Character avatars (different looks)

Most characters get rendered the same way across every page — that's the point of defining a character once. But sometimes the same character needs to look meaningfully different in different scenes: a hero in their costume vs. their civilian clothes, a teenager flashing back to childhood, a noble in court robes vs. travel gear.

That's what avatars are for. Each character can have up to 5 avatars (alternate looks). The face and body proportions stay locked to the parent character; the avatar swaps everything else — outfit, accessories, hair styling, mood.

Where to manage avatars

Avatars are managed per issue, from the issue editor's Characters tab — not from the create-comic wizard. The wizard is for defining the cast; avatars are a refinement you add when an issue actually needs a costume swap.

To open the editor:

1. Open an issue (/dashboard/comics/[id]/issues/[issueId]).
2. Click the Characters tab in the ribbon.
3. Find the character tile and click the Avatars button (it carries a count of the looks the character already has). The pencil icon and the mini-thumbs along the bottom of the tile image open the same place.

This opens the Edit Cast Member modal. It's tabbed: the Default tab is the character themselves, and each look gets its own tab beside it. On a narrow screen — a phone, or a small window — the tabs collapse into a dropdown so they don't run off the edge.

Adding a new avatar

Inside the modal:

1. Click + Add Avatar. A new tab opens.
2. Fill in Name (e.g., Superhero costume, Civilian clothes, Court robes).
3. Write a Description of the look — be specific about colors, fabrics, era. The face and body proportions stay locked to the parent character automatically.
4. Optionally upload a Reference image to anchor the look.
5. Click Save and Generate.

The modal stays open and shows the look's preview pane while the image generates in the background, so you can keep working on the other tabs. Adding an avatar costs 10 credits, the same flat cost as any character image.

You can set up several looks in one visit — each tab you've edited is saved together, and the button totals the credits for all of them before you click.

Or ask Sidekick

You don't have to open the modal yourself. In the script editor you can ask Sidekick for a new look — "give Maya a younger look", "add a battle-armor look for Kai", "make the hero look older for the flashback". Sidekick drafts the look (a name and a description), then shows a New looks card. You click Start, review the pre-filled look in the character editor, and hit Save & Generate — the same 10-credit generation. Sidekick can set up several looks in one go. The character has to exist first; if it's not in your cast yet, Sidekick will add the character before adding the look.

Editing an avatar

Click the look's tab in the modal. The form loads with that look's current values. Edit name, description, or reference image, then click Save and Regenerate — this saves the new values AND triggers a fresh image-generation pass using the updated description. The button shows the credit cost (10 credits) so you know what the regen will charge.

If you only want to keep the text edits without spending credits on a new image, click Save instead.

To delete a look, open its tab and click × Remove this avatar at the bottom of the form. The tab disappears immediately; the look is deleted for good when you save.

Picking which avatar shows on the character tile

The tile's main image defaults to the character's original portrait. Click any avatar's mini-thumb in the strip along the bottom of the tile to swap the tile's image to that look; the active one is highlighted. This is a viewing preference only — it doesn't persist across page reloads, and it does not change how the character is drawn on your pages. What a page renders is controlled per panel — see below.

Limits and cost

• Up to 5 avatars per character, on top of the original portrait.
• No limit on regenerations — regenerate as many times as you like.
• Cost: 10 credits per avatar generation or regeneration, the flat rate for every entity image. The button always shows the cost before you click.

How avatars affect page generation

Which look a character is drawn in is decided per panel. In the panel editor, each character in the panel's cast has a look picker on their name chip: leave it on Default and the character's original portrait is used as the reference, or pick one of their looks to use that instead. The same picker appears on the cover and back-cover forms.

A panel set to a look uses that look's own description as well as its image, so give each look a description that stands on its own rather than one that only makes sense as a diff against the original.

Changing a panel's look affects the next render of that page — pages already drawn don't change until you re-render them.

You can also ask Sidekick to apply a look to specific pages — "use Maya's younger look on pages 4 to 6". Referencing a look only changes what the next render of those pages uses; the pages already drawn don't change until you re-render them, so Sidekick will tell you which pages to re-render (that spends credits, so it asks first).

What avatars don't do

• They don't change the character's name. The name in the synopsis still maps to the parent character.
• They don't change the flat per-image cost. One character with 5 avatars pays the 10-credit cost separately for each avatar generated or regenerated — see character costs per issue.
• They don't transfer between series. Avatars belong to the character; the character belongs to its series.

Updated on: 17/08/2026