#Bodies, clothing and looks

#Quick build and Detailed

The sidebar has two modes, switched at its top. The app remembers which one you use.

Quick build is the guided mode, and where new visitors start. You build a character by tapping options, and it updates as you go.

• Summary: a sentence at the top describes the character in plain words: "An athletic 35-year-old African man in a business suit, with cornrows and a short beard." Each highlighted word jumps to the step that changes it.
• Steps:
  1. Body: gender, age, build and height.
  2. Heritage: African, Asian, Caucasian or mixed. This also sets the skin, face and eye colour.
  3. Outfit: 28 styles, from everyday wear and suits to uniforms, traditional dress, warriors and beachwear. Each has a picture.
  4. Colours: fabric and colours for whatever the outfit lets you change, plus a custom colour.
  5. Hair & face: hairstyle, hair colour, facial hair, eyes and expression.
  6. Extras: glasses, hats, jewellery, earrings, tattoos, a bag and something to hold.
  7. Action: play an animation, including moves for what's in hand.
• Ready-made characters: start from any preset, then change anything.
• Never stuck:
  • Undo and Redo cover every change, in both modes (also Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+Z).
  • Surprise me randomises everything you haven't picked yourself.
  • Start over goes back to a plain character.
  • Unavailable options are dimmed and say why when tapped. For example: tattoos and swimwear are for adults; a women's outfit needs a woman; a hair colour lighter than the hairstyle can take.
  • Automatic changes are explained: switching gender swaps the outfit for its counterpart (a pantsuit for a business suit) and says so.
• Fine-tune: each step links to its full controls in Detailed.

Quick build always reflects the current character, however it was made: in Detailed, from a preset or from a shared link. An outfit it doesn't offer shows as the character's own.

Detailed has every slider and setting, described in the rest of this page.

#Character LLM Assist

LLM Assist in the builder header creates a single character from a description. It works like Studio's LLM Assist:

1. Describe the character, or pick one of the Ideas. Optionally start from the current character.
2. Get the JSON: Copy guide (or Save as .txt) and give it to your AI assistant. No API key is needed, and the builder sends nothing automatically.
3. Review and build: paste the assistant's whole reply (the JSON is found inside it) or open a file. A summary card shows the name, age, outfit, hair and extras, and any problem comes with a fix request to send back.

The guide includes the installed asset IDs, all body and face controls, clothing and fabric options, equipment, presets, rig and detail settings, a JSON schema and a valid example.

Character input uses {"kind":"ara-character","version":1,"preset":"The Adventurer","params":{"name":"Desert explorer","ageYears":34,"hair":"cornrows","carry":"backpack"}}. A preset is optional; omitted parameters keep preset values or the builder defaults. Supplied arrays and maps replace their base values. Use ageYears (12–90) or normalized age, not both. Full .params.json exports can also be opened. Invalid fields, asset IDs, ranges and garment patterns are rejected before building.

Build character updates the normal builder controls and mesh. Undo restores the previous character, and the normal Studio button can return an edited actor to its film. Draft briefs and pasted JSON survive reloads. This mode accepts character settings only; film JSON, subtitles, text and camera shots belong in Ara Studio. Studio can also embed this character JSON in an actor’s character field, or use the same preset/params fields directly on an actor.

#The data behind the bodies

Realism comes from data, not hand-built shapes. The generator uses the MakeHuman anatomy dataset, which has been CC0 (public domain) since 2020:

• Base mesh: an artist-made, animation-ready human (13,378 quads).
• Morph targets: 935 targets.
  • Macro controls (gender, age, muscle, weight, height, proportions, ethnicity, breast) blend across a lattice of targets, exactly like MakeHuman.
  • 219 detail sliders (head shape, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, chin, cheeks, torso, limbs…) add targets on top.
  • Left/right pairs are merged into one symmetric slider.
• Proxies: eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, teeth, tongue, 10 hairstyles, 12 outfits, 6 shoes and 2 hats. Each vertex is fitted to a triangle of body vertices (.mhclo), so clothing follows any body shape. Skin under clothing is removed to prevent poke-through.
• Textures:
  • 20 photo-based skins (young / middle-aged / old × African / Asian / Caucasian × male / female), picked automatically
  • diffuse and normal maps for clothes, and alpha textures for hair and lashes
  • 11 eye colours: MakeHuman's 9, plus dark brown and black-brown, the most common shades

There are 30 presets (athletes, a detective, a secret agent, a soldier, a cyberpunk hacker, a wasteland survivor, African warriors, Nigerian Police and FRSC officers, an American sheriff, a beach girl, a gangster, a prison escapee, an 80s Miami dealer, an Arabian oil tycoon, a female executive, a priest, a professional hitman, a bodyguard and a corporate high-flier), and Randomize makes reproducible random characters from a seed. Random eye colours follow the ethnicity mix.

#Detail levels

#Clothing

Choose a full MakeHuman outfit, an outfit set, or Separate pieces:

• Outfit sets: tee & baggy jeans (with a cap, Cuban chain and sneakers); a gold bikini (triangle top with halter and back ties, string bottom; the cups size themselves to the bust); an orange prison jumpsuit (collar and lapels, button placket, DOC prints front and back, rolled sleeves and trouser cuffs, worn and dirty) with a canvas backpack and worn sneakers; a pastel suit (single-button jacket with notch lapels and a close-fitting collar, pressed trousers with creases) over a tropical-print resort shirt (its collar laid over the jacket's), with layered gold chains, aviators and horsebit loafers; a white thobe (stand collar, buttoned placket, cuffs) with a keffiyeh and agal, a long gold chain, gold watch and signet ring, and leather slides; a tailored pantsuit over a satin silk blouse with pointed pumps and a structured handbag; a black clerical shirt with a tab collar under a long overcoat, with a silver cross, leather gloves and oxfords; an elegant suit and tie (MakeHuman's elegant suit with the suit, shirt and tie colours editable, plain or striped tie). Yoruba women's wear: ankara gown with flutter sleeves; ankara peplum top and pencil skirt; aso-ebi lace top (puff sleeves, double peplum, pearls) and maxi skirt with a gele. Each set shares one pattern and colour pair, comes with matching jewellery and high heels, and its pieces are also listed under Tops, Jackets and Bottoms.

• Tops: tank top, fatigue shirt, uniform shirt (short or long sleeves, with epaulettes), sheriff uniform shirt (short sleeves, twin flap pockets and star badge), techwear jacket, tattered shirt, sleeveless tunic, woven tunic (buba), ankara gown, ankara peplum top, aso-ebi lace top, oversized tee, prison jumpsuit top, resort shirt, thobe (ankle-length robe), silk blouse, clerical shirt (tab collar), or none (shirtless/topless).

• Jackets (worn over any top; the top shows only in the V and at the collar): suit jacket, long overcoat.

• Bottoms: briefs, cargo shorts, fatigue/uniform/techwear/tattered pants, sheriff trousers (dark olive with gold side piping), loose trousers (sokoto), wrappers (knee or ankle length), Zulu hide aprons, a loincloth with front and back panels, pencil skirts (below the knee or ankle length), baggy jeans, prison jumpsuit trousers, suit trousers, or none.

• Accessories:

  • belts and straps: belts, utility belt, waist sash, crossed straps, amulet bandolier
  • armour and vests: leather armor, tactical vest, reflective hi-vis vest
  • eyewear: sunglasses, sleek cat-eye sunglasses, aviators
  • headwear: keffiyeh with agal (in the Hat picker), baseball cap, gele (pleated head tie with lace flowers and a knotted back; it covers the hair), beret, fur headband with feathers, beaded headband, fila cap, combat helmet, holo visor, goggles
  • jewellery and charms: Cuban link chain, layered gold chains (rope and curb), long gold chain with pendant, fine gold chain with pendant, silver cross on a chain, gold signet ring, leather gloves, coral beads (iyun), gold necklace with pendant, pearl necklace, bangles, gold and silver bracelet watches, wrist beads, beaded collar, bead and cowrie necklaces, protective charms, brass cuffs, beaded and cowrie arm bands
  • wraps and bands: shuka shoulder drape, arm guards, fur bands, arm wraps
  • other: security earpiece (coiled tube), neon accents, wrist watch

• Footwear: MakeHuman shoes, sandals, combat boots, cowboy boots, high heels (pointed pumps on stilettos; the feet are arched in the mesh, so every animation keeps the heel pose), flip-flops, sneakers (chunky white or worn grey), horsebit loafers (patent or smooth leather), oxford dress shoes, leather slides, or barefoot. Headwear includes a broad-brimmed felt cowboy hat with a shaped crown and sheriff badge.

• Fabrics: generated, tileable, with normal maps: kente, aso-oke, ankara (three prints), lace, metallic foil, straw, washed denim, jersey, tropical print, keffiyeh (shemagh) check, silk satin, repp stripes, linen, worsted suiting, patent leather, damask, pleated head-tie cloth, adire, shuka plaid, cowhide, leopard, camo, MOLLE, leather, techwear, tattered.

Every piece has editable colours (Colour + Accent, for example epaulettes, a badge or reflective tape) and, where it has several, a choice of pattern.

The presets include two Nigerian uniforms:

• Nigerian Police: an all-black uniform with short sleeves, a beret and a duty belt.
• FRSC officer: a beige short-sleeve shirt after the FRSC No. 5b dress, black trousers, a maroon beret and a service belt.

The uniform shirt comes in short and long sleeves, and a hi-vis reflective vest is available as an accessory.

Garments are grown from the body surface or wrapped around it with convex-hull rings, so they fit every body shape.

#Hair, beards, tattoos, earrings

• Hairstyles: MakeHuman hair, plus generated buzz cut, punk mohawk (liberty spikes, shaved sides), cornrows and box braids. These follow every head shape and take their own Hair colour.
• Facial hair: stubble, mustache (alone or over stubble), goatee, short beard or full beard, with a Beard colour. Beards are hair cards (alpha-masked strips, the usual game approach) over a stubble layer. With facial bones on, they follow the jaw.
• Tattoos (adults 18+ only): tribal armband, full sleeve, forearm bands, chest piece, back piece, and Yoruba-style cheek marks, with an ink colour.
• Earrings: studs, small hoops or big hoops, in gold or silver.

Tattoos, stubble and shaved scalps are painted into one RGBA "Skin details" texture in the body's UV space:

• Placement: the texture sits on a thin copy of the skin it covers, 0.4 mm above it.
• Fit: designs are defined on the unmorphed base mesh, so they keep their shape on every body.
• Speed: the texture is cached while you move sliders.

#Adult-only options

Topless and bottomless (no underwear) are only possible for characters aged 18+. Under-18 female characters always get a top, and every under-18 character keeps underwear. Bodies are anatomically neutral (no genital geometry).