Photo to anime — still recognisably you
Upload one picture, pick how you want it drawn, and the photo to anime conversion redraws you as an illustration while your hair, glasses, clothes, pose and expression carry across.
Four different styles from the same portrait are published below — including what the model got wrong when we asked. The prompt is pre-filled here and printed in full further down.
Ready to create?
Enter a prompt on the left to start generating your AI image.
One portrait, redrawn in a single pass
Before and after
Honest disclosure: the person is not real. We generated the subject rather than photograph anyone, because running a stranger's face through a styliser to advertise a tool is not something we are willing to do. The conversion is a genuine run — same model, same prompt you get.
Three more styles from the same photo
Same face, different decade
What the photo to anime conversion will and will not do
One upload, one description, one pass. Everything here comes from the four runs above, including the parts that do not flatter the tool.
Name a sub-genre, not just “anime”
This is the most useful thing we learned. “Modern anime with large expressive eyes” came back near-photorealistic; “soft shoujo” produced the big glossy eyes on the first try. The model knows named styles far better than it knows adjectives, so say shoujo, shonen, 90s cel or chibi.
The style decides whether your background survives
The modern pass flattened a lit wall into plain colour; the cel and watercolour passes kept the window frame and the shadow across it. If the setting matters to your picture, favour the textured styles — or say “keep the background detail” explicitly.
You stay recognisable, which is the whole point
Glasses, hair length, garment and expression carried through all four runs. A photo to anime tool that returns a generic anime face has failed: the fun is seeing yourself drawn, not seeing somebody else.
Faces convert better than crowds
One person, head-and-shoulders, facing the camera is the easy case for a photo to anime pass. Group shots, hands near the face and busy backgrounds are where any illustration model starts inventing detail, and where you will spend the most credits re-rolling.
No named studio styles
We will not point this at a specific studio's house look, and the prompt does not name one. Those styles are somebody's trademarked property, several of the studios involved have said plainly what they think of AI imitation, and the traffic is not worth it. Describe the visual qualities you want instead — it works just as well.
It draws, it does not animate
You get one still illustration. A photo to anime conversion draws a frame; turning that frame into motion is a separate job, and our image-to-video tool is where it happens.
Runs in the browser, nothing to install
Upload, describe, generate, download — laptop or phone, no app store detour. Free credits on signup cover several styles on one photo before you decide whether to buy more.
The exact photo to anime prompt, published
Most tools here hide the instruction and sell you the button. Ours is pre-filled above and printed in full, because the wording is most of the product.
What we send
"Redraw this photo as a modern anime illustration: clean dark line art, large expressive eyes with highlights, flat cel shading with soft gradients, and simplified hair drawn in distinct clumps rather than individual strands. Keep the same person recognisable — same hairstyle and length, same glasses, same jumper and colour, same pose, same expression, same background colour. Do not change their age, ethnicity or face shape, and do not add text or a watermark."
Rewrite the first sentence, keep the rest
The opening sentence names the style; everything after it is the guard rail that keeps you looking like you. Delete the guard rail and the photo to anime pass drifts into a generic character with your jumper on.
Describe line, colour and shading separately
Line weight, palette and shading method are three independent dials. “Thin clean lines, muted palette, flat cel shading” is a real instruction; “anime style” is a wish. Our four photo to anime runs differ almost entirely in those three phrases.
Ask for what to keep
“Keep the glasses” and “keep the background detail” both work, and both matter — the glasses because models like removing them, the background because the flatter styles will erase it without being asked.
Why publishing the prompt is the point
Paste it into any capable image model and you get a comparable result — we are not pretending otherwise. What we add is the upload, the pre-filled instruction, a model already chosen for the job, the credits, and the four honest comparisons above.
Photo to anime at a glance
measured across our runs
~20s
published from one photo
4 styles
published, not hidden
Prompt
credits on signup
Free
Photo to anime — FAQ
Practical answers, including the things this cannot do.
How do I make my photo look like anime?
Upload one picture, name the style you want, and the model redraws it. Naming a sub-genre — shoujo, 90s cel, shonen — gets you far closer than the word “anime” on its own, which is the clearest thing our four test runs showed.
Is the photo to anime converter free?
Free credits on signup, no card required, and one render costs a few credits — enough for several styles on the same picture. After that it is pay-as-you-go, and credit packs do not expire.
Will I still look like me?
That is what the guard rail in the published prompt is for, and you can judge it against the four photo to anime runs above rather than trusting us. Glasses, hair length, clothing and expression carried through every one.
Which anime style should I pick?
Shoujo for big glossy eyes and pastel softness, 90s cel for grain and heavier ink, ink-and-watercolour for something closer to a painted portrait. The modern photo to anime pass is the most photorealistic of the four, which surprised us.
Can you do a specific studio's style?
No, and we will not add it. Those looks are trademarked, the studios have been clear about how they feel about AI imitation, and naming one is a legal problem rather than a feature. Describe the qualities — line weight, palette, shading — and you get most of the way there.
What kind of photo works best?
One person, head-and-shoulders, facing the camera, evenly lit, and the largest file you have. Group shots and hands near the face are where any illustration model starts inventing.
Does the picture come back the same shape?
Yes, and it is worth saying because it is not automatic. Left alone, image models return their own default aspect ratio and quietly re-crop you — we hit exactly that while building this page, so the frame is pinned to your upload.
Which model does it run on?
Nano Banana 2 by default, driven by the published prompt. GPT Image 2 is also available and fails differently — worth a few credits on both if one style disappoints.
Can I turn a video into anime?
Not here — one still at a time. Keeping a drawn style consistent across moving frames is much harder than a single photo to anime pass, and a flickering result is worse than none. Convert the still first, then animate it.
Can I use the result commercially?
Paid plans cover commercial use of what you generate. What no plan grants is a right to someone else's likeness — if the face is not yours, ask before you publish them as a character.
Run the photo to anime conversion on your own picture
Upload one photo, name a style, and see yourself drawn in about twenty seconds. Free credits on signup — a real result before you pay for anything.