Did you know that the global market size for the anime industry is $23.5bn, growing at a blistering 9.5% CAGR? That's how hot anime is in today's youth. And when something is hot, everybody wants to follow the trend.
When Chainer was released in 2015, everybody thought it was a cute little program to create your anime characters using AI. Nobody could have imagined then the explosion of anime character creator software that would erupt afterward.
Today, that rudimentary beginning has yielded way to the use of GAN and other high-end AI models to create a whole army of anime character creators, each offering new and more advanced features.
While most of these anime character creators are still only meant for personal use (there are problems like ownership of an anime character and other legal hassles), it is bound to become big enough one day to have major commercial applications.
Till then, enjoy this list of the most advanced and high-end anime character creators on the market. Towards the end of the list, I have also added a few 3D anime character creator apps for you to enjoy. Also, as anime lovers, you may also want to download anime videos from every platform, therefore, we recommend to you the StreamFab Downloader at the end of the article.
Table of contents>
DVDFab cartoonizer is very different from pure and simple anime character generators because it can take up any real-life photograph and make an anime-like cartoon out of it.
Not only that, it can blow up the anime up to 40 times the original size and do other cool stuff with the picture like image enhancement, noise removal, blur removal, and other types of image enhancement.
If you are looking for more than just a simple anime character creator and want to create a character based on a real-life person (your special someone, maybe?), then DVDFab's photo enhancement AI will do the job for you.
This software is a complete photo-editing application, so keep in mind the costs of the product are built on all the features that it offers, instead of just the cartoonize feature.
What I loved about this product:
Crypko is currently the best anime character creator online. It uses GAN (generative adversarial network), an AI model designed to make high-end anime characters. Crypko is rumored to be a commercial application of MakeGirlsMoe, another anime character creator we will discuss later in this article.
In order to use Crypko, you have to purchase Crypko cards, which you can use to then create waist-up anime characters with high quality.
You can make even more anime characters by making these cards work together. Crypko is good enough to do the same work as having a full-time illustrator in your office. It even allows you to customize character design based on your preferences, such as hair color, eye color, hairstyle, and adding accessories.
What I loved about this product:
MakeGirlsMoe is an oldie but a goodie. Created in 2017 as part of a collaboration between CMU, Tongji University, Stony Brook University, and Fudan University, this anime character generator has been a fan favorite ever since its launch. The best feature of this tool is that it is very easy to use.
The site has four base models which you can work with. There are several options for customization: the color of their eyes, hair, and even their hairstyle can be customized.
You can choose her skin type, whether she uses a ribbon in her hair, glasses on her eyes, her mouth is open or closed, whether she is blushing or not, and many other things.
What I loved about this product:
If you are looking for a good Chibi anime character creator, then your search should end with Avachara. You can make a nice chibi version of yourself or any anime character that you are fond of in minutes with Avachara.
But that's not all Avachara can do! It has a host of anime character creator options for you to explore and a very extensive library of templates and assets. It's also fairly easy to use the anime creators.
What I loved about this product:
Charat.me is not exactly an AI anime creator, in the sense that there is no machine-based character generator like many other tools in this case. In Charat.Me, you are supposed to do the heavy lifting by making all the major modifications yourself.
Thankfully, the range of options available for customization here is quite extensive, and the software lets you make a wide variety of modifications based on your taste and style.
While it's not exactly an easy option to work with, Charat.Me is loved by anime character creators simply because of its unique hands-on approach, which lets them bring a mental image to life. If you are looking to make a perfect Waifu for you, the starting point cannot be a template based on someone else's imagination.
One of the problem areas of this online application is that it was almost exclusively devised by a Japanese team, so the menus and many options keep coming up in Japanese (perhaps they couldn't get a decent translator?)
The design of the UI is also a bit of a problem area because many options do not expect the way you have come to expect in a standard GUI option.
What I loved about this product:
Cartoonify is not exactly an anime generator. It's a cartoon generator and an avatar maker. You can create your own cartoon from scratch with this anime character creator online.
The software starts you off with a very basic male and female template, and you get various options to modify and customize based on your style and taste.
For example, you can change the shape of the face, mouth, ears, and nose to get an image that looks closest to what you want. You can also make changes to the eyes, hair, clothes, and background.
The animations are all very basic, and the options are very simple and intuitive. You can make a quick and clean avatar in just a few clicks. But don't expect any major detailing or high-end graphics here.
They do offer a premium cartoonify service where you can create a proper cartoon of yourself, but it is a paid service.
What I loved about this product:
What I didn't like:
Character creator is more than just a simple anime creator. This is an application that lets you customize almost everything possible in your online cartoon characters. Again, the interface is super intuitive, and the options available are mind-boggling.
Character Creator supports both male and female characters. You can make adjustments within these two types. You can even switch gender mid-way and add many types of accessories like wings and dresses etc.
The final avatar or anime that you create can be exported to SVG format, and you can use it for professional purposes as well. The fun part of Character Creator is that it is totally free to use, and the customization options are very, very fast.
What I loved about this product:
Avatar Factory is one of the best 3D anime character creator apps out there. It can create new anime characters or bring to life existing characters that you have only seen in 2D.
There are a lot of preset templates and customization options available for your 3D Anime. You can choose hairstyles, clothes, and many other things on your smartphone and finalize the 3D anime.
What I loved about this product:
What I didn't like:
This app has two different versions, one for boys and one for girls. It is one of the top-rated 3D anime character creator apps on both iStore and PlayStore. This app focuses on creating an avatar of you by applying various filters and editing options.
You can create some very nice characters with this app, the customization options are very unique, and there is a fairly extensive library of choices that they have.
What I loved about this product:
Anime avatar focuses on creating both girl and boy anime. It has a lot of customization options, be it hair, mouth, hairstyle, colors, facial details, accessories. This is a very detailed anime creator. You can even create monster characters and furries with this app.
There is a wide range of accessories such as hats, headbands, bows, and other options available on the app for you to make your avatar perfect.
What I loved about this product:
As anime lovers, you may watch anime shows a lot. But have you ever needed to download favorite anime shows for offline playback? If you do, you can try StreamFab Downloader. StreamFab Downloader is all-inclusive online and streaming video download solution package to download on-demand videos from most of the popular streaming services.
So there you have it, ten of the best options for you to make your own waifu, anime, avatar, or even 3D anime characters. Go ahead and enjoy these products and translate the anime of your dreams into reality with just a few clicks. Almost all these applications have free versions, so if you want to go ahead and try, it won't cost you a single penny.
If you are looking for something more than just an anime creator but rather a photo editor suite, then I would suggest you go for the DVDFab product that I mentioned at the start. From a pure anime standpoint, Crypko and MakeGirlsMoe are the two perfect options.
If you are more into cartoon avatars, then you would prefer to use Cartoonify and Character Creator. Lastly, for 3D anime characters, the best option is Live Portrait Maker. However, you can choose almost all applications for any option, and the results will always be amazing.