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varg-character-cartoon

Skill23 starsChanged 8 months agoMITView on GitHub

Makes original cartoon characters in famous, instantly recognisable looks on varg: the yellow 1990s family sitcom, the 3D family feature film, hand-painted anime, paper cut-out, adult sci-fi cartoon, felt puppet and others, described in words instead of IP names (the names get blocked and do not belong in ads). Also restyles an existing character into those looks. Use when someone asks for a Simpsons-style, Pixar-style, Ghibli-style, South Park-style or Rick and Morty-style character, a cartoon version of a person or mascot, or "me as a cartoon". Part of varg-character-design (definition, sheet, reuse in video).

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SKILL.md

Cartoon characters in famous looks

A loved animation look tells the viewer the genre before the first word: the Ghibli wave added 1M ChatGPT users in an hour, the figurine trend brought Gemini 13M new users in 4 days. The look is free to use; the show's characters, names, logos and catchphrases are not.

Tested on 2026-10-27: Nano Banana 2.1 refused "Redraw the woman as a character in The Simpsons style" and drew the same look from a description. GPT Image 2.5 and Seedream 5 Pro accepted the name, but the name still has no place in a prompt you will use for an ad, a title or a caption.

Sheet, crops and video: varg-character-design.

The recipe

Style block first, then an original character, then the guard line.

Character model sheet of an original cartoon character, flat light-grey background, no text, no
labels, no logos. Top row: three full-body views at the same scale: front, side profile, back.
Bottom row: three head close-ups: <three expressions>. The same character in every panel.
STYLE: <style block>. CHARACTER: <name, age, body, hair, outfit, prop>.
Original design, no recognizable existing characters.

Design the character to be yours: a hair shape, an outfit and a prop that no existing character has.

Style blocks

LookStyle blockModelKeep away from
Yellow family sitcom (1990s primetime)flat 2D TV-animation look of a classic 1990s primetime family sitcom: thick uniform black outlines, flat saturated cel colors, no shading, lemon-yellow skin, large round white eyes with small black dot pupils, overbite, four-fingered handsnano_banana_2_1bald with two hairs, a blue beehive, spiky-haired kids, the town, the couch gag
3D family feature filmstylised 3D CGI animated family feature-film look, soft global illumination, warm key light, subsurface scattering, big expressive eyes, simplified rounded shapes, matte materialsnano_banana_2_1, gpt_image_2_5lookalike toys and robots, studio names
Hand-painted pastoral animehand-painted watercolor and gouache backgrounds, soft cel-shaded characters with simple faces, big summer clouds, warm nostalgic countryside light, 1990s Japanese animated feature filmgpt_image_2_5, seedance_2_5forest-spirit lookalikes
Paper cut-outcrude construction-paper cut-out animation, flat shapes, visible paper texture, round heads, mitten hands, small snowy mountain townnano_banana_2_1the four boys
Adult sci-fi cartoonlate-night adult 2D sci-fi cartoon, wobbly thin outlines, flat colours, bulging eyes with drawn pupils, neon-green glow, garage-lab cluttergpt_image_2_5, nano_banana_2_1a lab-coat scientist with spiky blue-grey hair and a yellow-shirt teen
Clay stop-motionclay stop-motion look, visible fingerprints and tool marks on plasticine, lumpy hand-sculpted forms, handmade miniature setnano_banana_2_1the inventor and his dog
Felt puppethandmade felt and fleece hand puppet, foam head, ping-pong-ball eyes, wide hinged mouth, visible stitching, TV-studio setgpt_image_2_5a green frog, a pig diva
Vinyl collectibleboxed 6-inch collectible vinyl figure, matte vinyl, slightly oversized head, window box with your own brand artnano_banana_2_1the big-head box shape and logo of existing toy lines
1970s Saturday-morning cartoon (video)use the video presetminimax_h3_max_style_retro_toon_70s

Ready characters

CharacterPrompt seedResult
Gary Pruitt (tested)a tired 45-year-old office manager with a wild curly orange mullet, a thick unibrow and a pot belly, a green sweater vest over a pink short-sleeve shirt, brown trousers, a lanyard ID badge, a giant coffee mug; yellow sitcom looksheet
Nonna Rosa restyled (tested)"Redraw the woman from the character sheet as a 2D cartoon in the look of a classic 1990s primetime animated sitcom: <style block>. Keep her outfit, curlers, glasses, headscarf, leopard housecoat, red slippers and wooden spoon." with her sheet in filesimage

Restyling someone

Pass the person's sheet or photo (with consent) in files and write: "Redraw the person from the reference as <style block>. Keep <hair, glasses, outfit, signature>." Then make a new model sheet in the new style before any video: a photoreal sheet next to a cartoon prompt makes video models mix the two.

Watch out

  • Our Gary is original, but the yellow sitcom look is close to one show's trade dress; for paid ads push it further (another skin colour or eye style).
  • "Pixar", "Ghibli", "LEGO", "Funko", "Muppet", "Claymation" are names and trademarks: keep them out of prompts, file names, titles and ad copy.
  • Stylised characters pass video filters (Seedance, Veo) far more easily than photoreal faces.

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