Anime character layering
Original character Nori. Drag Nori, hide the name, or move the book.
Sample layers you can click, hide, and drag. Your own image is split in the editor.
Anime character to PSD
Turn a flat anime character into a layered PSD
Anime character to PSD means taking a single flattened anime illustration and getting back a Photoshop file where the character, the large regions of the figure, props, and the background sit on separate transparent layers.
Built for fan artists, commission artists, and small studios who only have the JPG or PNG of a character and need something they can recolor, reposition, or hand to an animator.
Last updated
Drop an image to split it into layers
Separate the subject, text, and background, then move or resize any layer.
How it works
- 1. Upload a flat image. A poster, product shot, or AI picture.
- 2. Split into layers. Subject, text, and background come apart.
- 3. Edit and export. Move, recolor, or download PSD and PNG.
Free preview: 1 split per day at 1K, no sign-up. A full 2K split is 5 credits.
How it works
1
Pick the cleanest source
Use the largest version you have, ideally 1,500 px or more on the short side. Avoid screenshots with UI, watermarks, or speech bubbles over the face.
2
Run the free preview first
The 1K preview shows how the figure separates before you spend a credit. If hair and face fuse in the preview, they will fuse at 2K too.
3
Split at 2K and check each layer
Solo the hair, the outfit, the face, and the background one at a time. Note which pieces came back together.
4
Download the PSD
Open it in your painting app, name the layers, and keep painting. Retouch seams on the hair edge with a small brush.
Cel shading stays intact
Flat colors and hard shadow shapes separate more cleanly than painterly art, so most anime pieces come back as usable blocks.
Background rebuilt behind the figure
Hide the character and the scene behind it is filled in, so you can move the figure or drop it onto a new key visual.
Opens where you draw
The PSD opens in Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Photopea, and Procreate (via import) with layer order and transparency kept.
Why anime art separates well
Anime and manga-style illustrations are built from flat color fills, clean line art, and two or three shadow tones. That structure gives a layer model strong edges to follow, so the figure, the outfit, and props held in the hands usually come apart as clean shapes. Soft, painterly or heavily textured pieces split too, but the boundaries are less exact.
The background is the part people underestimate. A key visual with the character standing in front of a city or a classroom needs the hidden pixels behind the body. Image Layered rebuilds that plate, so after the split you can slide the character to the left of the frame for a banner or a thumbnail without a hole where the body was.
What a typical anime split returns
Expect large meaningful pieces rather than a fixed anatomy chart: the character (often with the face and skin together), hair as one or two pieces when it does not overlap the face too much, the outfit, held props such as a sword or a phone, text or logos, and the background. The exact count follows the picture.
If you need finer parts, such as separate eyes, eyebrows, or a mouth for animation, use this PSD as the starting point and cut those from the face layer by hand. That is the honest workflow described on Live2D parts separation.
For non-character art, such as posters and product shots, image to layers and image to PSD are the general pages.
Common uses
Recoloring an outfit for an alternate costume, moving a character for a YouTube or Twitch thumbnail, extracting a character for a sticker or acrylic stand print, building a parallax header, and handing a commission client a layered file when the original was lost.
For quick color changes you can stay in the browser: select the outfit layer and use Recolor (3 credits), or open the stack in PhotoCraft for masks and blend modes at no extra split cost.
When not to use it
- It does not produce line art and color flats as separate layers. Line and fill stay together inside each piece.
- It does not guarantee a fixed parts list such as eyes, brows, and mouth on their own layers.
- Do not use it on art you do not have the rights to edit or sell.
Frequently asked questions
Will line art and colors be on separate layers?
No. Each returned layer contains its own line art and color. If you need a separate line layer, extract it in your painting app from the PSD.
Does it work with Clip Studio Paint?
Yes. Clip Studio Paint opens PSD files directly and keeps the layer order and transparency.
Can I split a full illustration with several characters?
Yes, but each character tends to come back as one piece. For per-character parts, crop to one figure first.
What does it cost?
One free 1K preview split per day without an account, watermarked and not exportable. A full 2K split is 5 credits and includes both the PSD and the PNG ZIP, whatever the layer count. Credits come back automatically when a split fails. The 100-credit Starter pack is a one-time payment, not a subscription.
Is Image Layered free?
Yes — you can split one image per day at 1K without an account to preview the layers. Full-resolution 2K layers and PSD/PNG ZIP export use 5 credits per split.
What file do I get?
A layered Photoshop PSD where every element is its own named, transparent layer at its original position, or a ZIP of transparent PNGs plus a composite.
What images work best?
Posters, product shots, social graphics, characters and AI-generated images with clear subjects. Very busy photos can merge small details into one layer.
What happens if a split fails?
Credits are refunded automatically when a split fails or times out.
Are my images private?
Uploads are used only to create your layers and are not shown publicly or used for training.
Can I use the layers commercially?
Yes, you can use exported layers from your own images in commercial work.