Make a ped from a picture

How it works

The Ped Creator can start from one picture. It first turns the picture into a 3D model, then you rig, preview and build it like an uploaded model.

• In Source, switch Start from to Image, upload the picture and pick Model quality.
• Press Generate 3D model. After about 2 minutes the model is in your draft, and the first free preview starts on its own.
• Adjust and preview for free, then build for 2,500 credits.

• Medium

  3D model:1,250
  Build:2,500
  Total:3,750

• High

  3D model:2,500
  Build:2,500
  Total:5,000

The credits for the model are held when it starts and charged only when it succeeds.

A picture that works

The Ped Creator turns one picture into one character. The drop zone names the rules: one person, full body, front view, plain background, PNG or JPG up to 20 MB.

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1. 11. Model quality: Medium or High
2. 22. Redraw into A-pose first: arms apart before the 3D step
3. 33. Notes for the generator: optional, up to 500 characters

• Head to feet in the frame, nothing cut off. Feet that are missing in the picture come back as a guess.
• Standing and facing the camera. The pose can be an everyday one: arms at the sides, hands in the pockets, crossed arms or a wide stance. The A-pose redraw moves the arms away from the body and the feet to hip width.
• Arms that are already a little apart need the fewest redraw tries. A three-quarter view worked in our tests.
• A plain or simple background. Other people or objects in the picture can end up in the model.
• Drawings, renders and photos all work. Clear shapes and colours give the cleanest model.
• WebP and other formats are refused. Save the picture as PNG or JPG first.

You can replace the picture with Replace on its card until the generation starts.

Model quality

Model quality decides how much detail the Ped Creator puts into the 3D model. Medium is the default. The line under the buttons describes the one you picked:

• Medium

  Credits:1,250
  The editor says:Clean detail for most characters. The usual choice.

• High

  Credits:2,500
  The editor says:Most detail, sharpest textures. Best for a ped you want to show off.

Medium is the usual choice. High pays off when the face and small details of the clothing matter.

Redraw into A-pose first

Redraw into A-pose first redraws your picture with the arms apart before the Ped Creator makes the 3D model. It is on by default.

The redraw checks its own result. Both arms have to stand clearly off the body without being raised to shoulder height, the feet may be at most a little wider than the hips, and head, hands and feet have to be inside the picture. When a check fails, it draws again with a stricter instruction, up to two more times, and keeps the best try. A character it does not recognise as a human body, such as a creature, is taken as drawn.

Arms held level, as in a T-pose, push the shoulders up, and the model keeps them too wide. The redraw lowers such arms. Only when the arms keep touching the body does the last try ask for a T-pose, because an armpit grown into the body is worse than wide shoulders. For a picture of the whole body, the Ped Creator also measures the shoulder width in your picture and places the shoulder joints at that width, up to 10 % wider. This holds when you correct other joints or use Mirror; a shoulder joint you move yourself stays where you put it.

In our latest tests three of five pictures passed on the first try, and the second try fixed the other two.

Arms that still touch the body grow into it in the model. The Ped Creator finds such a grown-together armpit and cuts it free on its own, so the side of the body no longer follows the arm. The cut gets a plain patch in the colour of the clothing. Up close you can spot it under a raised arm.

Leave it on. Turn it off only when your picture already shows the arms clearly apart from the body. With the redraw on, the generated model's page also shows the redrawn picture.

When all three tries fail a check, the Ped Creator goes on with the best one and says so under 3D model ready. The note stays with the draft.

• The arms were redrawn level with the shoulders (T-pose).

  The shoulders in the preview. If they look too wide, use a picture with the arms a little away from the body and pointing down.

• The arms still touched the body after redrawing.

  The armpits in the preview. Where arms grew into the body they were cut free. If it looks off, use a picture with a little space between arms and body.

• The legs are still spread wide after redrawing.

  The joints in the preview. If they look off, use a picture with the feet about hip-width apart.

• Part of the body was cut off at the edge of the redrawn picture.

  Hands and feet in the preview. If something is missing, use a picture with some space around the whole body.

Notes for the generator

Notes for the generator is an optional text box in the Ped Creator, up to 500 characters. Use it for what the picture does not show clearly.

The example in the box is e.g. green skin, torn purple shorts, barefoot. Short visual words work better than sentences. The notes guide the 3D model; the A-pose redraw does not read them.

Generating the model

Once the picture is in, the footer of the Ped Creator shows the price of both paid steps. At Medium it reads “1,250 credits now”, with “+ 2,500 at build” on the right. Press Generate 3D model to start.

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1. 11. credits now: the model now, the build later
2. 22. Generate 3D model: the paid step on this path

• The run takes about 2 minutes. The pill says Generating model with a percentage, and the card names the stage: Redrawing into a clean pose, then Building the 3D model.
• You can close the page. The model lands in your draft, and in My assets as Ped model.
• When the model is ready, the editor names the ped sws_ped, unless you named it already, and starts the first preview.
• A failed run shows We couldn't turn the picture into a model and charges nothing. Generate 3D model is available again.

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1. 11. Stage: Redrawing into a clean pose, then Building the 3D model

With too few credits the footer says how many you need and have, for example “You need 1,250 credits, you have 300.” Top up next to it opens the credit options.

After the model is ready

Once the model is in, the Ped Creator treats it like an uploaded one. The Source step says “3D model ready. Edit and preview it for free, you only pay again when you build.”

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1. 11. 3D model ready: edit and preview for free

• Generated models are dense: about 150,000 triangles at Medium and 240,000 at High, ten to sixteen times a vanilla ped. Lower the budgets in Parts step by step until the shape starts to suffer, then go one step back.
• Remove hidden layers does nothing on them, because body and clothes are one surface.
• Check Height under the view. If it jumped far above the height you set, the arms were fused; check the shoulder and arm joints in Skeleton.
• Hands that hung next to the clothing in the picture can pull the clothing edge along. Look at the hips from behind in the Rigged view.

The generated model also stays in My assets as Ped model. Its page offers Continue in the Ped Creator, which reopens the draft.