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The quality of a custom avatar depends almost entirely on the source image. Follow these guidelines to get lifelike results that render cleanly across expressions, angles, and lighting.

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Technical Specifications

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Composition

1

Front-facing pose

The subject should look directly into the camera. Small head tilts are okay; profile shots are not.
2

Neutral or gentle expression

A closed-mouth smile or relaxed neutral expression works best. Avoid open-mouth laughs, exaggerated expressions, or eyes closed.
3

Head and shoulders visible

Frame the subject from the mid-chest up. Leave a small margin above the head: don’t crop the top of the head.
4

Uncluttered background

Use a plain, evenly-lit background. Avoid busy patterns, other faces, or high-contrast objects behind the subject.

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Lighting

  • Even, diffuse light across the face. Soft natural light near a window is ideal.
  • Avoid hard shadows on one side of the face, from a hat brim, or under the eyes.
  • No direct back-lighting: the subject should be brighter than the background.
  • No colored gels or dramatic lighting effects.

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Face and Features

  • Face fully visible: no sunglasses, no face masks, no obstructions.
  • Standard glasses are okay but reflective glare on the lenses can cause artifacts.
  • Hair should not cover the eyes or eyebrows.
  • Facial hair is fine: beards, mustaches, stubble all render well.
    Dense or unusually styled facial hair sometimes doesn’t reproduce perfectly — expect minor variation around beard edges and mustache detail.
  • Makeup is fine: extreme theatrical makeup may reduce realism.
  • No facial tattoos: tattoos on the face don’t render reliably and can distort the generated likeness.

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Camera and Quality

  • Sharp focus on the eyes. Blur anywhere on the face will carry into the avatar.
  • No heavy filters or beauty smoothing: over-processed skin loses the texture Huma-2 needs to render naturally.
  • Avoid heavy compression artifacts: export at high quality if resaving.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Group photos or multiple faces in the frame
  • Selfies with distortion from ultra-wide phone lenses (stand back and zoom in instead)
  • Cartoon avatars, AI-generated portraits, or heavily stylized illustrations (unless that’s the intent)
  • Old low-resolution photos scaled up
  • Images with watermarks or logos over the face
  • Objects obstructing the face or upper body — laptops, cameras, microphones, phones, or hands held up in front of the subject
Only upload photos you have the legal right to use.
  • For your own face, no additional permission is needed.
  • For someone else’s face, obtain their explicit written consent before creating an avatar.
  • Do not create avatars of public figures, celebrities, or minors without proper authorization.
Uploading a photo of another person without their consent may violate privacy laws in your jurisdiction and is against TruGen’s terms of service.
An internal guardrail screens every upload before generation. Images of public figures, celebrities, or content that appears to be copyrighted (recognizable movie/TV/game characters, licensed artwork, etc.) will be rejected and the avatar generation request will fail.

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What’s Next?

Create a Custom Avatar

Ready to upload? Follow the creation flow.

Avatar Gallery

Prefer to use a stock avatar? Browse the gallery.