Create a character

Overview

Characters are the cast of your comic. Once a character is saved, GenToon draws from that character’s reference art, which helps them look like the same person from panel to panel. Every account starts with GenToon’s mascot cat as a ready-made character (its name depends on the language you signed up in, for example “Gen Cat” in English), and you can add your own characters.

Create a character

Follow the real screens as you create a brand-new character from a description and save it to your characters.

Get started

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Where to find them

In the Studio, open the Create tab on the left and look in the Cast section to see and create characters. Your characters also appear in the My Characters tab on the Projects page.

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Three ways to make a character

Step by step

1. In the Studio’s Create tab on the left, click Add New Character. If you’ve selected a world in the Worlds section, you’ll see Add cast instead. Click it, and Add New Character is at the top of the list that opens.

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2. At the top, choose Upload Image, Photo → Character, or Generate with AI.

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3. For Upload Image, upload your drawing. For Photo → Character, upload a photo and pick an art style. For Generate with AI, pick an art style and describe the look in Character Description.

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4. Click Convert to Character or Generate with AI to get the art. This uses 13 credits and usually takes a few dozen seconds. If you don’t like the result and make it again with Reconvert or Regenerate, that uses credits again. Upload Image skips this step.

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5. When the art is ready, the Character Name field appears (Upload Image shows it from the start). Enter a name. You can’t reuse the name of a character you already have. You can add more about their look in the Character Description field below it, or leave it empty.

6. If you like the result, click Save to My Characters (or Add Character for Upload Image) to save it. The new character appears at the top of your list.

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Create one from the chat

In the web Studio, if a story you send in the agent chat mentions someone who isn’t one of your characters yet, Zennyang asks with a card whether to create them. Writing the description yourself or letting Zennyang draft it, and choosing an art style, are free. When you press the draw button that shows the credits, the character is drawn, and each character costs 13 credits. In the app, Zennyang may create people from your story right away without this card, and the same credits apply. You can also attach a photo and say “Create a character named Harin from this photo” (turning the photo into a drawing costs the same credits). See Start with a story and Upload reference images.

Put them in your comic

• Agent Mode — Mention a character by name in your story and they’re the one drawn. You can also pick them on the cast card.
• Single Panel — In the Single Panel tab on the right, click Select Characters to choose who appears in the panel. There’s a limit to how many characters fit in one image.

Edit and manage a character

In your character list, click Details to open that character’s tools.

• Appearance — A written description of how the character looks, used as a reference when drawing. Fill with AI only suggests a description based on the art, and nothing is saved until you click Save. Suggestions are free.
• Profile & personality — Rename the character and write their persona, like personality and way of speaking. It’s used when you chat with the character. If you turn on Allow chat with this character here, other people can chat with this character on your posts. Characters made in the agent chat may already have it turned on.
• Character Studio — Create looks with a different outfit, hairstyle, or age. See Character looks.
• Art style — See versions of this character drawn in different art styles.

Character limits and deleting

• When you hit the limit, you’ll see Character Limit Reached. Delete a character you no longer need to make room.
• Deleted characters go to the Trash, where you can restore them within 30 days. Characters in the Trash don’t count toward your limit, so you need a free slot to restore one. See Trash and restoring.

FAQ