Leonardo Phase 1: Return to the Leonardo AI Creator Training Hub

Leonardo AI Complete Creator Workflow

Leonardo is easiest to use badly when you begin by browsing models. Begin with the asset instead. This workflow is designed to survive model changes because every stage answers a production question.

1. Write the brief before the prompt

Define the destination, audience, subject, message, visual role, format and what absolutely must remain recognizable. A cover needs title-safe space. A vertical campaign visual needs center-safe composition. A recurring artist needs identity anchors. A video start frame needs enough visual clarity to animate.

2. Ideate cheaply

Use Flow State, Realtime Canvas or straightforward generations to explore direction before demanding a final image. The goal is to discover composition and visual language. Do not change model, prompt, style, references and aspect ratio simultaneously; you will not know which decision helped.

3. Select the source master

Choose the generation that best solves the job, not the one with the most detail. Save the image, prompt and important references. For commercial or recurring work, also record the date and model family because platform behavior changes.

4. Diagnose instead of rerolling

• Identity failure: improve reference strategy or character anchor.
• Composition failure: adjust layout/camera rather than adding descriptive clutter.
• Object/detail failure: edit the object locally.
• Style failure: change style guidance while preserving content.
• Text failure: use a model suited to design/text or finish typography in a layout tool.

The principle is simple: change the smallest variable capable of solving the identified failure.

5. Add consistency at the correct level

For a single image, a good reference may be enough. For a sequence, use Image Guidance deliberately. For a recurring character, product or house style that must survive many projects, a trained Element can be justified. More persistent control adds setup cost, so match the method to the repetition requirement.

6. Finish the still before motion

Do not animate a face, hand, logo, prop or composition you already know is wrong. Clean the source image first. A video model will often magnify ambiguity rather than repair it.

7. Animate from anchors

Use the specialist Leonardo AI Video Guide when motion is the job. For continuity, use start/end frames, references and saved frames rather than treating each shot as an isolated text prompt. See Video Continuity.

8. Upscale only after selection

Upscaling is for delivery. Inspect faces, small text, repeating patterns, hard edges and areas where invented texture would be harmful. Then resize or move into Canva/Photoshop when the remaining job is typography, print layout or campaign assembly.

9. Export by destination

Keep a clean master and create derivatives for the actual channel. Do not force one crop into horizontal, square and vertical placements when the focal point or text-safe area does not survive.

10. Log the lesson

Completion test

You are done when the asset solves its job and you can explain how to reproduce the important parts. You are not done merely because the generation looks impressive.

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