Anima image generation

Anima is an anime-focused image generation ecosystem on Civitai's sdcpp workers. Single engine path, one operation (createImage — no img2img or edit support), optimized defaults for anime/illustration output:

• engine: "sdcpp", ecosystem: "anima"
• Only createImage — Anima doesn't expose createVariant or editImage. Use Flux 2 Klein or Qwen if you need img2img or prompt-driven editing.
• Higher default steps (30) and lower default cfgScale (4) than the SD ecosystems — tuned for anime output
• Supports LoRAs for style/character injection
• No checkpoint URN needed — the ecosystem ships its own model; an optional diffuserModel override exists for advanced cases

Prerequisites

• A Civitai orchestration token (Quick start → Prerequisites)
• No checkpoint URN required — Anima uses a built-in diffuser

Text-to-image

POST https://orchestration.civitai.com/v2/consumer/workflows?wait=60
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "sdcpp",
      "ecosystem": "anima",
      "operation": "createImage",
      "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, 1girl, solo, portrait, looking at viewer, cinematic lighting",
      "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality, blurry, bad anatomy, deformed hands",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "cfgScale": 4,
      "steps": 30
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "sdcpp", "ecosystem": "anima", "operation": "createImage", "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, 1girl, solo, portrait, looking at viewer, cinematic lighting", "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality, blurry, bad anatomy, deformed hands", "width": 1024, "height": 1024, "cfgScale": 4, "steps": 30 } } ] }

Valid JSON

Parameters

Field	Default	Range	Notes
prompt	— ✅	≤ 10 000 chars	Booru-style tags work best. Lead with quality boosters (masterpiece, best quality, …).
negativePrompt	(none)	≤ 10 000 chars	Recommended. worst quality, low quality, blurry, bad anatomy, deformed hands is a solid starting point.
width / height	1024	64–2048, divisible by 16	Anima is trained around 1024² and well-behaved aspect ratios near that pixel count.
cfgScale	4	0–30	Lower than SD1/SDXL's 7. 3–5 is the sweet spot for Anima.
steps	30	1–150	Higher than most sdcpp defaults. 25–35 typical.
sampleMethod	euler	enum	SdCppSampleMethod.
schedule	simple	enum	SdCppSchedule.
loras	{}	{ airUrn: strength }	Stack multiple; 0.6–1.0 strengths typical.
diffuserModel	(built-in)	AIR URN	Optional override for the diffuser. The default built-in model is what you want in almost every case.
quantity	1	1–12	Number of images per call.
seed	random	int64	Pin for reproducibility.

Aspect-ratio variants

Anima handles non-square aspect ratios well near ~1 megapixel total area — similar guidance to SDXL. Well-behaved dimensions include 1024², 1152×896, 1344×768, 1536×640, and their mirrors.

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "sdcpp",
      "ecosystem": "anima",
      "operation": "createImage",
      "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, cyberpunk anime scene, neon city street at night",
      "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality, blurry",
      "width": 1344,
      "height": 768,
      "cfgScale": 4,
      "steps": 30
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "sdcpp", "ecosystem": "anima", "operation": "createImage", "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, cyberpunk anime scene, neon city street at night", "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality, blurry", "width": 1344, "height": 768, "cfgScale": 4, "steps": 30 } } ] }

Valid JSON

With LoRAs

Anima LoRAs are a map of AIR URN → strength. Style LoRAs usually sit at 0.6–1.0; character / concept LoRAs often higher:

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "sdcpp",
      "ecosystem": "anima",
      "operation": "createImage",
      "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, detailed portrait of a magical girl in a forest",
      "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "cfgScale": 4,
      "steps": 30,
      "loras": {
        "urn:air:anima:lora:civitai:123456@789012": 0.8
      }
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "sdcpp", "ecosystem": "anima", "operation": "createImage", "prompt": "masterpiece, best quality, detailed portrait of a magical girl in a forest", "negativePrompt": "worst quality, low quality", "width": 1024, "height": 1024, "cfgScale": 4, "steps": 30, "loras": { "urn:air:anima:lora:civitai:123456@789012": 0.8 } } } ] }

Valid JSON

Only Anima-tagged LoRAs work on the anima ecosystem.

Reading the result

A successful imageGen step emits an images[] array — one entry per quantity:

{
  "status": "succeeded",
  "steps": [{
    "name": "0",
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "status": "succeeded",
    "output": {
      "images": [
        { "id": "blob_...", "url": "https://.../signed.jpeg" }
      ]
    }
  }]
}

Blob URLs are signed and expire — refetch the workflow or call GetBlob for a fresh URL.

Runtime

Typical wall time per 1024×1024 image is 10–25 s. wait=60 works comfortably for quantity ≤ 2. Higher steps counts and larger dimensions compound runtime; submit with wait=0 and poll for large batches or atypical aspect ratios.

Cost

Billed in Buzz on the workflow's transactions. Use whatif=true for an exact preview; see Payments (Buzz) for currency selection.

Per-pixel + per-step scaling against 1024² / 25 steps:

total = 8 × (width × height / 1024²) × (steps / 25) × quantity

Shape	Buzz
1024²/steps: 30/quantity: 1 (defaults)	~9.6
1024²/steps: 30/quantity: 4	~38
1344×768/steps: 30	~7.5 × 1.2 ≈ ~9
1024²/steps: 40	~12.8

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
400 with "operation must be createImage"	Passed editImage or createVariant	Anima only supports createImage. Use Qwen or Flux 2 Klein for img2img / edit on anime-style inputs.
400 with "ecosystem must be anima"	Typo	Lowercase "anima".
400 with "model is not a valid property"	Sent model field	Anima has no checkpoint picker — delete the field, or if overriding, use diffuserModel instead.
Output looks flat or off-style	cfgScale: 7 (SD default) on Anima	Drop to cfgScale: 4. Anima wants lower guidance than SD1/SDXL.
Output underbakes	steps too low for the prompt complexity	Bump to steps: 30–40. Anima's default is already 30 — don't go much below 20.
LoRA has no effect	Wrong AIR URN, model private / not published, or ecosystem mismatch	Verify the URN on the LoRA's Civitai page; only Anima-tagged LoRAs work on the anima ecosystem.
Request timed out (wait expired)	Large quantity, atypical dimensions, or high steps	Resubmit with wait=0 and poll.
Step failed, reason = "blocked"	Prompt hit content moderation	Don't retry the same input — see Errors & retries → Step-level failures.

Related

• SubmitWorkflow — operation used by every example here
• GetWorkflow — for polling
• Qwen image generation — alternative with edit + variant operations and LoRA support
• SDXL image generation — higher-fidelity general-purpose alternative
• Flux 2 / Flux 1 image generation — newer open-weights families
• Image upscaling — chain after imageGen for higher-res output
• Prompt enhancement — LLM-rewrite a prompt before feeding it in via $ref
• Full parameter catalog: the AnimaCreateImageGenInput schema in the API reference
• imageGen endpoint OpenAPI spec — standalone OpenAPI 3.1 YAML covering the full imageGen surface; import into Postman / OpenAPI Generator