Avatars
Each engine has its own AI assistant avatar with unique personality, themed visuals, and speaking animations.
Circuit
BlueprintForge for Unreal Engine 5
Circuit is an abstract holographic AI entity — a glowing geometric core with orbiting particle rings. The design reflects the circuitry and data-flow concepts of Unreal Engine's Blueprint system.
Design
- Core: Central dodecahedron with radial gradient glow in CoreBlue (#2563EB)
- Orbital rings: 2-3 elliptical rings with StudioPurple (#7C3AED) accents, rotating at different speeds
- Particles: Floating circuit-trace motes orbiting the core
- Color palette: CoreBlue base, StudioPurple accents, CreativeAmber (#D97706) energy pulses
States
| State | Visual | When |
|---|---|---|
| Idle | Slow pulse, gentle ring rotation | No active AI operations |
| Listening | Brightened core, faster ring rotation | STT recording active |
| Thinking | Fast spinning rings, shimmer effect | Waiting for AI response |
| Speaking | Waveform emanates from core, pulse synced to audio amplitude | TTS playback active |
| Error | Brief red flash, then return to idle | AI request failed |
2D Avatar (Chat Header)
A 48x48 procedurally-drawn avatar appears in the chat panel header. It uses Slate draw elements — no external texture assets needed. The avatar changes state in real time based on current activity.
3D Avatar (Viewport)
Click "Show Circuit" in the dashboard header to spawn a 3D holographic avatar in the editor viewport. The avatar uses a dynamic material with emissive Fresnel glow, panning circuit-trace patterns, and hologram flicker. The orbital ring meshes rotate in the editor tick and pulse frequency matches TTS amplitude during speech.
Manny
Manny for Unity
Manny is a dapper skeleton detective in a suit and fedora — your noir-styled AI assistant inspired by Grim Fandango's aesthetic. The Art Deco visual theme carries through the entire Unity dashboard.
Design
- Character: Skeleton detective with skull dome, hinged jaw, fedora hat (brim + crown + gold band), and suit collar lapels
- Color palette: MannyYellow (#F59E0B) primary glow, Bone White (#F5F0E8) skull, Noir Black (#0D0D0D) fedora and suit, Marigold Gold energy accents
- Theme: Art Deco geometric patterns, stepped corner accents, Josefin Sans typography
States
| State | Visual | When |
|---|---|---|
| Idle | Slow MannyYellow glow pulse (2s period), gentle rotation | No active AI operations |
| Thinking | Hat tip animation, MarigoldGold shimmer, faster rotation | Waiting for AI response |
| Speaking | Jaw synced to TTS amplitude, waveform bars, glow pulse | TTS playback active |
| Recording | Red pulse glow, slow rotation | STT microphone recording |
| Transcribing | DeepTeal glow, moderate rotation | Audio being transcribed |
| Error | Brief red flash, then return to idle | AI request failed |
2D Avatar (Dashboard Header)
A 32x48 procedurally-drawn avatar appears in the dashboard header using Unity's Painter2D API. The skull, fedora, jaw, collar lapels, and Art Deco corner accents are drawn entirely in code — no external texture assets needed. The jaw animates in sync with TTS audio amplitude, and the glow color changes based on the current state.
3D Avatar (Scene View)
Click "Show Manny" in the dashboard header to spawn a 3D avatar in the Unity Scene View. Built from Unity primitives (sphere skull, cylinder fedora, cube jaw and collar lapels) with dynamic emissive Standard shader materials. The avatar follows the Scene View camera with smooth lerping, rotates based on the current state, and pulses the emission intensity in sync with TTS playback.
Speaking Animations
When TTS is active, Manny displays four simultaneous visual effects:
- Pulsing glow: The message bubble border oscillates between MannyYellow and transparent
- Waveform bar: A 5-bar audio visualizer below the speaker button, driven by playback amplitude with per-bar frequency offsets
- Speaker rings: Three concentric circles expand outward and fade from the speaker icon
- Jaw sync: Both 2D and 3D avatar jaws animate in sync with TTS audio amplitude
Themed Thinking
While processing, Manny displays noir-themed status messages instead of generic "Thinking..." text. These include phrases like "Consulting the case files...", "Skulking through the shadows...", and "Rattling some bones...". The themed text can be toggled off in Settings.
Theme System
15 themes + Custom Theme Creator
The WebUI avatar system supports 15 pre-built themes plus a custom theme creator (Ultimate only). Each theme changes the avatar visuals, UI color scheme, personality phrases, and themed loading messages.
Available Themes
| Theme | Unlock | Style |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit | Free | Purple/cyan hologram (default UE5) |
| Manny | Free | Gold/navy noir skeleton |
| Professional | Free | Indigo/teal clean design |
| Racing | PitCrew suite | Orange/black motorsport |
| StarCraft | StarDock suite | Cyan/deep space |
| Warcraft | AssemblyLine suite | Gold/emerald fantasy |
| Diablo | GameLab suite | Red/charcoal dark |
| Sports | HangarBay/FlightDeck suite | Green/white athletic |
| Strong Bad | Ultimate only | Red/black wrestling mask |
| 8-Bit | Ultimate only | Retro pixel green/black |
| Tron | Ultimate only | Cyan/black grid lines |
| Fortnite | Ultimate only | Blue/purple storm |
| King of Tokyo | Ultimate only | Red/gold kaiju |
| J.A.R.V.I.S. | Ultimate (achievement) | Blue/white holographic |
| Custom | Ultimate only | User-defined colors & personality |
14 Avatar States
Each avatar animates through 14 states: idle, thinking, planning, building, searching, generating, responding, questioning, processing, listening, success, error, recording, speaking. States are driven by the useAvatarState hook in the WebUI and switch automatically based on current AI activity.
Custom Theme Creator (Ultimate)
Ultimate users can create custom themes with a name, icon, accent color, personality description, and custom phrases. Custom themes are saved to localStorage and can be shared via the Shared Marketplace.
Settings
- Show Circuit (UE5): Toggle button in the dashboard header to show/hide the 3D viewport avatar
- Show Manny (Unity): Toggle button in the dashboard header or Settings > Creative tab to show/hide the 3D Scene View avatar
- Avatar Scale (Unity): Slider in Settings > Creative tab (0.5x to 2.0x) to resize the 3D avatar
- Themed Thinking: Settings > TTS > Themed Thinking toggle. When off, displays the default "Thinking..." text
- Avatar speaking animations: Automatically active when TTS is enabled. No separate toggle needed.