Make it yoursCharacter
Make it yours
Character
Your character is who shoppers talk to: its name, its look, its voice and how it answers. On Shopify, open Character in the app menu. In Studio on the web, open Characters and pick one.
The editor has four tabs, Persona, Avatar, Voice and Brain, with a live preview beside them.
Saving
Choose Save character when you're done. A saved character is live on your store right away. There is no separate publish step and no draft copy.
On Shopify, the admin's Save Bar also appears when you have unsaved changes, so you can save or discard from anywhere on the page.
Persona
Persona is who the character is and how it talks.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Character name | The name shoppers see. |
| Speaks as | Female, Male or Neutral. Sets the gendered word forms in languages that have them, such as Thai ค่ะ or ครับ. Neutral avoids gendered forms entirely. |
| Speaking style | Warm, Professional, Playful, Concise or Detailed. Each one shows a short description and a sample reply. None of them use emoji. |
| AI instructions | Who this character is, in your own words. Store grounding and safety rules apply automatically on top of what you write. |
| First greeting | The first message a shopper sees when the chat opens. |
Reset to default… puts the name, the AI instructions or the greeting back to the character's original. Tick the ones you want, then choose Reset selected.
Your character answers from what you add in Knowledge. It uses that automatically, so you don't paste store details into the instructions. See Knowledge.
The greeting lives here and nowhere else. The Widget settings point back to it.
Avatar
Avatar is what your character looks like. Filter the roster with All, Yours or Saytu:
- Saytu shows the ready-made characters.
- Yours shows avatars you created or uploaded. Rename or delete… manages them.
Choose a face to use it. The preview switches straight away.
Framing
Above the preview, Full, Bust and Face set how much of the character shows. For a finer fit, choose Adjust: drag to move, scroll to zoom, double-click to reset. The same controls are under Advanced · position & performance as Scale, Offset X and Offset Y sliders.
Create or upload an avatar
Choose Create or upload an avatar. You get two paths:
| Path | What you bring | Plans |
|---|---|---|
| Create from one image | One illustration, PNG, JPG or WebP, up to 10MB. Saytu draws the blinks and mouth shapes. | Starter, Pro and Studio |
| Upload Live2D | A rigged Live2D model folder. It renders exactly as it was made. | Pro and Studio |
Where the new avatar goes depends on where you run Saytu:
- On Shopify, a created or uploaded avatar always becomes a new character in your library. It never replaces the character you have open.
- In Studio on the web, it becomes a new character while your plan has a character slot free. When there is no free slot, it becomes the open character's new look.
After a Live2D upload you name the new character and choose Create this character. You can also frame the icon shoppers see, in Frame your avatar icon.
Instant Avatar, step by step
Creating from one image opens the avatar studio. It runs in four steps: Upload, Frame, Generate, Test & tune.
- Upload. Pick the illustration. A front-facing character with both eyes and the mouth visible works best. A transparent PNG keeps the edges clean.
- Frame. Saytu finds the face and places three marks on the eyes and mouth. Everything outside the marks is copied from your image untouched. Only what is inside gets redrawn. If it can't find the face, drag the marks into place yourself.
- Generate. Choose Draw the movement. This uses one generation. Keep the page open until it finishes: the run is already counted, and leaving loses both the avatar and the generation.
- Test & tune. The avatar blinks on its own. Use Mouth sensitivity, Motion amount and a blink pace (Rare blink, Natural blink or Lively blink) to tune it, then choose Create this character or Use this avatar.
At the last step Saytu checks the result. Identity kept outside the marks, Eyes actually close and Mouth actually opens should all pass. A failed check usually means a mark missed. Choose Adjust areas and redraw to go back and try again.
Two extra options on the Frame step help with harder pictures. Each one works once per upload:
- Redraw front-facing is for an odd pose, a three-quarter view or a face too small to mark. It replaces your picture with a generated one, so the result will resemble your character rather than being it. It does not use a generation.
- Cut the background removes a backdrop. A plain backdrop that touches the edges is cut directly. A painted background needs a repaint first: the character is repainted on a plain backdrop, and small details can shift.
Plan limits for avatars
| Plan | Avatar generations per month | Uploaded Live2D models you can keep |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Starter | 2 | 0 |
| Pro | 5 | 5 |
| Studio | 15 | 20 |
When you reach your model limit, delete one before uploading another. When generations run out, the studio says so, and more come with the next month or a higher plan. See Plans.
Voice
Search the catalog by name, gender or country, and press play on any voice to hear it before you pick it.
If the catalog can't load, the tab says Voice replies are off and the character replies in text only. Choose Retry to load it again.
Language sets the language your character replies in by default. If a shopper writes in another language, the character follows theirs. Auto-detect always replies in the shopper's own language.
Voice minutes are counted per month on each plan. When they run out, replies carry on in text. See Troubleshooting.
Brain
Brain is the AI model behind your character's replies.
- Model preset picks the model. The one marked Default is a good start. Each option shows a short line on how it compares.
- Advanced · response tuning holds two more settings. Creativity (temperature) runs from 0 to 1. Max reply length (tokens) caps how long one reply can be, from 200 to 800.
Test a reply
The live preview beside the editor renders your current draft. Type in Type to test a reply… to chat with it. The strip under the preview shows the character, brain, voice and tone in use.
Save before you judge a change to the model or speaking style. What shoppers get is always the saved character.