Make a headshot or avatar from a photo you already have

Start from a photo, not from scratch

A generator working from text alone invents a face. For a profile picture that is the wrong tool, because a headshot has to look like the actual person. Founders on an about page, a freelancer on a client profile, a whole team roster: the point is recognition. Starting from a reference photo keeps your real features and only reworks the parts you ask about.

The model reads your photo, holds onto the face, and rebuilds everything else around your instructions. A phone selfie shot in bad light can come back as a clean profile image with an even background, because the identity is carried over from the reference while the lighting and setting are redone.

You are also not stuck with one lucky render. Run the same reference a few times, change one instruction on each pass, and keep the frame that looks most like you.

Three ways to send your reference photo

You edit from a start image with generate_image. How you point it at your reference depends on where the photo lives, and there are three routes.

Whichever one you use, the reference image is used in memory for the generation and never stored, and nothing you send sits on a server after the image comes back.

• Generated it already in the same agent with Nano Banana 2? Pass its id with start_from_generation and edit from that exact result.
• Photo sitting on your laptop? Ask for an upload slot with create_image_upload, send the bytes to the URL it hands back, then reference it with start_upload_id.
• Photo already public on the web? Point at it with start_image_url.

Describe what changes and what stays

The trick with a headshot is naming what to change and trusting the model to keep the rest. Your face and expression are the part you want left alone, so spend your words on everything around it: the background, the wardrobe, the lighting, the crop.

A prompt that behaves reads like a brief. “Keep the face and hair, put me against a soft neutral grey background, plain dark shirt, even studio lighting, shoulders-up crop.” Specific about the setting, quiet about the person, which is exactly the balance you want.

For an avatar rather than a straight headshot, say so plainly: a flat illustrated style, a clean vector look, a subtle painterly finish. The reference still anchors the likeness, so an illustrated avatar reads as you and not a generic character.

Turn a headshot into a short intro clip

Once you have a headshot you like, you can animate it without a second shoot. Pass the image id into generate_video with start_from_generation, and the model treats your headshot as the first frame.

Keep the motion small. A living portrait works best: a slight head turn, eyes catching the light, a slow push in. Big moves warp a face, so ask for one gentle thing. This is the kind of clip that sits well as a moving avatar on an about page or the opener of a short intro reel.

A five-second clip is 35 credits on Kling 3, or use Kling 3 Turbo when you want the result back faster. Video is queued rather than instant, so your agent polls get_generation until it is ready.

Cost, resolution, and where the file lives

A generated image is 8 credits at 1K or 2K, and 16 credits at 4K. For a profile picture on any site, 1K or 2K is plenty, since it will be displayed small. Reach for 4K only when the same shot has to work in print or on a large display, like a conference badge or a press page.

One credit balance covers both images and video, so a stack of headshots and a short clip come out of the same wallet. We bill the models at cost and add no markup, so the credit price is the model price.

Every finished image sits on a private link for 7 days, then it is deleted. Download the ones you want to keep as soon as they are ready, because nothing is retained for you after that.

Set it up in your agent

Figgshield is an MCP connector that your AI agent calls to make media. You add the server once at https://api.figgshield.ai/mcp, then ask in plain language and the agent calls the tools for you.

It runs inside the tools you already use: Claude on desktop and Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and ChatGPT in Developer Mode on a paid plan. Any MCP-capable agent works the same way.

There is no free tier. The $5 Pro trial runs 7 days and includes 150 credits, and if you cancel before it renews you pay nothing more.