Locations

A location is a specific place in your story, such as a dock, a rooftop cafe or a kitchen, with a reference image that ComicInk sends along when it renders a page or a video scene. That keeps the place looking the same every time it appears.

Locations work the same way in comics and in videos. Open the Locations tab in the left rail of the editor to see them all.

What a location has

• Name and Description — what the place is and how it looks.
• Reference image (optional) — a photo or sketch you upload to guide the look.
• Main image — the generated image the location is anchored to.
• Variants — up to 3 other versions of the same place, for example at night, in the rain or in ruins. Click Add Variant in the location editor and describe how this version differs: time of day, weather, damage, season.

Credits

Each image costs 10 credits to generate, both when you create it and each time you regenerate it. If you press Generate again while an image is already generating, you are not charged twice.

An uploaded reference photo is deleted 2 hours after upload, so ComicInk doesn't keep your original. Until then you can regenerate with it as often as you like.

Making a variant the main image

To use a variant everywhere instead of the main image, open its tab in the location editor and click ★ Make default. The previous main image is kept as a variant, named Original or the location's previous look name, so you can switch back. You can also ask Sidekick.

Bringing back an earlier picture

A regenerated location keeps its previous picture. Click Undo on the new picture right after it's drawn, or click the clock button on the picture in the location editor to see every earlier version and Revert to one. It's free, works for variants too, and you can also ask Sidekick. See bringing back an earlier picture.

Putting a location on a panel or scene

On a comic panel or a video scene, click + Location and pick a location, or one of its variants. The image you chose is sent as a reference when the page or scene is rendered.

When a location has no image yet

Comic pages and video scenes both wait for a location's image. If a panel or scene uses a location that has no image, it won't render until that image exists, so you aren't charged for a picture that ignores the place.

• In the editor, Sidekick opens a card offering to generate the missing location image (10 credits). Once it's ready, the page or scene renders automatically.
• If a panel or scene uses a variant that has no image of its own, the location's main image is used instead. The page or scene only waits when the main image is missing too. A variant that has its own image is enough, even if the main image isn't generated yet.
• Generate All waits too. If any page it would render uses a location with no image, Sidekick opens the same card first, and the pages start rendering once the art is ready. The location images are charged separately (10 credits each). The Generate All price covers only the pages and character portraits. A Generate All started from the iOS app doesn't wait: those pages render without the location reference.
• The one exception is Sidekick's Use my free renders button. Your free renders still draw a page whose location has no image yet, just without the location reference.
• The iOS app doesn't have a Locations editor yet. If a page there is waiting on a location's image, open the comic on the ComicInk website and generate it from the Locations tab.

Created for you from scripts

When you generate a comic script on the web, ComicInk creates locations for places that appear on 2 or more different pages, up to 6 new locations per script, starting with the places used most. A place that only appears on one page, even across several panels, doesn't become a location. Locations you already have are reused and don't count toward the 6.

New locations start without images, so generate them from the Locations tab or from Sidekick's card. Pages that use one wait until it has an image.

In a video script, locations are created for places used in 2 or more scenes. Scripts generated in the iOS app don't create locations.

Sidekick and locations

Sidekick can create, edit and delete locations (it asks for your approval before deleting), add variants, set which location a panel is in, and make a variant the default. Try: "put panel 2 on page 1 at the Dock at night" or "give the Dock a rainy variant".

Locations vs worlds

A world is a series-wide setting reference, described in Worlds and settings. A location is a specific place with its own image and variants that you pick on an individual panel or scene. To decide where a particular panel takes place, use a location.

Updated on: 21/10/2026