Info & Help

Creating a character portrait begins with selecting a portrait you like as a “starting point”.

The Gallery screen presents a collection of hand-curated portraits made by our team. There are over a thousand portraits currently in the collection, and you can edit any of them once you unlock any required art packs.

Alternatively, the Create screen generates a unique set of portraits each time you make choices, such as Race, Role, Age, or Gear. Because these portraits are randomly generated, some may look more iconic than others.

Once you select a portrait, you can then customize it on the Edit screen. Many users start by picking a portrait which they like, then edit the face, then gear and outfit to match their vision of the character.

Please note that the choices you make for the initial portrait will influence the options you see when subsequently editing it. For example, if you start with a portrait of a wizard, then choose to edit the gear, you will primarily see gear suitable for a wizard. You can change the role at any time to see different concepts for the character.

On the Edit screen, tap the Color/Elements toggle to edit which elements are included in your portrait. Elements are things like hairstyles, facial features, armor, gear, etc.

The choices you select in the menus on the left dtermine what will be edited. For example, if nothing has been selected, the entire portrait including the face, hair, clothes, gear, etc. will be edited. If instead you select a specific element type, such as Hairstyle, only that element will be changed.

As you edit a portrait, the app shows you different options by assembling multiple elements of artwork. Most elements are compatible with each other, but some elements cannot be combined with certain other elements. For example, a long hairstyle might conflict with an item that sits high on the shoulder.

In these cases, the app will not draw one of the conflicting elements and instead show other elements that are compatible. In this example, the app might show a different hairstyle along with the item that sits high on the shoulder, or show different items that didn’t sit as high on the shoulder. This avoids portraits in which elements intersect or overlap in odd ways.

This approach also applies to outfits. Outfits consist of up to 5 layers of clothing, or up to 7 layers when including armor. Some outfit combinations, such as a tight vest over a billowy shirt, don’t work together and will not appear.

Many of the elements in PortraitWorks have variations, such as a shirt with several different collars or plate armor with optional rivets, scratches, fluting and trim. Every time an item appears as a choice on the Edit screen, it may show a different variation of that item. Tap Respin to see different variations of a given item.

On the Edit screen, tap [color icon] to change how your portrait is colored. Nearly every element can be recolored in many ways. Many items have multiple colors, such as a garment with trim or multi-color hairstyles.

What is selected in the menus at left determines what will be colored. For example, if nothing has been selected, the entire portrait including skin, hair, clothes, gear, etc. will be colored. If instead you select a specific element type, such as Hairstyle, only that element will be colored.

The color swatches give you even greater control over what will be colored. Tapping on a given swatch only colors elements, or parts of elements, that have that color. For example, if you wanted to change the color of a piece of red trim on a shirt, tapping on the corresponding red swatch would only change the color of that red trim. This gives you a high degree of color control over specific elements in your portrait.

Once you’ve selected which elements will be colored, you can choose how you wish to color them.

Replace changes the colors in the portrait by replacing them with pre-made color palettes.

Adjust gives you Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders so that you can change a color in any way you like.

To export an image of a portrait, tap the Export icon in the upper-right.

iOS: The iOS system for exporting automatically converts transparent images to non-transparent when saving to local Photos, to Slack, or some other destinations. If you want to export a transparent image, exporting via email or using AirDrop preserves transparent backgrounds.

Android: By default, images are immediately saved to your local Photos. If you want more options other than Photos, go to your Settings and change from Local to Export.

Note: exporting portraits requires the Unlock Export in-app purchase. (Or previous in-app purchases, or Kickstarter or pre-order prior to app launch.)

If you delete the app, you will lose all your Favorites. To protect your Favorites, back them up to Google Drive.

To back up your Favorites, go to Settings and tap “Connect to Google Drive” and follow the prompts. Once the app restarts, go to Settings and tap “Backup.” In the future, you can restore your Favorites by tapping “Restore.”

In addition, make sure your device in general is being backed up so that your favorites will be transferred if you replace or upgrade your device. This will NOT protect your backups if you Delete the app from your device.

• iOS: iOS Settings / tap your username at top / iCloud / iCloud Backups

• Android: either through your Google account or another service; depends on your specific device.