Designing a character instead of uploading one
Design Dream Avatar on the Avatars screen builds an original character from a description — age bracket, ethnicity, hair, eyes, build, style — and saves it as a reusable face exactly like an uploaded photo. It exists for creators who need a consistent face in every thumbnail but do not want it to be theirs.
Typical users: faceless channels that still want a recognisable host, storytelling and fiction channels, agencies building a persona for a client, and anyone whose channel is anonymous by design.
The feature brief
The dialog is a set of dropdowns rather than a free-text prompt, because specific structured choices produce a far more repeatable character than a paragraph does:
| Field | Options |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female, Male, Non-binary |
| Age | 18+, 25+, 30+, 35+, 50+ |
| Ethnicity | African, East Asian, South Asian, Hispanic / Latino, Middle Eastern, White / European, Mixed |
| Hair | Colour (7 options) and style (10 options, including bald and buzz cut) |
| Eyes | Brown, Blue, Green, Hazel, Gray, Amber |
| Build | Slim, Athletic, Average, Curvy, Heavy |
| Style | Photorealistic, Cinematic, Stylized 3D, Anime, Illustrated |
| Facial hair / glasses | Optional |
| Notes | Free text for anything the dropdowns do not cover |
The result is a front-facing 1:1 portrait on a neutral studio background — the format that works best as a source face for thumbnail generation.
Previews are free — you only pay for the one you keep
Generating a preview does not charge your balance. The cost is only applied when you save the character. So iterate freely: change the hair, regenerate, change the style, regenerate. Pay once, for the one you actually keep.
Creating one
- Avatars → Design Dream Avatar.
- Name the character (up to 20 characters). Name it for its role — "Host", "Narrator", "Villain".
- Work down the feature list. Change one thing at a time rather than everything at once; that is how you learn which field moved the result.
- Add notes for anything specific: "warm smile", "freckles", "wearing a dark hoodie".
- Generate a preview. Not right? Adjust and regenerate — still free.
- Save. The credit charge lands now, and the character joins your saved faces.
Monthly allowance
AI character generation is capped per month by plan: Free none, Starter 3, Pro 20, Studio unlimited. The Avatars screen shows what is left ("2 of 3 left this month"). The counter is on generations, not saves.
Designing a character that works in thumbnails
- Distinct silhouette. Hair shape is the thing a viewer recognises at 168 pixels. A striking hairstyle does more work than perfect features.
- High-contrast colouring. A character who separates from your usual backgrounds is worth more than one who is objectively better-looking.
- Pick a style and hold it. Photorealistic and Anime are both fine; mixing them across a channel is not.
- Match the character to the content. A 50+ Documentary-styled narrator suits a history channel; a Stylized 3D character suits gaming. The character is part of your positioning.
- Design one, not five. A single recurring character builds recognition. Five characters is a cast, and casts need a reason.
What you can do with the character afterwards
A generated character behaves exactly like an uploaded face. It can be selected on the dashboard, swapped into an existing thumbnail, given a different expression, moved and resized, or popped out as a transparent cutout for reuse.
One rule
The generator is built to produce original fictional personas. Do not use it to recreate a real, identifiable person — a celebrity, a public figure, or someone who has not agreed to it. If you want a real person in your thumbnails, upload their photo with their permission.