A meridian instrument does one thing supremely well: it fixes a line, and then every observation is taken against that line. A transit card does the same for a character. Described fresh at every job, she is re-sighted by mood each time, and every re-sighting moves her a little. Written once and kept at the instrument, she is sighted a single time — and every tool in the studio observes against the same fixed line.
The card holds five observations in fixed order. Age, a plain number. Hair — colour, length, one habitual style. Build in two or three words. Face — one or two enduring details. Signature — the detail that survives a tight crop. Below the observations, the day’s line: outfit, room, hour, light — expected to change with every sitting.
Paste the card word for word at the head of every prompt. Generate at the standard 6 credits, keep the best third, and let repairs, swaps and upscales touch only what has been sighted against the card and passed.
A fixed line does not limit the observations. It is what makes them comparable — frame to frame, tool to tool, month to month.