Turn Your Selfie Into a Clay Sticker

How photo reference works

When you add a photo to your prompt, the AI uses it as a reference for the character's appearance — face shape, hair color, skin tone, glasses if you have them. You then describe what you want the character to do: kicking a soccer ball, reeling in a giant fish, soaring on a hang glider. The result is a clay-style character that clearly resembles the person in the photo, posed and dressed for whatever activity you described.

It's not a filter or a sticker-ification of your photo — it's a new character, generated fresh, that happens to share your features. Which means you can generate the same person doing a dozen different things and they'll all look consistent.

How to generate one

1. 1Take or choose a clear portrait photo — good lighting, face visible, plain-ish background. A recent selfie works perfectly.
2. 2Open StickerForge and click the image attachment button.
3. 3Upload your photo.
4. 4Describe the character you want: "a clay soccer player mid-kick, in a bright jersey" or "a clay deep sea fisherman reeling in a massive catch."
5. 5Generate. You get four variations — pick the one that best captures the resemblance.

Photo tips: face-on or slight angle works best. Very side-on profiles give the model less to work with. Clear lighting and a relatively simple background improve reference quality.

Real examples

We took four different selfies and generated clay characters from each, all using photo reference. Here's what that looks like in practice.

Person 1

Portrait selfie of a woman with curly dark hair

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2 clay characters generated from this selfie

Soccer

Pickleball

Person 2

Portrait selfie of a man with glasses

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2 clay characters generated from this selfie

Deep Sea Fishing

Soccer

Person 3

Portrait selfie of a woman with red hair

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2 clay characters generated from this selfie

Hang Gliding

Pickleball

Person 4

Portrait selfie of a man with short hair

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2 clay characters generated from this selfie

Soccer

Deep Sea Fishing

Prompt ideas for photo reference stickers

Once you have a reference photo, any of these activities and characters work well:

• "a clay soccer player mid-kick, in a bright jersey"
• "a clay deep sea fisherman reeling in a massive catch, rain gear, big waves"
• "a clay hang glider soaring through a blue sky, wind-tousled hair"
• "a clay pickleball player mid-swing, competitive expression"
• "a clay surfer riding a huge wave, arms out for balance"
• "a clay rock climber scaling a cliff face, chalk on hands"
• "a clay chef with a tall white toque and apron, holding a wooden spoon"
• "a clay astronaut in a space suit, floating weightlessly"
• "a clay superhero in a bright cape with fist raised"
• "a clay wizard wearing long robes and holding a glowing magical staff"

The key is describing the activity, costume, and props clearly — the model picks up hair and facial features from your photo, so you don't need to describe those.

Make a set for a friend

Photo-reference stickers make unexpectedly good gifts. Take a photo of a friend and generate them doing their favourite hobby, their job, or a running joke between you. Send the stickers in a Telegram pack or as individual files in iMessage. The results tend to get a reaction.

You can also make a set of yourself across different activities and use them consistently in group chats — it's a quicker way to build a recognisable sticker identity than finding random sticker packs that don't quite fit.