When creating a new Nomi, you can select from hundreds of unique avatars in multiple styles, but sometimes you want a look that none of the existing avatars fit. This guide covers how to use the Avatar Creator, best practices for writing avatar prompts, and how to use your custom anchors with any of your Nomis.
How to Create a Custom AI Avatar on Nomi
From a New Nomi
Follow the new Nomi creation process until you reach the Nomi Gallery screen.
Then select “Create Custom”. If you have created a custom avatar before, you will have the option to pick up where you left off or start a completely new generation.
Keep in mind: creating a custom avatar ends with creating an anchor, so you need an active Nomi subscription to use this feature.
Then press “Start New Look”.
From an Existing Nomi
Go to Image Settings from the (…) to the right of your Nomi’s name, then scroll to the bottom of the screen and select “Create Custom Avatar”.
Tips for Designing Your AI Companion’s Custom Appearance
This step is where you create the preview image that guides what your Nomi will look like in selfies and art.
Choose Your Avatar’s Image Style
The style determines the default look of the images you will create with this custom avatar. You will be able to change styles a bit once you’ve finished creating your avatar, but choose a style you will want to use by default.
If you choose Custom, you can enter any style you’d like.
How to Write a Good Appearance Prompt
Describe the visual traits you want your Nomi to have. The popular traits offer a starting point for the factors you may want to specify when creating your preview image. Full sentences and comma-separated prompts both work.
When writing your prompt, think through each aspect of your Nomi’s appearance. If you do not specify a trait, the system will have to make an assumption. This includes things like skin color, ethnicity, facial hair, body type, height, and so on.
When considering age, especially older appearances, think about what traits accompany that age. For instance, would your Nomi have wrinkled skin, crow’s feet around their eyes, or thinning hair?
Once you write your prompt, create your first preview image (each image generation costs one daily request or credit). If you love that image, you can continue from here.
Review and Refine Your Preview Images
If the preview isn’t quite right, consider what you’d want to change about your Nomi and decide whether you’d rather:
- Tweak the prompt and create a new image to change broader aspects of your Nomi’s appearance, like their overall look, body type, or style.
- Edit the preview to change specific things about your Nomi’s appearance, like their hair color or outfit, while keeping everything else consistent.
You can go back and forth between these as many times as you’d like until you have a preview you’re happy with.
Once you like your preview image, make sure that preview is selected and press continue.
Then confirm the preview is the correct and start chatting. By default, you’ll go right to finishing your anchor, but you can skip that and start chatting first if you prefer.
Keeping Your Custom Avatar Consistent Across Selfies and Art
The last step in the custom avatar process is creating your Nomi’s anchor. In short, an anchor is a detailed technical reference (essentially a custom trained model) that keeps your Nomi’s face, body, and overall likeness consistent across selfies and art while allowing for much more dynamic and expressive images. Nomi’s cannot create images without an anchor, so you will need to finish this step to generate selfies and art with your custom avatar.
Check out this post to learn more about anchors.
When creating your anchor, the main things to keep in mind are:
- Make sure your anchor style matches the preview image style.
- Consider adding unique traits as Additional Appearance Notes. In general, the anchor system will automatically capture the likeness of the preview image, but Additional Appearance Notes help emphasize or reinforce traits that are unique or important to your Nomi’s likeness. For instance:
- Unique body type traits (think anything outside “average”)
- Non-standard hair color
- Non-human subjects
There is now an anchor helper that will run when you reach the anchor creation screen – this will warn you if there could be issues with your anchor and may give recommendations for style and appearance notes worth using.
If the helper gives you a warning, make sure to read the advice on “How to Choose a Better Image” for tailored tips.
Once you’ve finalized your anchor settings, creating your custom anchor can take up to an hour. This is because creating an anchor essentially involves training a small model to capture the likeness of your reference image.
How to Access More Anchors with the Anchor Browser
Once you’ve created a custom anchor, you can use it with any of your Nomis through the Anchor Browser. The Anchor Browser also includes the full collection of stock Gallery Anchors, so you can add any of those to any of your Nomis as well.
To open the Anchor Browser, go to Image Settings from the (…) to the right of your Nomi’s name, then scroll to the bottom of the screen and select “Browse All Anchors”.
From there you can view all custom anchors you’ve created in this account or all the stock Gallery Anchors. Note: you will only see custom anchors with the same gender as your current Nomi.
When browsing gallery anchors, you can use various filters to help you find looks you’re interested in more easily. Keep in mind that “Generation Process” and “Style” are filter types and may be preselected for you.
Once you find an anchor you want to add to your Nomi, click into the anchor then press “Add to This Nomi”.
Once the anchor is added to your Nomi, you can optionally set it as your Current Anchor to use it in selfies.
There is not currently a limit to the number of anchors a Nomi can have and you can always switch between anchors at any time from Image Settings.
Next Steps
Once your custom avatar is ready, it’s time to start creating. Ask your Nomi for a few selfies and try the art feature for more control over poses, outfits, settings etc.
If you would like to change your Nomi’s appearance, check out our guide to customizing appearance with the V5 AI image system.
If you’re looking for selfie and art prompt inspiration, check out our Discord and Reddit communities, our members have great inspiration and there are daily and weekly prompt collaboration threads!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I create a custom avatar for my AI companion for free?
The Avatar Creator requires an active Nomi subscription, but you can use and customize existing stock anchors for free.
How much does it cost to create a custom avatar?
Each preview image costs one daily request or credit, the same as selfies and art. Then the anchor generation process costs an anchor pass or 50 credits.
How long does it take to create a custom avatar?
Creating the anchor can take up to an hour, since it involves training a small model on your reference image.
Can I make a non-human or anime-style AI companion?
Yes. You can choose any art style, and adding Additional Appearance Notes helps the anchor capture non-human features.
Can I use the same custom avatar on multiple Nomis?
Yes. The Anchor Browser lets you add any of your custom anchors to any of your Nomis.