If you've checked almost any social network in the last few days, chances are you've seen weird animated avatars of your friends (or celebrities) singing, dancing or gyrating on stripper poles.
All these images and videos have come from MyIdol, a Chinese app that's blown up in the U.S. It uses your phone's camera or uploaded photos to transform your face into a wild, animated doppelgänger. But the whole app is written in Simplified Chinese, meaning you'll have to spend a bit of time poking around if you want to learn how it works.
But we've done the work so you can learn how to quickly make embarrassingly strange videos of your cartoon self singing "Let it Go."
Where do I get MyIdol?
You can find it by searching "MyIdol" in the App Store, or click on this link. Currently there is not an Android version.
Does the app cost anything?
No, and changing your character's clothes/hair doesn't require money either.
Getting your face in the app
When you get started, MyIdol will give you a little instructional video on how to take the best photo for the app. Make sure you're in a well-lit room, under a direct light source so there are few shadows on your face. Then remove any hats or glasses — the camera isn't really sure what to do with these. Push your hair out of your face as well.
You'll want to take a selfie straight on, without tilting your head. The app has handy guidelines and will show you a green box when your face is positioned well. Snap the photo and keep it by pressing the checkmark. Alternatively, you can upload a picture from your camera roll, but it needs to meet the same criteria — though this is a great way to put your friends or celebrities into the app.
MyIdol then scans your face and asks you to double check the boundaries of your facial features by repositioning green markers on the screen. This is definitely where shadows or facial hair could give the app trouble, so make sure everything is correct. (I used Game of ThronesKhal Drogo actor Jason Momoa to show how facial hair can trip the app up.)
Next, you'll be presented with two buttons. Most non-Chinese speakers might assume the green button means to proceed, while the red one means go back, but they are actually asking you to pick your gender. Tap the green button on the left for male and the red button on the right for female. (Don't worry if you mess this up; it's easy to fix later.)
Voila! You're scanned in
Your face (or your chosen victim's) is now on a little mini just begging to be customized. But before we go on, let's explain the menu:
IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE, CHELSEA STARK
You'll see four buttons on the bottom row. Click the one with the jacket to get started on customization.
This section has tons of options that can zap a lot of your time. The first button, with the clock, determines your age. (The guide by app maker Avatarworks calls this "Time Machine.") You can have fun turning your character into a wrinkled little raisin, or a bright-eyed cherub. (Seriously, why are baby's eyes reminiscent of an anime character's?)
IMAGE: MASHABLE SCREENSHOT, CHELSEA STARK
The next tab is makeup and skin tone. You'll be able to somewhat change your skin tone, though the options are very limited for lighter tones. (And, inexplicably, there is also green and blue.) You can also change your skin tone's warmth with the bottom slider or improve your skin quality with the top three.
IMAGE: MASHABLE SCREENSHOT, CHELSEA STARK
(Worth noting: This is where I learned you could change your gender in the editing process, by hitting the two buttons at the top center of the screen.)
The next options were a lot more self-explanatory, as you'll be able to change your avatar's hair and clothing. There are separate tabs for glasses, hair style, facial hair, colored contacts, tops, bottoms, shoes and face paint. The biggest tip here is that things that are grayed-out aren't behind a paywall; instead, you just need to click and let it load. Green text appears over it while it's loading, and you can load multiple items at once, which is huge since bigger ones take a while.
The biggest disappointment for many people is there are lots of hair styles, but not a lot of hair types or textures. You can't select color and style independently, meaning styles are locked into one hair color. I couldn't really find any close to my hair, which admittedly is pink, though there were a few alternative options.
IMAGE: MASHABLE SCREENSHOT, CHELSEA STARK
There are also full outfits in the some of the tabs. The one with the flower has some strange choices (the guide calls this tab "girl suit"), and the tab to the far right featuring a little leotard icon has even more options. You'll find a lot of weird choices, including some super heroes, fancy dresses, athletes and a giant panda. Many of these also come with an accompanying animation when you put them on.
IMAGE: MASHABLE SCREENSHOT, CHELSEA STARK
Now, on to the fun part
While MyIdol's robust character creator can be fun, what's really great is making your little avatar literally dance for your amusement. Once you've finished customizing, tapping the top left corner will take you back to the main menu.
You can now create movies starring mini you. Tap the little film camera icon to jump right in. Flip through the tabs up top to check out a variety of movie modes, which will take a little bit of time to load into MyIdol. (This is another great time to load a bunch of movie options and put your phone down for a few minutes.) A lot of the songs put your character into karaoke mode. While most of the songs are Chinese, there are a few Japanese and English tunes thrown in too, including Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" and the inescapable Frozen anthem, "Let it Go."
After you've previewed a track, you have two options at the bottom. The green button on the right lets you export and share your movie, unaltered. The option on the left allows you to dub in your own audio. You'll be taken to another page that asks you to press a large green button to record your own audio, so you can sing your own lyrics or dub in different music.
Wrapping up
Since MyIdol was built with Chinese users in mind, most of the sharing features are linked to Chinese social networks, not Facebook or Twitter. You can still export videos and photos to your camera roll to post wherever you'd like, though this option doesn't work with the auto-generated gifs.
The company has said it plans to offer an English language version due to the app's popularity, but if the app maker needs to get licenses for English songs, that may slow down the process.
Do you have any other MyIdol tips? See anything we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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