Articles on: Creating scenarios

Creating custom avatars with Avatar studio

Find this at: Avatar studio (in the sidebar)


Avatar studio lets your organisation create its own video avatars. You can generate a photorealistic avatar from a description, upload a photo, or take one with your camera, then pair each avatar with a voice. The avatars you create are private to your organisation and appear in the avatar picker whenever you build a video scenario.


Avatar studio is an Enterprise feature. On other plans, the Avatar studio page shows a preview and an option to contact us about upgrading. See Upgrading your plan.


Who can use Avatar studio


Avatar studio is available to content creators - the owner, administrators and authors in your organisation. See Understanding roles in SimChat.


Open it from Avatar studio in the sidebar. There are three tabs:


  • Generate avatar - create an avatar from a written description
  • Upload photo - use a photo you already have, or take one with your camera
  • Manage avatars - rename, change the voice, or delete avatars you have created


Generating an avatar from a description


  1. Open the Generate avatar tab
  2. Enter a Display name (this is what authors see in the avatar picker)
  3. Set the Gender and Age
  4. Optionally add more detail - Ethnicity, Hair, Eyes, Distinguishing features (for example glasses or a beard), Background (for example a hospital consulting room), and any Additional notes
  5. Choose a Voice. A voice is suggested automatically from the gender and age, but you can change it.
  6. Select Generate


Generating an image usually takes 2-3 minutes. When it is ready you can:


  • Regenerate to produce a new image from the same details
  • Download the image
  • Save avatar to add it to your organisation


The more detail you provide, the closer the result is to what you have in mind. If the first image isn't quite right, adjust the details and regenerate.


Uploading a photo or taking one


  1. Open the Upload photo tab
  2. Select Choose file to upload an image, or Take photo to use your camera
  3. Enter a Display name, and set the Gender and Age
  4. Choose a Voice
  5. Confirm that you have the right to use the image and the consent of anyone shown in it
  6. Select Save avatar


Images must be a JPEG, PNG or WebP file under 4.5 MB.


Only upload photos you have permission to use. By saving, you confirm you have the right to use the image and the consent of any person depicted.


Saving and processing


After you save an avatar it is prepared in the background, so it may take a moment to become ready. While this happens it shows as Saving avatar… in the Manage avatars tab.


If an avatar can't be created it is marked Couldn't be created. You can delete it and try again.


Managing your avatars


Open the Manage avatars tab to see every avatar your organisation has created. For each avatar you can:


  • Rename it
  • Change voice - set the default voice paired with the avatar
  • Delete it


Deleting an avatar cannot be undone. If you delete an avatar that a scenario is using, you will be asked to choose a different avatar for that scenario.


Using custom avatars in scenarios


Your custom avatars appear in the avatar picker when you turn on Video mode for a scenario, under the avatars that are only visible to your organisation. Select one in the same way as a standard avatar. You can also open Avatar studio directly from the picker using Manage in Avatar Studio.


For how avatars and voices are chosen when building a scenario, see Choosing voices and video avatars.


Video conversations use video minutes. See Understanding audio and video minutes.

Updated on: 24/06/2026

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