How to Use Neolemon: Step-by-Step Guide

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This guide walks you through how to use Neolemon, from generating your very first image to creating a finished story. You’ll learn how each feature in the app works, including Character Turbo, Photo to Cartoon, Action Editor, Editor Pro, and the full set of editors and creative tools. No drawing skills or prompting experience required.

The short answer: how Neolemon works

Neolemon creates consistent cartoon characters in three moves. First, you describe your character in plain words and generate a base image with Character Turbo. Then you reuse that image as a reference in the Action Editor or Editor Pro to place the same character into new poses, expressions, and scenes. Because every new image is built from your reference, the character keeps the same face, outfit, and style across your whole story. New users get 20 free credits to try it, no card required.

What can you create with Neolemon?

Illustrations for a story	Coloring book pages
Personalised characters	Visuals for social media
Avatars in various styles	Custom brand mascots
Images for children's books	Characters in new scenes

Before you start: create your free account

Open neolemon.com and click Start for free

Verify your email and you will be logged in automatically

New users receive 20 free credits to test the app. Each image generation costs 4 credits, so that is 5 free images. Prompt tools like Prompt Easy are unlimited and never consume credits.

One thing to know upfront: Neolemon is a web app designed for laptop use, not mobile.

The 5-minute workflow: your first consistent character

This is the core loop the whole app is built around. Master it and every other feature becomes an extension of it.

Step 1: Open Character Turbo

Choose Create New Character.

The Character Turbo tool will open.

Step 2: Describe your character

Write a simple prompt describing your character. Follow this structure:

[Subject], [Specific details], [Outfit]

For example:

Young girl with long brown hair and bangs, wearing a yellow raincoat and boots

A few rules that make a real difference to consistency:

Keep it short and visual. Long ChatGPT-style prompts with links, negations, or references confuse the model.

Use positive phrasing. Neolemon does not work with negative prompts, so "no beard" can still generate a beard. Write "clean-shaven" instead.

Be precise. Skip vague words like "around" or "maybe".

If you are unsure whether your prompt is well structured, use the AI Improve option under the prompt field, or the free Prompt Easy tool (covered below).

Full prompt-writing guide: How to Write AI Cartoon Character Prompts

Step 3: Set the action, background, style, and aspect ratio

Action: for your first image, always use standing, full body pose, smiling. This image becomes your reference for everything that follows, and a clean full-body pose is the strongest anchor for consistency.

Background: keep it simple, or prompt plain white background. Avoid prompting "no background", that is a negative prompt and will not work.

Style: pick the visual style that fits your story and stay with it for the whole project.

Aspect ratio: the default is 1:1. Change it if you already know your final format, or reframe later.

Step 4: Generate

Click Generate. Each generation costs 4 credits and your character appears on the right.

Not happy with the result? That is normal early on. Regenerate with the same prompt, simplify the description, or adjust one detail at a time. Iteration is part of the process.

Step 5: Create new scenes with the Action Editor

Press Next Step and the Action Editor opens with your character loaded as the reference. Type a new prompt in the field:

Change the action to walking to the front and waving hello

Generate, then repeat with new actions to build your story: sitting and reading a book, looking up at a butterfly, walking to the side in side profile. Each image keeps the same face, outfit, and style. Scroll up and down in the chat to see all results.

That is the whole core workflow. Everything else in this guide builds on it.

Editor Pro: consistent characters AND consistent backgrounds

Editor Pro is the feature to learn next, especially for story scenes where the setting needs to stay recognisable from page to page.

Step 1: Create your first scene background. Start with your character image on a white background and open it in Editor Pro. Prompt the action and the colorful background you want for your first scene, then generate.

Step 2: Continue the story from the new image. Find the orange Editor Pro button on top of the generated image and press it. Editor Pro reopens using the newly generated image as the reference. Now prompt only the new action.

Step 3: Keep building. Chain each new image as the next reference until you have every scene you need for that setting. When you want a completely new background, go back to your original white-background character image and start again from Step 1.

Download your images or save them into Projects to see the whole story in one place.

The full Neolemon toolkit, feature by feature

Prompt Easy: structured prompts in one click (free)

Prompt Easy turns a rough idea into a well-structured prompt, and it never consumes credits. Type your idea and press Enhance Prompt, or upload an image and let the app generate a prompt from it. Then press Create Character and Neolemon carries the prompt straight into Character Turbo.

Deep dive: Prompt Easy guide

Photo to Cartoon: a personalised avatar in 1 minute

Open Photo to Cartoon on the dashboard, add your prompt, upload a reference photo, scroll down, and generate. Your cartoon avatar is ready in about a minute. From there, use the Action Editor to put your cartoon self into new scenes.

Deep dive: Photo to Cartoon guide

Action Editor: any character, any pose

The Action Editor also works with characters you did not create in Neolemon. Upload any cartoon character image, whether you made it elsewhere, commissioned it, or drew it yourself, and write simple action prompts:

Change the action to sitting and reading a book

Use one full-body character per chat to maintain consistency, and change one action at a time. Once you have the perfect pose, use Upscale for print-ready resolution.

Deep dive: Action Editor guide and 70+ action prompt keywords

Expression Editor: emotions on demand

Upload your character (or press the orange Expression Editor button on any Character Turbo image), pick or prompt an expression, and generate. Best suited to human faces, though simple prompts work for non-human characters too.

Deep dive: Expression Editor guide

Perspective Editor: new camera angles

Experiment with prompts to see your character from new angles: side profile, from above, three-quarter view.

Outfit Editor: new looks, same character

Changing an outfit by re-prompting often changes other details by accident. The Outfit Editor swaps clothing while locking everything else in place.

Deep dive: Outfit Editor guide

Background Editor: new scenes, zero drift

Swap the background behind your character without losing character consistency.

Deep dive: Background Editor guide

Story Scene Pro: multi-character scenes with a set background

Upload one to three character references (full-body images on plain backgrounds work best) plus one background reference, describe the scene, tag your characters, pick an aspect ratio, and generate.

Multi Character: two heroes in one image

Create each character in its own Character Turbo chat, download both images, then upload them together in Multi Character with a prompt describing how they share the scene. Note: images made from uploaded references are saved inside the Multi Character chat, not on your dashboard.

Quick fixes: Magic Erase, Brush Erase, Reframe

Magic Erase removes objects from an image with one click. Brush Erase lets you mask an exact area to modify (available only for images created with Character Turbo in the app). Reframe resizes any image to a new aspect ratio for social posts, animation, or book layouts.

Small features that save you time

Reuse. Open any Character Turbo image, press Reuse in the top left corner, and the app autofills your original prompt into the fields. Change the action before generating, otherwise you will get the same image again. Perfect for coming back to a character days later.

Upscale. Press the Upscale button (arrows icon) on any image for print-ready 300 DPI resolution at 8.5 x 8.5 inches. The enhanced version appears at the top of the same folder. Like other operations, it costs 4 credits.

Deep dive: How to upscale for print

Transparent background. Pick an image, press Transparent Background in the top right corner, and a cutout version generates in the same chat. Remember: prompt plain white background on the original, never "transparent background".

Folder thumbnails. Open a character's folder, pick your favourite image, and press the star to make it the folder cover.

Where your images are saved (read this before you lose one)

This is the number one support question, so here is the rule:

Created your character inside the app with Character Turbo? Everything from that session, including Action Editor scenes and images made via the orange editor buttons, lives in a folder on your Home dashboard.

Uploaded an image into an editor manually (your own file, or a character made in another app)? The generations are saved inside that editor's chat, not on the dashboard. Open the editor and scroll up and down to find them.

So: dashboard folders for in-app characters, editor chats for uploaded references.

Organise your story with Projects

Projects pull everything together: in-app characters, editor outputs you have downloaded, and externally created images.

Go to Projects

Click Add New Project and give it a name

Add images from your dashboard or upload them from your laptop

View everything in a Grid view, or click Storyboard to sequence your scenes and add notes

FAQ

Is Neolemon free to try?

Yes. New users get 20 free credits on sign-up, which covers 5 image generations. No card required. Prompt tools are unlimited and free.

How much does Neolemon cost?

The Creator Plan is $29/month for 600 credits (150 images). Every image generation and edit, including upscaling and transparent backgrounds, costs 4 credits; prompt tools are free. Credits are valid for 30 days. Details at neolemon.com/pricing.

Can I use a character I created in another app or ChatGPT?

Yes. Upload it into the Action Editor, Expression Editor, or other editors to create new poses, expressions, and scenes. Full-body front views on plain backgrounds work best. If you recreate the character inside the app instead, you unlock the dashboard folders and the one-click editor buttons.

Why does my character look different between images?

Almost always a prompt problem. Keep descriptions short and visual, avoid negative phrasing, change one thing at a time, and always anchor on a full-body reference image. In Editor Pro, chain each new image as the next reference.

Does Neolemon work on my phone?

Neolemon is a web app built for laptop use. For the smoothest experience with all features, use it on a computer.

Start creating today

You now know the full toolkit. The fastest way to make it stick is to create your first character right now: open Neolemon, describe your hero in one sentence, and generate. Your free trial includes 20 credits, no card required.

Need help along the way? Email support@neolemon.com.