AI Avatar Design: From Your Photos to an Animated Character with FLORA
A course by Gerry SolerIndustrial Designer
A course by Gerry Soler, Industrial Designer
Design AI avatars from your photos in FLORA, refine identity, style, and animation for digital characters
Create AI avatars from your own photos and turn them into animated characters with FLORA and FAUNA.
The course walks you through a practical, hands‑on workflow for designing characters with AI in a visual, node‑based setup. You’ll clean and prep your photo references, pull out the traits that define your character, study the visual style you want, and merge everything into a steady, recognizable avatar.
As you go, you’ll try out variations in shape, color, clothing, hair, accessories and expression, tune the version that actually works, and build a clear character sheet with multiple angles ready for animation. To finish, you’ll create short animations from your avatar using prompts centered on movement while keeping the look and personality consistent.
It’s a course for illustrators, designers, animators and content creators who want AI image generation to feel more controlled, intentional and repeatable when working with FLORA and FAUNA.
What will you learn in this online course?
8 lessons & 2 downloads
Finding the character’s physical identity
8 minutes, 17 seconds
Looking at the character’s visual world
9 minutes, 11 seconds
Blending Identity and Universe to Shape the Avatar
12 minutes, 27 seconds
Creating variations and refining the character design
9 minutes, 49 seconds
Putting Together the Character’s Final Presentation
10 minutes, 18 seconds
Animating the Avatar and Closing the Course
17 minutes, 3 seconds
What's included in this course?
You'll go from a handful of personal photos to a digital avatar that actually feels like the same person. You start by cleaning up your reference images and figuring out what really defines the character — the features you want to keep and the ones you don't. You'll also look at visual references to pin down color, proportions, materials and the overall mood, turning all of that into a simple style guide you can reuse.
Once the identity and the visual world make sense, you put them together to create your first avatar. From there you'll try out variations: different colors, outfits, hairstyles, accessories or expressions. You tweak the design, build a clean presentation sheet with several angles and boost the image resolution when needed. To finish, you'll test a few AI models to bring the avatar to life, write movement‑focused prompts and try quick animation tests. You end with short clips ready to share and a workflow you can repeat anytime.
Recommended software & tools for this course
What is this course's project?
You will create a digital avatar from your photos in FLORA, defining physical identity, visual style, design variations, character sheet, and short animations that preserve its personality within a chosen aesthetic universe.
Who is this online course for?
Anyone who wants to turn their own photos into digital avatars, people who like steering AI instead of hitting random generate, and illustrators, designers, animators or 2D/3D artists who need characters that stay consistent for their content, portfolios or client work.
Requirements and materials
You don’t need any special background for this. Just know your way around basic digital tools, have three clear photos of yourself, access to FLORA and FAUNA, a steady internet connection, and a computer that can handle image and video generation.
His work integrates research, storytelling, and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to build processes that are both efficient and deeply human. He also shares this approach on Designfulness, his educational YouTube channel, where he helps designers think better, work smarter, and design with purpose.
Gerry is a Mexican–Spanish industrial designer with experience in Mexico, Japan, Denmark, and Sweden, and a graduate of the Master’s in Advanced Product Design at Umeå Institute of Design. His work spans consumer electronics, wearables, robotic systems, and sports-related projects. He currently develops projects from Mexico, creating products and experiences that blend design, technology, and a critical lens that challenges taboos and pushes boundaries.
Content
AI Avatar Design: From Your Photos to an Animated Character with FLORA
- Introduction to FLORA: the canvas, the nodes, and the course map
- Preparing the Character’s Base Photos
- Finding the character’s physical identity
- Looking at the character’s visual world
- Blending Identity and Universe to Shape the Avatar
- Creating variations and refining the character design
- Putting Together the Character’s Final Presentation
- Animating the Avatar and Closing the Course
- Final project
What to expect from a Domestika course
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
Certificates
PLUSIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
No prior experience is needed; the course is designed for beginners who are comfortable with basic digital tools.
All you need are three clear photos of yourself, access to FLORA and FAUNA, a reliable internet connection, and a computer capable of generating images and video.
You’ll learn how to turn your photos into personalized digital avatars, customizing identity, style, and animation using AI tools like FLORA and FAUNA.
The process involves cleaning up your photos, identifying key features, analyzing visual references, crafting precise prompts, creating the avatar, experimenting with variations, and animating it using AI models.
Yes, the course teaches how to create variations in color, clothing, hairstyles, accessories, and expressions to personalize your digital avatar.
FLORA streamlines every step of avatar design—from brainstorming and gathering visual references to image generation, animation, and final presentation.
It’s ideal for anyone interested in turning photos into avatars, including illustrators, designers, animators, and 2D or 3D artists looking to create consistent digital characters.