Chibi
- super deformed
- SD
- mini character
A character redrawn at two heads tall, with everything except the head made smaller.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
A two head tall body is the proportion of a toddler, and the eye reads it as harmless before it reads anything else. Applying it to a serious character is a joke the viewer gets instantly, which is why the style is used for a moment of comedy rather than for a whole story.
How it works
Total height is about two head lengths. The head is round and takes half the figure. Eyes are large and sit low. The nose goes altogether. Limbs are short tubes with no joints and the hands are mittens. Colour stays flat and bright.
When to use it
Use it for stickers, mascots, merchandise and anything that has to be liked on sight. Avoid it when a character needs authority, because nothing at two heads tall has any.
Told apart from its neighbours
Big Eye is about the face alone and keeps the body normal. Bean Construction is a Western way of building a torso, not a proportion rule. Anime Cel is the surface treatment that chibi is usually painted with.
Where it is used
It carries a sticker pack, an avatar, a plush design, an emote and a piece of merchandise better than any other style here.
- Merchandise, stickers and mascots
- Comic relief panels in manga and anime
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, chibi style, the whole figure only two heads tall with an enormous round head and a tiny body beneath it, very large eyes set low on the face, a nose reduced to nothing and a small simple mouth, stubby limbs with no visible joints and simplified hands, flat bright colour with one soft shadow, the character's real clothing and colours kept exactly so it stays recognisable
What goes wrong
A normally proportioned cute character comes back. Give the number: two heads tall, head half the figure. A model needs the ratio, not the word.
Leave out
realistic proportions, a detailed face, visible anatomy, long limbs, a serious expression
Watch for
Keep the clothes and the colours exactly. Chibi works because the viewer recognises a character they know at a silly size, and a model that simplifies the outfit too throws away the joke.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
