Photo to anime, and
it still looks like you.
Not a one-pass anime filter that hands you a stranger. A locked character reference built from your face — so the anime version is recognisably you, and stays you across every image after it.
One free portrait a week, no account. Comics from $9.99/mo.
By the TaleAtelier Editorial Team — last reviewed
See yourself as an anime character — free
Upload a photo and get an anime version that still looks like you — or two photos for one picture of both of you. No account, nothing to install, about a minute.
One photo in. The same you, every time.
These five were generated separately, against one locked reference built from the photo on the left. Compare the nose bridge, the jawline and the hairline across all five — that is what the reference holds, and it is the part a one-pass filter loses.
Why one-click filters give you a stranger
A filter takes your photo and restyles it in a single pass. The trouble is that anime has its own visual grammar — simplified noses, large eyes, flat shading — and applying it pulls every face toward the same face. The result is usually a nice anime picture of nobody in particular.
People who have solved this properly do it by training a small model on their own face and wiring it through ControlNet in ComfyUI. It works. It also needs a decent GPU, a free weekend and a tolerance for node graphs, which is why the answer in most threads is followed by someone asking whether there is an easier way.
We build a character reference from your photo first, lock it, and generate every image against it. Same idea as training a model on your face, with nothing to install and about a minute of waiting.
What you get
- One ~2K PNG, yours to download.
- One or two people in a single image — two separate photos, one result.
- About a minute. Sometimes two.
- One free portrait per week, with no account.
- After that, 100 credits an image — the $9.99 Starter plan is 2,000 credits, so 20 images.
- Personal use is free. Commercial use is included on any paid plan.
- Your photo is processed in the EU and never used to train models.
What makes a good photo to start from
The reference is only as good as what it can see. Front-lit, in focus, with your face taking up a decent part of the frame and your eyes visible. A phone selfie by a window is plenty — none of this needs a real camera.
The same character, in a comic or a webtoon
Once a face is locked, it holds across a whole story rather than a single picture. Comic pages come out at 1664 × 2496 and export as PDF, CBZ or a print-ready file. Webtoon episodes are built from 800 × 1280 units stacked into one vertical scroll — the size WEBTOON Canvas and Tapas accept per slice.
The free preview above gives you a cover and a first page, with a cast of up to two, and no account. Beyond that a story runs from four pages to four hundred with a cast of up to six, at 100 credits a page.
Two people, one picture
Upload two photos and you get one image with both people in it, each face held to its own reference — so you both look like yourselves rather than like siblings. An anniversary, a wedding, a duo avatar. It is a 2K digital file you can print yourself; we do not ship prints.
A different face, the same test
Anime styling flattens age first — lines, texture and the set of an older face are exactly what gets smoothed away. Same process, harder input.
When to use which tool
| Tool | Try without an account | Keeps your face | Same character again | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TaleAtelier | Yes — one free image, no account | Locked character reference | Same character across many images | Free, then 100 credits an image |
| Canva | Account required | One-pass filter | No | Credits on a paid plan |
| Fotor | Yes, watermarked | One-pass filter | No | Free with watermark, or paid |
| Anifun | Yes — no account | One-pass filter | No | Free |
| ComfyUI + a personal LoRA | Free, if you have the hardware | Best available — you trained it | Yes | A GPU and a weekend |
If you want one anime picture to post today and you do not care whether it looks like you, Anifun or Fotor will do it in a second and cost nothing. The reason to be here is that you want the result to be recognisably you, or you want that same character again tomorrow.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account?
Not to try it. You get one free anime portrait a week with no sign-up, and you can download it. After that an image costs 100 credits — the $9.99 Starter plan is 2,000 credits, which is 20 images. Nothing asks for a card before you have seen a result.
Why doesn't my result look like me?
Almost always the photo. A backlit shot, a blurred one, or a face taking up a small part of the frame gives the system very little to build a reference from, and a weak reference produces a generic face. Try again with a front-lit photo where your eyes are clearly visible — that fixes most cases.
What size will my image be, and can I use it as a profile picture?
It comes out as a ~2K portrait-shaped PNG. Discord, Instagram and WhatsApp all crop a circle from whatever you upload, so keep your face near the middle and let the platform do the resizing — upload the full-size file rather than shrinking it first. If you want a square specifically, crop it yourself after downloading.
How is this different from an anime filter?
A filter restyles the pixels of your photo in one pass, so the result is your photograph wearing an anime coat of paint. This builds a character reference from your face first and then draws a new image against it. That extra step is the reason the result still looks like you, and it is also why it takes about a minute rather than a second.
Can it convert a video?
No — still images only. If you need video, Domo.ai, Kaiber and Runway do that specifically. You can always take a clear frame out of your video and upload that as a photo.
What happens to my photo?
It is stored on EU servers (Paris, AWS eu-west-3), used only to generate your image, and never used to train AI models — that is a contractual restriction on us and on our inference providers, not just a policy. Anonymous portraits are deleted after 24 hours.
Can I use the image commercially?
Yes, on any paid plan. One thing worth knowing: as of 2026, work generated entirely by AI cannot be registered for copyright in the US, so you can sell and publish the image but you cannot stop someone else from using it. Most people never hit this; it matters if you are building a brand on one character.
Related
- Photo to manga — the same thing in black and white, with screentone.
- Photo to comic — Western comic styles rather than anime.
- How character consistency works — the reference lock explained in more depth.
- Webtoon maker — if the vertical scroll format is what you came for.