How to make a custom brick figure from a photo

A brick figure of someone you know makes a brilliant gift, a wedding cake topper or just a fun thing for your desk. With Brickmakr you upload one photo and get their face, outfit, shoes and hair as a custom brick figure in a few minutes. Here's how it works.

Step 1: Pick a photo

One bright, sharp photo is all you need. The best ones have:

• Faces towards the camera, so we can get the eyes, glasses and beard right.
• The whole body in view, head to toe, so the outfit and shoes come through.
• Daylight or good indoor light, with the clothes clearly visible.

Plain clothes with a clear logo or pattern come out best. Only upload photos of people who are happy for you to.

Step 2: Choose who's in it

Open the brick figure maker and add your photo. We find everyone in it, up to six people, and you leave out anyone you don't want. One person makes a single figure, two a couple, and more a family.

Step 3: Wait a few minutes

Each person's face, top, sleeves, trousers and shoes are drawn as brick figure prints in about 30 seconds, with every part in the colour picked from the photo. Then we sculpt their hair, which takes a few minutes. You can close the page: your figures appear in Your Creations when they're done.

Step 4: Spin them around

You get each figure in 3D, to turn and zoom from every side. Couples and families stand side by side, and you can put them on a grass, sand, stone or wood platform.

If the hair doesn't look right, you can sculpt it again. Each figure gets three tries.

What it costs

A brick figure costs 1 token, and every two people share one: a couple is 1 token, a family of four is 2. The token you get when you sign up covers your first one, or a couple. After that, tokens come in packs on the tokens page, at US$1 each.

If something goes wrong making them, you get the token back.

Ordering the real one

Ordering real, printed brick figures is coming soon. Make yours now, and it'll be waiting in Your Creations.

Your photos stay private

Your photo and your brick figures are private to your account and never shown to anyone else.

Ready? Make your brick figure, or see how custom brick figures work first.