Live2D parts separation guide: best practices
Live2D parts separation is the critical art of cutting character illustrations into movable layers with hidden occlusions painted in before rigging in Live2D Cubism. Modern live2d parts separation ai enables auto parts separation for live2d, transforming days of manual cutting into minutes.
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| Anatomy Part | Traditional Manual Obstacle | AI Parts Separation Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Front Bangs & Hair Strands | Lasso tracing hair strands leaves ugly halos | Semantic alpha matte isolation with smooth margins |
| Forehead & Facial Skin | Hair leaves transparent void needing full repainting | Deep learning auto occlusion inpainting fills forehead |
| Neck & Torso Under Clothes | Collars and ties hide anatomy causing distortion | Auto-reconstructed body lines and skin canvas |
| Eyes (Lashes, Pupils, Whites) | Eye block cutting requires background eye socket fill | Extracted as clean layers with eye socket skin under |
| Outfit & Limbs | Lassoing jacket requires drawing body underneath | Outfit and underlying anatomy exported on separate layers |
Steps
1. Prepare front-facing artwork
Use clean standing pose art at 2K resolution or higher.
2. Run Live2D parts separation AI
Decompose layers with automated occlusion inpainting.
3. Review inpainted skin plates
Check that forehead and neck plates have generous coverage.
4. Export Live2D ready PSD
Download multi-layer Photoshop PSD with native coordinates.
5. Import into Cubism and rig
Drag into Live2D Cubism and begin warp deformer rigging.
Why parts separation dictates Live2D model quality
Live2D Cubism works by applying polygon meshes and warp deformers to isolated 2D art layers. If parts separation is sloppy, the rigger is immediately blocked by jagged borders, inconsistent outlines, or missing patches.
Occlusion inpainting is the most crucial element. When an avatar tilts its head, the background behind the hair must be painted in seamlessly, otherwise unsightly transparent voids destroy the illusion of 3D depth.
The three golden rules of Live2D parts cutting
Rule 1: Always paint extra margin on occluded areas. Foreheads and body plates should extend slightly beyond their resting visibility so extreme rotation deformers never clip into empty canvas.
Rule 2: Eliminate edge halos and hard white fringes. Semi-transparent hair tips must have soft anti-aliased alpha falloff, not harsh binary pixels.
Rule 3: Maintain exact canvas coordinates across all layers. Every layer must share the identical origin coordinate so Cubism reconstructs the character without manual shifting.
Modern auto parts separation for Live2D with AI
Professional animation studios now deploy Live2D parts separation AI as an automated first pass. The AI performs the coarse 80% extraction and occlusion inpainting in under 60 seconds.
Riggers receive a standardized multi-layer PSD with full alpha channels, allowing them to jump directly into deformer setup and physics configuration in Live2D Cubism.
Importing into Live2D Cubism 4 & 5
Drag the exported PSD straight into Live2D Cubism. The software imports every layer as an individual ArtMesh with clipping groups intact.
Generate standard or detailed polygon meshes, set up parent-child warp deformers for hair and face, and animate your model with confidence.
Try it on your own image
Full 2K splits are 5 credits, failed splits are refunded automatically, and the Starter pack is a one-time payment.
Split an imageQuestions
Can beginners use this without prior cutting experience?
Yes! The AI automates the most time-consuming and technically difficult steps: tracing fine outlines and painting hidden skin under hair and clothes.
Is the exported PSD compatible with Clip Studio Paint?
Yes, the output is a standard Photoshop PSD file that opens perfectly in Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, and PhotoCraft.
Can I use the output for commercial VTuber avatars?
Yes, you own full commercial rights to all output layers and PSD files generated from illustrations you own or license.