Realistic consistent AI characters on $10-20/month: Flux dev + LoRA on RunPod
SomeCartographer4601 · reddit · 2026-10-05
A Mac user with no local GPU asks for the best stack to generate photorealistic, face-consistent fictional characters on a $10-20/month budget, sharing a detailed current setup.
Current approach
- Flux.1 dev in ComfyUI on a RunPod pod ($0.74/hr RTX-class GPU, shut down between sessions) with a network volume
- Face consistency via character LoRAs plus UltraRealPhoto at strength 1.0
- Best settings found: euler/simple, 28 steps, guidance 2.5, 896x1152, T5 fp16; dpmpp2m/karras dropped for blur and halos
Open questions
- Is Flux dev still the best pick for realistic faces at this budget, or is something better/cheaper available?
- What improves face realism most within a small budget: LoRA training, post-processing, film grain, upscaling?
The author also wants a stack that won't be censored later.
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