Locally Uncensored is an open source desktop app (AGPL-3.0) that runs AI models on your own machine: chat, an agent, image and video generation. It has 180,000+ downloads. For 3.0.7 I wanted a character you train once to work everywhere in the app, and I wanted more machines to be able to train one.
This post follows one character from training to image, edit, video and chat. It also says where my testing stopped, which for this feature is further back than I would like.
Training: what changed
Local characters use the Z Image family. You drop photos of one person or character into Character Studio, pick a trigger word and train on your own machine. Three things are new in 3.0.7.
A character that changes clothes
The Train tab has a short text field under each photo, on Windows, Linux and Mac. You write there what changes from photo to photo: clothes, hair, place. That text goes into the photo's caption after the trigger word. The trained character then keeps its face and body without being tied to the one outfit it wore in most photos. An empty field keeps the caption as it was.
Describe photos fills the empty fields for you with the local chat model picked in Chat, if that model can see images. It never sends the photos to a cloud model. The per photo text has run in automated tests only.
Low VRAM, for cards under 12 GB
On Windows and Linux, training now has a second setting next to the training length:
Normal the 12 GB recipe as before
Low VRAM 512 px instead of 768 px
28 of the model's 30 blocks in system memory
saved activations in system memory
LoRA rank 16 instead of 32
Each step takes clearly longer, and fine detail comes out softer. A card with less than 11 GB is pointed at Low VRAM, both in the tab and in the trainer's own check.
Low VRAM lets cards from about 8 GB train. That number is worked out from the trainer's own figures. I have not measured it on an 8 GB card. Low VRAM as a whole has run in automated tests only so far.
A Mac trains now
On a Mac, Character Studio's Train tab now trains a Z Image character from 4 to 100 photos with the Mac's image engine. The first run downloads a training adapter of 340 MB, and the result goes into the Mac's LoRA folder.
It is slow:
M5 Pro, one step about 7 seconds
Standard (1200 steps) a little over two hours
My own run was 10 photos and 100 steps on one Mac with 48 GB. The Standard and Thorough settings, Macs with less memory and stopping a training in the middle have not run yet. This is on macOS only.
A character from the frames of a video
The lightbox and the large view of a video offer Use frames for a character. LU takes frames spread evenly over the clip:
default 8 frames
slider 4 to 20 frames
You untick the frames that do not show the figure, then train with the rest or save them as a character. On a Mac this feeds the same Mac training. This has run in automated tests only.
Image and Edit
When Create runs on ComfyUI, Image and Edit have a character chip next to the model chip. Pick a character there and its LoRA and trigger word go into the run.
The pick also sets the model. Before, picking a character left the image model as it was, and on a model of another family the run left the character out. Now the pick sets an installed Z Image model. Where none fits, the line under the character says so with a button to switch, and Create does not start a run that would ignore the character. The same line tells you to describe the key features in the prompt too, because the trigger word alone often does not hold the look (issue 161).
Two limits in Edit:
Edit with a mask does not take a character
Trained characters up to 3 of the training photos as references, at most 1024 px each
The Trained characters row sits in the reference strip of Edit. A character trained before 3.0.7 has no photos there, and I have not tried the row with a real training set yet.
Video: Step 1 of 2, Step 2 of 2
A character video is two runs. LU first makes a picture of the character, then starts the clip from that picture:
Step 1 of 2 picture of the character
Step 2 of 2 clip from that picture
This works on Video, Animate, Extend, Multishot, MiniMax H3, Motion Control and Talking Character. A start image of your own wins over the character picture. A video model that only takes text, or a tab with no video model installed, says so before anything runs, so you do not wait through step 1 for nothing.
I checked this in the app on Windows with a stand-in character, not a real trained one. How well a real character keeps its face has not been checked, and step 2 has not run with a real video model yet.
Chat
The image and video tools in the chat take a character by name or by trigger word.
On a Mac
Character Studio's Use tab on a Mac lists the characters in the Mac's LoRA folder, including the ones the Mac trained itself. A pick brings the Z Image model the character was trained for, and Image, the video tabs and the chat tools take the character as they do on Windows. A video starts from a picture of the character made on the Mac.
The Mac parts of 3.0.7 have run in automated tests and with the real engine on one Mac with 48 GB, but have not been clicked through in a built app yet.
Characters from LU Cloud, and cleaning up
If you trained a character on LU Cloud, the cloud character shelf has Use locally. It saves a Z Image character into the LoRA folder of this machine, so the local Use character shelf lists it next to your own.
file of that name already there LU stops and says so, nothing is replaced
other model families refused, with the reason
This has run in automated tests only, not yet against the real service.
A character trained on this machine can be deleted from the Use character shelf. LU asks first, and the file goes to the Recycle Bin or Trash.
What I did not test
real trained character in the app not checked, stand-in LoRA only
step 2 of a character video not run with a real video model
per photo text (changing clothes) automated tests only
Low VRAM automated tests only, not measured on 8 GB
training on a Mac 10 photos, 100 steps, one Mac with 48 GB
Standard and Thorough on a Mac not run
Use frames for a character automated tests only
Trained characters row in Edit not with a real training set
Use locally from LU Cloud automated tests only
The real app check ran on one Windows machine with an NVIDIA card. If you try any of these on your own hardware, a report on the issue tracker helps more than another run on mine. A Low VRAM run on an 8 GB card is the one I would most like to see.
Short version
In 3.0.7 a local character can change clothes between photos, train on cards from about 8 GB with Low VRAM (worked out, not measured), and train on a Mac, slowly. Once trained, it works in Image and Edit through a chip next to the model, in every video tab as Step 1 of 2 and Step 2 of 2, and in the chat by name or trigger word. The video step has not run with a real video model yet, and the face check with a real character is still open.
The code is at github.com/PurpleDoubleD/locally-uncensored, and the Character Studio chapter of the handbook covers photos and training. Downloads are on locallyuncensored.com.
AI-assisted: I wrote this with help from an AI model and checked the facts against the code and the changelog.
