask at all, if the raw edit drifts either way: the composite needs a zone, and the mask tells the model where the change goes. In this run the unmasked prompt "Make it winter: a snowy courtyard outside the window with a bare tree covered in snow." also kept the frame; its shoe was redrawn like the others, with no zone drawn to composite against.

Rejected

The four versions1 / 4

The kit

Measured on this run; an edge counts as kept when found within 4 px.

One change passed the numbers without being asked for: the street trees turned rust and gold. The keep-list fixed their place, not their color, and the color is the theme: kept.

The reskin

The item set was accepted on the first run. The 50 percent overlay shows the six objects on top of each other with no double edges; only materials and the banners changed.

The reference does almost all the work. As a test, the Tidebound set was also generated from the same description with no original attached: six new objects of a different design, on a table in front of a waterfall city. A good illustration of the wrong set.

At medium, the set cost about a third of high. Every silhouette and position held, and at thumbnail size the two runs look the same. At full size, medium changed the inside of the lantern (coral instead of waves) and the horn's cord color. For items that ship small, run them at medium; keep high for splash art and large store images. See Control cost.

The champion took three runs. With Vael alone as reference, Nano Banana 2.1 kept her face, skin tone, leap and halberd shape, and swapped every material; the armor came out a little darker green-bronze than the brief's pearl, which was accepted for this pass. Sunburst made brighter pearl armor but replaced the halberd head with a new design with a gold spiral guard: runner-up. A third run added Oryn, the Tidebound champion, as a second reference "for the faction's materials only". Her skin turned lighter, her face slimmer, and the background washed out to pale cream: rejected.

The three champion runs1 / 3

The room

Rejected

Both images are good 1960s lounges. Only one answers the brief.

The App's output also came back smaller (1672x941 against the photo's 2048x1152). It suits a full redesign where the room may change. For a pitch where the architecture is the constant, write your own prompt or copy the App and edit its template.

Check yourself4 questions

1Two autumn versions of the entryway shot. They look the same at this size. Which one ships?

1. ATake A: it is the model's own output, so the light in the window and the room match
2. BTake B: the base was composited back, so the shoe and everything outside the window are the approved pixels
3. CEither one: the differences are invisible at thumbnail size

Answer: B. Take A is the raw masked edit: its shoe was redrawn (RMSE about 0.05 against the base). Take B diffs to 0 outside the window. Invisible at thumbnail size, visible at 1:1 and on every chained version.

2Two 9:16 pilots of the Lantern Night banner. The new wall at the top is the copy area. Which pilot goes to the 2K run?

1. ATake A: more lanterns make the theme read better at story size
2. BEither one: the copy is typeset in code and covers whatever is there
3. CTake B: the new space is an empty wall, kept free for copy

Answer: C. An extension that adds or repeats objects in the copy area fails the check. The fixed prompt said where the new space goes and what it must not hold.

3You want the champion's Tidebound skin to borrow the exact armor look of the rival champion. What do you attach?

1. ABoth champions, so the model sees the target look
2. BOnly the champion being reskinned, with the rival's materials written into the change sentence
3. COnly the rival champion, and describe the original in words

Answer: B. A second reference pulls identity as well as materials. In this run, adding the rival lightened the skin and changed the face. Describe the materials in words and attach one original.

4Two 1960s restyles of the lounge for the refurbishment pitch. Which one answers the brief?

1. ATake A: the warmer bar suits the 1960s look better
2. BTake B: the bar, walls and camera match the photo, and only furniture and decor changed
3. CEither one: both are convincing 1960s interiors

Answer: B. The brief fixes the onyx bar and the camera, and campaign images carry no people. Take A came from an App that writes its own prompt: it changed the bar front, kept the travelers and reframed the shot.

Make it repeatable

• Keep the fixed part as data, next to the originals. A zone library for hero shots: each approved shot with one mask per zone (window, bench, wall art, screen) in one collection. The theme block and keep-lists of a kit, and the keep sentence of a reskin, as text files; the keep sentence stays word for word. One keep-list per space, stored with the room photo in a collection named after the space. A new season, faction or style is then one new prompt, one change sentence or one style phrase.
• Template the edit prompts (Batch from a template): "Change only [zone]: [new content], [where it sits]. [What it must not carry]. Same light. Everything else stays exactly as it is."
• Style sheet. Keep a list of approved style phrases (era, palette, three or four signature objects) so restyles stay comparable across rooms.
• Build it as a workflow (Package it as a workflow or skill, Batches, loops and logic). In the Node Editor:
  • One zone: two Image inputs (Approved base, Zone mask), a Text input (New content), a Prompt Builder with the template, an Image Generator on GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst wired to Mask, and an Approval node with Approve only if nothing crosses the zone edge. Composite outside the workflow, in code or a layer editor.
  • A kit: an Image node with the originals and a Text node with the theme block feed a Loop with a Prompt Builder (keep-list plus theme) and an Image Generator on GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, the original in Reference Images. An Approval node sits before the formats and the clip, the expensive steps.
  • A reskin batch: Image inputs for the originals and a Text input for the theme line; a Prompt Builder with the keep sentence fixed; a Loop over an Image Generator on GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst at medium quality; an Approval node.
  • A room: duplicate the platform App (... menu > Duplicate Workflow) and edit the prompt template so it carries your keep-list and the closed list of what may change (Run and share Apps). Or build it fresh: an Image input (Room photo), a Text input (Keep-list), a Text input (Style), a Prompt Builder, an Image Generator on GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and an Approval node with Approve only if walls, glass, bar and camera match the photo.
• Through the API or the Scenario MCP (this run's route): one edit per asset ID with referenceImages: [original], wait for all jobs, then the edge check in code (Run workflows from code and agents).
• Store the crop per format with the kit: the next theme reuses the same Reframe settings.
• Apps to compare, none run here: Seasonal Asset Reskin (under Workflows, Apps; a source asset plus a season), Event Promo Generator and Multi-Format Ad Generator (10 ad formats). Run one on two originals and compare outlines with the overlay check before choosing. The Room Redesign App was run in Part 4 and rejected for a brief where the architecture is fixed.
• Log every version (Keep sources as data): base, mask, prompt, diff result. A change in six months is one line to rerun.
• One change at a time for campaigns. For seasonal dressing of an approved restyle, change only the decor zone with a mask and composite, as in Part 1.

Runs and time

Part 1: one zone

Six generations, three kept, about 4 minutes of wait. Every edit costs the same and the app shows the price before you run; masks and composites cost nothing.

Part 2: the kit

Seventeen runs, five rejected or runner-up, about 5 minutes of wait. The clip test is most of the cost, then the 2K formats; themed pieces at medium are cheap. The price shows on the Generate button before you run (Control cost).

Part 3: the reskin

All six ran in parallel, so the wait was about 1 minute. The three tests are the only runs you can skip. A 40-icon set is 40 runs; at medium it costs about a third of high. The price shows on the Generate button before you run.

Part 4: the room

Four runs started together, so the whole set came back in under a minute. With your own photo, three looks are three runs at about the same price each. The price shows on the Generate button before you run.

Variations

• Markets: swap the view, a newspaper or a shop sign behind the product per country, sign text set in code.
• Promotions: only a price tag zone or a gift box beside the product.
• Interiors: change one wall, its art or the rug with a zone (Part 1); for a full restyle, see Part 4.
• Fashion: only the garment color, with a garment mask (Fashion edits and try-on).
• Another season or a sale: swap the theme block (snow on the awnings replaces maple leaves) or the change sentence ("autumn: copper and amber, fallen leaves on top edges") and keep the keep sentence word for word.
• Learning and publishing: seasonal course badges and lesson banners, the course name typeset.
• Rarity tiers: change only material and glow intensity. The Asset Evolution App does four tiers in one run; for a full catalog, see Make a consistent game icon set.
• UI kits: reskin panels and buttons the same way; nine-slice borders still apply if the silhouette holds. See Game UI kit.
• Buildings: a winter isometric town; add "same footprint and tile edges" to the keep sentence. See Isometric tiles and buildings.
• Video: edit the first frame this way, then animate each version from its composited frame. The same keep and change split restyles a clip while timing and camera stay put (Restyle footage and keep the motion).
• A looping clip: the themed still as first and last frame (Animate a still).
• Nearby jobs: more formats in Key art and store assets.
• Real estate: stage an empty room; the keep-list stays the same and the style phrase becomes "furnish this empty room as a ...".
• Hospitality: show one hotel room in brand looks for several properties; the keep-list carries the window and the bathroom door.
• Exteriors: restyle a facade's paint, planting and signage zones while keeping openings, roofline and camera; set any sign text in code.
• Film and games set design: restyle a location photo across eras for a period piece, then use the result as an environment reference.
• Events: dress a venue for different events from one empty-hall photo.

If it breaks

• Something outside the zone changed. Expected. Composite the base back; do not try to prompt it away.
• A new object is cut where the zone ends. The model drew past the mask. Widen the zone to a natural boundary and say how large the new object is and that it stays inside the zone.
• A new prop carries a logo or stripes. Add "plain" and "no logos, marks or stripes" for each prop you name.
• A visible seam at the zone edge. Blur the keep mask more, or extend the mask to a natural boundary such as a window frame or the bench edge.
• The light inside the zone looks wrong. Say where the light comes from ("the same low morning sunlight from the right") and keep the zone small enough for the model to see the light around it.
• The edit changed objects all over the frame. The mask was missing or not applied: re-run with it. If the framing moved, a composite cannot line up.
• The sign, a face or a pose changes in the key art. Name the sign, the people and their poses in the keep-list, attach only the original, reject on the overlay check.
• The theme reaches something that should stay. Name its color too in the keep-list ("the trees stay green").
• The extension fills the copy area. Say "extend upward only" and "do not add, repeat or copy any objects", and start the crop where the original wall is empty.
• The extension writes a title or labels. Write the no-text rule in full in the extension prompt; the original's does not carry over.
• The clip camera drifts. Write "locked camera, no zoom" first, then try the other model at low resolution.
• The video has an unwanted soundtrack. Some models add audio by default: remove it when you conform the clip.
• An object changes shape or moves. Make sure the original is attached; then add that object's feature to the keep sentence ("the halberd head with one hooked back spike").
• The scene changes. Name the table, camera and background in the keep sentence; the text-only test invented a whole city.
• The character's face drifts. Remove every reference except the original; move the theme into words.
• A weapon or prop is redesigned. Name its shape in the keep sentence ("the shape and grip of her halberd"), or switch to Nano Banana 2.1, which held the shape in this run.
• One region needs a different change. Use Edit with Prompts on the reskin for that region alone instead of re-running the whole image.
• A wall, the bar or a column changes material. The prompt (or an App template) allows it. Name each fixed surface with its material and close the list of what may change.
• People from the photo stay. Add "No people". If they persist, remove them first with an edit, then restyle.
• The glass or window grid changes. Describe it with counts and colors ("thin black mullions, four tall bays").
• The camera moves or the frame tightens. Add "the same camera position and lens", generate at the photo's size and check a fixed landmark such as the wordmark.
• Fake signage appears. Add "No new text, no new signage" and set any real sign in code afterwards.