# Populi.cam Character Studio

> The Character Studio is a self-serve workspace for shaping an imaginary livestream character, saving it as a private draft on Populi.cam, testing it, and optionally publishing it.

## Character Studio

- [Open the Character Studio](https://populi.cam/create): Design a character's identity, personality, voice, appearance, on-camera setting, and first impression.
- The editor has three steps: Identity, Personality, On camera. All character details can be edited before saving or handing off.
- The full path has four stages: design in the Studio, onboarding, a private test, and optional paid publication. Each stage is described below.

## Character form fields

### Identity and appearance

- **Character name**: text; up to 32 characters; An available handle is shown beneath the name.
- **What do they do?**: text; up to 54 characters
- **The one-sentence idea**: multiline text; up to 160 characters
- **Visual direction**: Analog film — Warm grain, lived-in light, Soft focus — Gentle, storybook edges, After dark — Electric color, deep shadows
- **Signature color**: Acid (#d8f36a), Coral (#f17a6b), Lilac (#b4a0f5), Sky (#78c8e8), Amber (#e6b45e)
- **Edit the blockout**
  - **Shape sliders**: Head width (92–142), Jaw (62–112), Eye spacing (30–66), Eye size (5–14), Shoulders (145–224)
  - **Hair shape**: Waves, Sweep, Crop, Bare
  - **Expression**: Neutral, Curious, Wry
  - **Skin tone**: #5e3c31, #91624d, #bb886a, #dbad89, #efd0ac
  - **Hair color**: #262521, #49372d, #78533b, #bd8c52, #aaa99a

### Personality

- **Defining traits**: choose up to 3; Observant, Warm, Unpredictable, Earnest, Dry, Curious, Unflappable, A little odd
- **Social energy**: 0–100; Reserved to All in; preview labels: Quiet current, Easy company, Big presence
- **Their kind of humor**: Understated, Accidentally funny, Playfully dramatic, Oddly specific, Rare, but memorable
- **Voice quality**: Low and thoughtful, Soft and measured, Clear and lively, Warm and unhurried, Bright with a little rasp

### On camera

- **Where are we?**: text; up to 64 characters; suggestions: After-hours radio booth, A very quiet museum, Tiny neighborhood weather desk, A corner booth after midnight
- **What do they say first?**: multiline text; up to 100 characters

### Portrait, drawing, and image controls

- **Upload Image**: accepts JPEG, PNG, WebP still images at 1920 × 1080, up to 4 MiB
- **Starting source**: Rough blockout, Free draw, Last render; an uploaded portrait can also use Reference portrait
- **Free draw tools**: Draw with a mouse, stylus, or touch.
  - **Brush size**: Fine (6 px), Medium (15 px), Bold (30 px)
  - **Drawing actions**: Undo, Clear
- **Describe this pass**: multiline text; up to 3000 characters; Prompt for optional AI image generation or editing using the selected source.
- **Steps**: 4 steps, 5 steps, 6 steps, 7 steps, 8 steps
- **Input + output**: 1920 × 1080
- **AI result opacity over the source image**: 0–100%; Available when a render and source image can be compared.

## Actions and handoff

- Surprise me fills the character concept with a suggested identity.
- Copy character brief copies the current build brief.
- Save for later and Save character draft save a local draft on the device.
- Continue moves between Identity, Personality, and On camera.
- Continue to onboarding transfers the portrait, description, and voice context. It needs a character name, role, one-sentence idea, character image, and a saved draft. Save & continue to onboarding saves the draft first.
- The transfer is held in the browser and expires after 30 minutes. If it expires, return to the Studio and continue again.
- Creating a Studio brief does not publish a character. Onboarding creates a private draft, and publication is a separate paid step.

## Onboarding form fields

- [Character onboarding](https://populi.cam/create/onboarding) opens from Continue to onboarding. Opened directly, without a Studio handoff, it asks you to return to the Studio.
- The form opens prefilled from the Studio brief. Every field can be edited before saving.

### Identity and portrait

- **Display name**: text; required; up to 80 characters
- **Character handle**: text; required; 2–31 characters; lowercase letters, numbers, `_`, and `-`, starting and ending with a letter or number; availability is checked as you type; the handle becomes the private test link and the public name after approval
- **Pronouns**: She / her, He / him, They / them
- **Fictional base location**: text; optional; up to 120 characters
- **Time zone**: text; required; IANA name such as America/Los_Angeles; defaults to UTC; sets the character's webcam clock
- **Character portrait**: required; JPEG, PNG, or WebP still image at 1920 × 1080, up to 4 MiB; anchors the generated clips
- **Optional closing frame**: same image requirements; the portrait is reused when omitted

### Description and voice

- **Character description**: multiline text; required; 3–2000 characters
- **Room status message**: multiline text; optional; up to 180 characters; shown after "Currently:" in the room
- **Speaking style and point of view**: multiline text; optional; up to 2000 characters; era, region, worldview, vocabulary, formality, or humor

### AI-written details

- **Preview AI-written details**: drafts whichever of room status, identity prompt, chat voice, and video guidance are blank, using the description, speaking style, and portrait. It keeps text you entered, does not save the character, and starts no video. Blank fields are also filled when you save, if AI drafting is available.
- **Identity prompt**: multiline text; optional; up to 4000 characters
- **Chat voice**: multiline text; optional; up to 4000 characters
- **Video guidance**: multiline text; optional; up to 4000 characters

### Saving

- **Save and test character** creates a private draft, queues six starter clips (three idle loops and three chat reactions), and opens the private test page.
- There is no sign-in. The draft belongs to the browser session that saved it, so cookies must be enabled.
- A browser session can save one new character per 24 hours, and shared daily limits apply.
- If a save is interrupted, the button becomes **Retry the same save** and resubmits the original details.

## Private test page

- Saving opens `https://populi.cam/create/test/{handle}`. The page is private, is not indexed by search engines, and opens only in the browser session that saved the character.
- **Talk to the character**: private test chat in the character's voice; messages up to 240 characters; links are rejected; the chat never appears in a public room; rate limits apply.
- **Open full live-room preview**: opens `https://baby.populi.cam/{handle}`, a public preview room. Anyone with the link can open it without signing in, search engines do not index it, and paid requests there use the real checkout. The character stays unpublished.
- **Automated starter clips**: three Idle videos and three Chat reactions generate in the background, and the page updates on its own. The status moves from "N of 6 ready" to "Ready to test". "Some clips ready" or "Needs a retry" means generation stopped early, and **Resume starter clips** queues the rest again.

### Idle Director

- Idle Director and extra idle loops can be changed only before checkout starts.
- **Idle direction**: multiline text; up to 1000 characters; **Save direction** stores movement preferences for new loops.
- **Suggest idle ideas**: needs at least 3 characters of direction; shows three ideas for the character and starts no video; **Use this idea** copies one into the request box.
- **What should the character do?**: multiline text; 3–400 characters; **Generate idle loop** requests one extra idle loop that starts and ends in the reference pose. Limits are 10 requests per 24 hours by default and 40 per character.
- **Add to mix** and **Leave out of mix** choose which extra loops are part of the approved idle mix. A loop left out keeps generating. **Retry request** resumes a loop that failed.

## Publishing

- Publication is optional. It costs $10 once per character through Stripe Checkout, with no subscription. Another character needs another payment.
- **Pay $10 to launch** unlocks when all six starter clips are ready, no extra idle loop is still generating, any added loops fit the idle mix, and the creator has ticked "I reviewed the previews and approve this character for a public live room."
- Populi checks every clip and idle transition before checkout and again after Stripe confirms payment. Only Stripe's confirmation marks the order paid. Populi then waits for an empty room with the Director stopped before switching the character live.
- If a check fails after payment, the order stays paid and **Finish publishing** on the test page retries it.
- A published character has a live room at `https://populi.cam/{handle}`. A full refund pauses it.
- Third-party sites can embed the room: `/{handle}/embed` is stream-only and `/{handle}/widget` adds shared chat. See the Populi documentation.
- Creator earnings depend on payout setup and settlement availability; see [Fees and payouts](https://populi.cam/fees).

## Related pages

- [Character onboarding](https://populi.cam/create/onboarding): Continue a Studio character into draft setup.
- [Fees and payouts](https://populi.cam/fees): How revenue allocation, net earnings, and generation costs differ.
- [Populi documentation](https://populi.cam/docs): Platform, character, and integration documentation.
- [About Populi.cam](https://populi.cam/about): Product overview.