Characters: Write One, Illustrate It, Talk to It
A walkthrough of the Characters app: write a character from one line, add portraits, expressions and scenes, chat in character, and import or export cards.
Yantra Team3 min read
On this page
A good character is a name, a voice, a face and a reason to keep talking. Characters builds all four in one studio, then lets you chat with the result.
Open the studio
Pick Characters in the apps launcher, or say "Make me a sarcastic vampire detective character I can chat with." The studio opens beside your chat and carries its own conversation, because in here you talk to the character, not to the assistant.
The studio is organised under Discover, Library, Productions and Books. Create starts a new Character, and the same menu also offers Scene, Voice, Lorebook, Streams, Comics and Podcast.
Write one
A new character has two tabs: Write one and Import. Write one asks a single question, Who are they? Answer in a line or a paragraph and the AI drafts the character. Tick Also write a lorebook to get four to eight world entries alongside it.
The draft lands in an editor with four tabs:
- Identity: Name, Tagline, Tags, Rating and a Mature (18+) switch.
- Story: Description, Scenario, Greeting and Alternate greetings. The greeting is the opening message, and
{{user}}and{{char}}are filled in for you. - Personality: Personality and Example dialogue.
- Advanced: Creator notes, System prompt and Post-history instructions.
Changes save as you type.
Give them a face
Open the character and go to Media. Portrait paints the main image. Sprites generates expressions, and stays disabled until a portrait exists, because the sprites reference it. Scene paints a setting and Video renders a clip. In the create flow the same steps read Generate portrait, Expression sprites and Scene art, with results under Generated media.
The Writing tab produces longer pieces about the character: Backstory, Creation story, Intro post, Short bio and Announcement. Ask "Create an avatar and full backstory for my D&D tiefling rogue" and both arrive.
Talk to them
The chat composer has four buttons. Suggest offers what to say next. Picture and Video illustrate the moment, using what you have typed if anything. Action wraps your line in asterisks so it reads as something you do, not something you say. Turn on Picture each reply for an illustrated conversation, or Read replies aloud to hear it.
Settings cover Reply length, Writing style, Your persona, Memory, a Diary, Past chats and New chat. Rewind to here takes the story back to an earlier message. Any generated picture can be set as the chat background. Every conversation carries a reminder that this is AI and not a real person.
Bring characters in, take them out
On the Import tab, paste a link under From a URL: a chub.ai or pygmalion.chat character page, or a direct link to a card PNG or JSON. From character.ai takes a character id or URL and your own session token. It uses an unofficial API, at your own risk, and full definitions only come back for characters your account owns.
Under Publish & Export, download a Card PNG, V2 JSON or V3 JSON. The PNG carries the card inside the image, so apps that read the SillyTavern card format import it directly.
On your desktop
In the desktop app, the active character appears beside replies in the floating bar, with its expression sprites. Assign characters under Character Slots in the bar settings. Slots run from 1 to 9, and the starred slot becomes your default at startup. Cmd+Option+1 to 9 switch slots on a Mac, and Ctrl+Alt with the number does the same elsewhere. On a Mac the shortcuts need Accessibility permission.
Two ready-made characters are available as extensions: Aria, a friendly guide, and Seraphina, with 28 emotion sprites, 115 presets, 23 background scenes and 5 UI themes.
What it is not
General image or video generation with no character behind it belongs on Canvas. A book with chapters and scenes belongs in Novel, which can send its cast here to be chatted with. A voice for narration or dubbing is Voicebox. Questions about real people are answered in chat.