3 styles, 8 universes: how to choose without losing your evening

A face can be drawn in just about any style. The obvious move would have been a giant menu with a search box in it. We did the opposite on purpose: two questions, and only two.

The STYLE says how the character is drawn: the line, the proportions, the material. The UNIVERSE says what it is wearing and what it is doing: the outfit, the prop, the staging. The two cross completely. 3 styles, 8 universes, 24 combinations, and not one of them is off limits.

Neither of them is a step, either. Both live as thumbnails under the big image on the product page, with a value already picked. You click, the photo changes, nothing else moves. If the default suits you, there is nothing to do.

Realistic: to be recognized

Realistic stylizes nothing, and that is the entire point: real proportions, the face taken detail by detail, the haircut, the beard and the glasses kept as they are. You pick it when recognition is the job. A partner who spots your dimples. A grandmother who names all three kids from the other end of the room.

It is the default style and the most demanding one, because it is the only one where the likeness gets judged to the millimeter. The others stylize. This one has to be you.

Chibi: to be adored

Big head, tiny body, maximum tenderness. Chibi speaks the native language of the collectible figurine: it is the proportion system your favorite shelf objects already use, and it makes literally anyone adorable. It works on toddlers, on grandparents, and on the friend who never smiles in a photo.

It is the style kids pick first, the reflex for a new baby, and the safest gift in the catalog. Nobody has ever been offended by a cuter version of themselves.

Voxel: to respawn

Visible cubes, a short palette, pixel energy in three dimensions. Voxel is the tribute style: it says this person grew up in games, or still lives there, and it turns them into a playable character. It is also the one that photographs best next to a keyboard, which its audience tends to appreciate.

The universe: what the figurine wears and what it is doing

The default adds nothing at all: the outfit from the photo, exactly as it is, on a plain base. That is what most people take, and it is a good answer. The 7 others dress the scene. Fantasy puts you in armor, cape on, weapon in hand. Wedding sets both partners in ceremony clothes on one shared base. Sport takes the jersey, the number and the gear of the discipline. Gamer puts you at the setup, headset on, controller in hand. Hero draws you an original costume, emblem included, invented for you and never borrowed from anyone. Profession brings out the coat, the uniform and the tool of the trade. Christmas brings out the ugly sweater and the red hat, from October to early January.

Those universes need volume. At the smallest size, armor, a veil or a cape turn into an unreadable lump once printed, so they start one size up, which puts their entry price one notch higher: the wedding at $199, for instance, for two characters on a shared base. That is the only price difference between universes. No surcharge for a style, no surcharge for a scene, nowhere.

The universe also decides which formats are available. A cat in armor does not exist, and that is not an oversight: the pet formats sit in the same list as the others, and picking one drops the style and the universe entirely. A dog comes back as a dog.

24 cells, none of them forbidden

This is the part worth repeating: the style and the universe never cancel each other out. Chibi in a track kit, Voxel in a hero costume, Realistic in a lab coat. All 24 cells of the grid are sellable, and there is no table of exceptions sitting somewhere waiting to tell you otherwise at the last minute.

And if your idea fits none of them, there is the free text field in the Options step. That is what absorbs the red scarf, the guitar, the exact pose and the inside joke. It travels with the order, word for word.

Pick the feeling, not the technique

To be recognized, to be adored, to respawn. That is the real menu of styles. Each one holds a distinct emotional register, and that is why the list stops at 3: one more would have to bite into another.

Still undecided? Realistic if it marks a relationship or a milestone, Chibi if it marks a crew, Voxel if it marks a personality. Whichever one you land on, we check and correct every model before it prints, and you approve the exact render before anything reaches a printer.