37. Turn any photo into a minimalist bot avatar
The job: Send Muse a photo — get back a minimalist bot-style avatar that keeps your most recognizable features. A reusable prompt for profile pictures with a consistent style.
Reimagine the person in the reference photo as a minimalist 2D bot-style avatar. Preserve only the most recognizable elements: hair color, hairstyle silhouette, and a few signature clothing or accessory details. Do not aim for realistic facial resemblance. Use a 1:1 square composition with a solid charcoal background. The character should peek into the frame from the lower-left corner, with the head tilted about 15° clockwise. Use an extreme close-up composition: crop parts of the face and hair along the left and bottom edges, while keeping both eyes fully visible. Leave generous negative space in the upper-right area. The face should be large, rounded, and pale cream-colored, with soft oval blush on both cheeks. The eyes must be two identical, parallel, solid black vertical capsule shapes, approximately 3:1 in height-to-width ratio. No irises, sclera, highlights, eyelashes, eyebrows, nose, or mouth. Simplify the hair into large graphic shapes with minimal strand detail. Use soft pastel flat colors, very limited shading, clean vector-like shapes, and a restrained cute aesthetic. Clothing should only appear as a small cropped color block near the bottom of the frame. No full body, hands, props, weapons, circular borders, text, logos, particles, or complex background elements. Prioritize the signature capsule eyes + mouthless bot face over accurate reproduction of the original person.
What Muse will do:
- Send Muse a clear photo (good lighting, face visible)
- Paste the prompt as-is — the exclusion list is load-bearing, don't trim it
- If the result drifts, restate the one rule it broke ('eyes must be solid black capsules, no highlights')
- Run the same prompt on other photos for a matching set
Why it works: A good avatar prompt is a design spec, not a vibe request. This one works because every aesthetic decision is nailed down — composition, palette, what to include, and a long explicit exclusion list. That constraint list is the real trick: image models fill unspecified space with clutter, so saying "no text, no logos, no particles" matters more than the style words. Reuse the same prompt across photos and you get a consistent set — handy for team pages or alt accounts.
Common failures:
- Models love adding mouths and eyebrows — the 'no mouth' rule needs repeating on retries
- Busy source photos (crowds, props) confuse the simplification — crop to the person first
- This is a community-submitted prompt, not a tested walkthrough — expect a few iterations
Prompt variations:
- Swap the charcoal background for your brand color
- Change 'pastel flat colors' to a duotone palette for a more corporate feel
- Ask for a 16:9 banner version using the same character spec
Submitted by Jack
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