Create Cartoon Friends with Image Playground iOS 18

Apple’s Image Playground in iOS 18 enables users to create cartoon-style illustrations and animations of their friends and family. Powered by Apple Intelligence, the feature integrates directly with your Photos library, allowing you to select recognized people and transform their likenesses into custom, stylized digital artwork using simple text prompts and pre-defined visual themes.

How It Works

Image Playground uses facial data from your Photos app's "People" album. When you start a new creation, you can choose to base the image on a specific person. The system references existing photos of that person to capture recognizable features—such as hairstyle, facial structure, and glasses—and translates them into a chosen artistic style.

Available Styles

Image Playground offers two primary styles for generating character art:

  • Illustration: Produces clean, modern vector-style artwork with defined outlines and vibrant colors.
  • Animation: Generates 3D-rendered character art reminiscent of modern animated films.

(Note: Apple initially announced a "Sketch" style alongside Animation and Illustration, but integrated sketching capabilities primarily into the Image Wand tool within the Notes app, leaving Illustration and Animation as the dedicated styles within the standalone Image Playground experience.)

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Friend's Avatar

  1. Open the Image Playground app, or launch it from within Messages, Notes, or Pages.
  2. Tap the Add Person button (represented by a profile icon).
  3. Select a friend or family member from your People album. You can also take or choose a reference photo manually if the person is not tagged.
  4. Select your preferred style (Illustration or Animation).
  5. Add descriptive prompts or select suggested concepts, accessories, and settings (for example, "wearing a chef's hat" or "hiking in the mountains").
  6. Swipe through the generated previews to choose the version you like best.
  7. Tap Done to save the artwork to your library or share it directly in Messages.

Device Requirements and Privacy

Generating images of friends requires a device that supports Apple Intelligence, such as an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any model in the iPhone 16 lineup running iOS 18.2 or later. All image generation for personal likenesses occurs entirely on-device, ensuring that your friends' photos and generated avatars remain private.