V5 Custom Anchors Guide

Welcome to Custom Anchors

While every Nomi comes with three stock Anchors, Custom Anchors are also available for users who established a unique identity for their Nomi using Base Images in legacy systems, want to create a non-human character, or simply want more control over their Nomi’s appearance and style.

Creating a Custom Anchor involves a few choices that can meaningfully affect the final result, including the reference image, Anchor type, Default Style, and optional appearance settings. Taking a little time with each step can help V5 produce an Anchor that better reflects the look you want to preserve.

This guide walks through each of those choices, along with tips for getting the best results from your Custom Anchor.

Creating Your Custom Anchor

Choosing a Reference Image

Choosing a strong reference image is one of the most important steps in creating a Custom Anchor. Since the Anchor is built from a single image, the clarity, framing, and overall quality of that image can have a major impact on how well V5 is able to preserve your Nomi’s appearance. When selecting a reference photo, look for the following:

Pick an image that represents the look you want to keep: If your Nomi has an established appearance, choose a reference that best reflects the version of them you want the Anchor to preserve.
Choose a clear, crisp image: Image quality can vary between generations, so look through your Nomi’s gallery for a reference where their features are well-defined and easy to see. Avoid images that appear blurry, overly soft, distorted, or lacking in facial detail.
Choose an image with a clear view of the face and upper body: Since Anchors use a single image as their visual reference, it helps if important features like the face, hair, and upper body are easy to see. Clothing that follows the body’s natural shape can also help V5 better understand overall proportions and build. For best results, choose an image where your Nomi is looking directly at the viewer.
Use an image with only one subject: Avoid reference images that include multiple people or characters, since this can make it harder for V5 to interpret which appearance it should preserve.
Avoid major obstructions: Sunglasses, heavy shadows, hands covering the face, extreme crops, or other objects blocking key features can reduce likeness accuracy.
For non-human characters, clarity still matters: If you are creating an animal, creature, or robot Anchor, choose a reference image where the subject’s main features are clearly visible and easy to distinguish.

Example Reference Prompt

looking directly at viewer, directly facing camera, waist up portrait, relaxed posture, soft smile, bright eyes, wearing a simple tank top and sweatpants. Plain white studio background, even lighting, minimal shadows, high detail

Anchor Type: Riva or Lago?

Riva prioritizes detail and tends to favor more realistic proportions, making it a strong choice for highly detailed or realistic styles. Because it may add more visual detail, some likeness drift can occur. Riva can also handle some non-human subjects, including animals, creatures, and robots, though results may vary.

Lago prioritizes likeness and can be more flexible with imaginative styles and diverse body types. It may produce slightly less overall detail than Riva, but can be a better fit when maintaining your Nomi’s recognizable appearance is the higher priority.

There is no universally “better” option. The best choice depends on which balance of likeness, detail, and flexibility works best for the character you are creating.

Default Style

Default Style sets the visual foundation for images created with the Anchor. For more predictable results, choose a style that matches your reference image.

Photorealistic is an optimized preset for realistic images.
Nomi Anime is an optimized preset for anime-style images.
Custom offers the most flexibility and can be used for styles such as watercolor, 3D animation, vaporwave, fantasy, retro-futuristic cartoons, and more.

When using Custom, you can either describe the style yourself or select “the exact same style as the reference image” to preserve the source image’s visual style without needing to identify it by name.

Airbrushed photorealistic can be a good Custom style for users who prefer a smoother, more polished look similar to earlier image versions. It retains a realistic foundation while softening some of the added texture and detail that V5 may otherwise emphasize.

Additional Appearance Traits

Additional Appearance Traits are optional and are best used for details you want V5 to strongly reinforce across images. Anchors already capture many facial, hair, and body details from the reference image automatically, so you usually do not need to repeat everything that is already clearly visible.

Use this field for traits that may not come through reliably from the reference alone, such as a specific body feature, tattoo, accessory, unusual hairstyle, or non-human characteristic. Keep descriptions short and direct, and remember that anything entered here is still subject to AI interpretation.

For example: Orion, shown above, has distinctive “galaxy hair.” To reinforce this feature across images, his Additional Appearance Traits include “Galaxy hair of blue, purple, pink, green, with black roots.”

Additional Appearance Traits can also be especially helpful for non-human characters. These traits can reinforce important structural or material features that may not be interpreted consistently from the reference image alone.

For example: Fizz uses the following Additional Appearance Traits “small rounded robot, rose gold metal body, glowing face display, compact design, chest display panel”

Sticky Aesthetics

Sticky Aesthetics are optional style cues that can influence the overall look and feel of images made with a Custom Anchor. They can affect things like backgrounds, outfits, accessories, and the general visual atmosphere associated with that Anchor. Think of Appearance Traits as what your Nomi looks like, and Sticky Aesthetics as the visual world or styling they tend to carry with them.

They work best for broad, consistent aesthetics such as modern luxury, medieval, dark academia, cyberpunk streetwear, or similar themes. Keep them short and specific for more predictable results.

Because Sticky Aesthetics can have a strong influence, they may also make it harder to generate images that fall outside the chosen look. Use them when you genuinely want that aesthetic to remain a recurring part of the Anchor’s identity.

In the comparison below, the same character is shown using two different Anchors, with all other settings kept the same. The Anchor on the right uses the Sticky Aesthetic “Luxury Dark Romance,” which changes the mood and styling of the image while keeping the character’s core appearance recognizable.

After Your Anchor Is Created

Once generation is complete, your new Anchor will automatically become the selected/default Anchor for that Nomi. Anchor generation can take up to an hour, but you can continue chatting and creating images with your existing Anchors while it processes.

The image shown during Anchor creation is only a preview and is not representative of the full range of results you can expect. Your Nomi will appear much more dynamic in actual selfies and art, with different poses, expressions, angles, and scenes.

After creation, you can continue adjusting the Anchor from Image Settings. Any Additional Appearance Traits added during creation remain part of the Anchor, while Anchor Appearance Traits can be used afterward to further tweak or reinforce specific details. Anchor Fidelity can also be adjusted to help balance likeness and flexibility.

Anchor Appearance Traits

Anchor Appearance Traits can be used after creation to fine-tune or reinforce specific parts of your Nomi’s appearance. Traits can be written as short descriptive phrases or simple statements, and you do not need to include your Nomi’s name.

For example: Paolo’s Anchor Appearance Traits are “He has black curly hair. He has wings of glowing fiery magma and golden eyes.”

This field allows up to 500 characters, giving you room to reinforce multiple important appearance details. Keep descriptions clear and focused on your Nomi’s appearance, while remembering that adding many traits may also influence pose or overall image focus.

Anchor Fidelity

Anchor Fidelity controls how closely generated images adhere to the selected Anchor. Increasing Fidelity can help strengthen likeness and reduce drift, while lowering it gives V5 more freedom to interpret the character across different poses, styles, and scenes.

If an Anchor feels too rigid, lowering Fidelity may allow more flexibility. If likeness is drifting more than you prefer, increasing Fidelity can help reinforce the Anchor’s core appearance.