How to fix face drift in AI video

Step 1: identify the type of drift

Put the problem clip next to your best reference image and decide which of four patterns it is.

Between-clip drift: each clip is consistent on its own, but clip three shows a slightly different person than clip one. This usually comes from the reference set or from inputs that changed between generations.

Within-clip drift: the face starts right and changes as the clip goes on. This is tied to clip length, camera movement, and the face turning to an angle the references do not show.

Angle drift: the face is right from the front and wrong in profile or from below. The references are missing that angle.

Situational drift: the face fails only in certain conditions, such as low light, a wide shot, or another person in frame. Note the condition; it tells you what to change.

Step 2: rule out chance

1. Regenerate the clip once with exactly the same inputs. Generation is random, and one bad result does not mean the setup is wrong. If the second attempt is fine, keep it and move on. If the same problem appears in two out of three attempts, it is systematic and the next steps apply.

Step 3: repair the reference set

2. Check that the set agrees with itself. Put all reference images side by side. Look for hair parted on different sides, glasses in some images, different makeup, a beard in one shot, a different age. One outlier pulls clips toward it. Remove it.

3. Fill the missing angle. For angle drift, add a sharp profile or three-quarter view. For low-angle shots, add an image taken from slightly below.

4. Fix the light in the references. Images with hard shadows or colored light teach the model a different face shape. Replace them with evenly lit versions.

5. Check that every clip used the same set. If clip one used five images and clip four used a different three, that is your between-clip drift. Use one fixed, versioned set for every generation.

6. Use the model's capacity sensibly. Kling 3.0 Omni accepts up to seven images, or one reference video of 3 to 10 seconds plus up to four images, according to Kling's guide as of October 2026. A short clip of the person turning their head can help with angle drift where stills cannot.

Step 4: clean the prompt and simplify the shot

7. Remove every appearance word from the prompt: hair, eyes, skin, age, clothing, makeup. When the prompt and references disagree, the model blends them. This alone fixes a lot of between-clip drift.

8. Remove style words that change faces, such as "cinematic portrait", "beauty shot" or a named art style that differs from the references.

9. Simplify the shot. Change one thing at a time: move the camera less, keep the face turned more toward the camera, bring the camera closer so the face is larger in frame, use softer and more frontal light. Small faces in wide shots have few pixels and drift more.

10. Separate people. If drift appears only with two characters in frame, give them more distance and distinct actions, or split the moment into two single shots.

Step 5: shorten the clip

11. For within-clip drift, make the clip shorter. If a face holds for five seconds and slips at ten, generate two five-second shots and cut between them. Kling 3.0 Omni allows up to 15 seconds per generation as of October 2026, but the maximum length is not always the best length for a close-up.

12. End on a clean frame. Write the end of the action into the prompt, such as "ends looking at the camera", so the last frame, where drift is often worst, is a simple pose.

Checklist and running it on RefVid

In order: identify the drift type; regenerate once; remove outlier references; add the missing angle; replace badly lit references; confirm one fixed set across clips; strip appearance and style words from the prompt; simplify camera and light; separate characters; shorten long clips; define the end frame.

RefVid removes the most common cause, a reference set that changes between clips. Each character is saved once with 1 to 5 images, and every clip is generated from exactly that set on Kling 3.0 Omni. All clips of the character are listed together, so you can compare them, and you can rate each one to keep track of which fixes worked. If a generation fails, its credits are returned.