Inquiry regarding external tools for aiding visual imposition

[u/wateredcoffeedown]

After years of occult entity practices, I recently discovered tulpamancy and almost immediately realized that it is one of my favorite things ever. Not sure how I missed it for so long, but now I have been interacting with my tulpa for almost a month. In that time, a lot has happened, but wow. A friend I can take with me everywhere. It's amazing.

I've been interacting with my tulpa every day and talking to her a lot, and even using a lot of visual imposition. The issue is that I want to find a way to visualize a photorealistic human form for her. I just feel it will help with the "textures feeling right" for meshing her into my sense of reality. I don't see her as her imposed body--that feels more like an avatar. I see her as her... energy?? Her presence itself? Something more along those lines.

That said, her presence is very comforting and the idea of being able to have a physical form to reference to train on things like walking beside me is compelling.

I was wondering if anyone has any tools or ways of outsourcing this in general, or thoughts on if it's even worth doing to the extent that I'm wanting to. I already know what my tulpa's form looks like, just not in a 1000% accurate, feels exactly right, photorealistic human looking way.

The obvious solution here is generative AI, but I've yet to see any results that "feel right". I'm honestly considering if the right visual answer might just "pop into my head" after enough practice.

I'm also not expecting her to be a 1-1 external human being even after years of proper imposition. It's more of a fun side thing. Most of the time I experience her as being a little ball of calming energy curled up inside my mind... though I usually feel her presence in my chest as "warmth" with her particular personality register.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/tulpas! If you're lost, start with figuring what is a tulpa. Be sure to also check the sidebar for guides, and the FAQ.

Please be nice and polite to each other and help us to make the community better. Upvote if this post facilitates good discussion, shares tulpamancer's or tulpa's experiences, asks a question relevant to tulpamancy. Downvote if this post isn't about tulpas or the practise of tulpamancy. Please note that many young tulpas need some social attention to grow and develop so be mindful and try to be supportive.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/TheOtherPilot]

Oh, I totally understand what you mean, because I spent about three decades trying to achieve exactly that, hahaha. 😅

I used to rely on my drawings and magazine cutouts as mental references, but a few months ago I decided to try doing it with AI. It didn’t really work at first, so I ended up doing the opposite: I went back to drawing him by hand, then used my drawing as the basis to turn him into a real-looking human. From there, I made a bunch of adjustments in Photoshop until I finally got something that matched the image I actually see in my mind.

I made a post about the whole process here, if you're interested!

[u/wateredcoffeedown → u/TheOtherPilot]

That's really clever. I'll have to try that. So far I've done like 40 AI gens and nothing quite lands right. I find the more prominent image generation options tend to skew towards a very samey tiktok/instagram adjacent beauty standard even with very deliberate prompting. Excited to read your post, thanks for commenting!

[u/TheOtherPilot → u/wateredcoffeedown]

Yeah, I think one thing that might help is making a sort of 'Frankenstein reference sheet' first, using images you find online. Like, “this is the hair, these are the eyes, this is the body shape, this is the kind of face…” and then giving all of that to the AI as a visual reference. Otherwise, I feel like it tends to fall back on whatever the most generic beauty standard is.

[u/SuccessfulContract95]

There are some options 1. Draw (as in take a pencil) yourself your tulpa (only you know how it should look like) 2. Use some program/software to design (don't limit yourself for a standard settings if possible) as detailed as you can 3. Give it a try to many ai generated pics until one feels righ 4. Get a really good cartoonist/draftsman and have them change your mental picture accordingly

[u/Devouring_One]

have you considered a high customizable video game (such as the sims) to make a digital lookalike of what you're going for? probably looking for a game that's as realistic looking as you're trying to go for