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Character Expressions

Character Expressions change a character's avatar to match the emotion detected in the latest reply. The result is a still image, not an animation.

Set up expressions

  1. Open Settings → Expression Playback and download or enable Character Expressions.
  2. Open the character editor and select Advanced.
  3. In Expression Images, select Upload .zip.
  4. Upload images whose filenames match supported emotion labels.

Filenames are case-insensitive and folders inside the ZIP are ignored. Uploading another ZIP replaces the current set. Clear removes all expression images.

Orb accepts PNG, JPG/JPEG, WebP, and GIF files. A ZIP may contain up to 200 files; each image may be 5 MB and the ZIP may be 50 MB.

Supported labels

Orb uses the standard 28-label emotion set:

admiration, amusement, anger, annoyance, approval, caring, confusion, curiosity, desire, disappointment, disapproval, disgust, embarrassment, excitement, fear, gratitude, grief, joy, love, nervousness, optimism, pride, realization, relief, remorse, sadness, surprise, neutral

You can upload any subset. Orb uses the matching image first, then neutral.png, then the character's normal avatar.

View expressions

A character with an expression pack has a halo around its avatar. Select the character avatar in the chat header to open the expressions popup. While it is open, Orb checks the latest reply about once per second, including while a reply is streaming.

In a group chat, select the group avatar. The popup follows the member currently speaking, or the last member who spoke when the chat is idle. A member without an expression pack uses the normal avatar.

Text rendering

In Settings → Expression Playback, choose Classic (the default) to keep live text streaming and the popup's periodic expression updates.

Choose Expression-based to buffer generated replies until they are saved, including any Editor rewrites. Orb classifies each sentence and groups adjacent sentences that resolve to the same expression image. The first part appears automatically. Select Next · Space or press Space outside text inputs to reveal the next part and change the popup image together. Revealed text stays visible. In group chats, playback advances through speakers in reply order. The final expression holds until the next turn.

Expression-based rendering always waits for the finished reply, so Hide until baked is shown on and greyed out in this mode; your Classic choice is kept. While the reply generates, Orb classifies sentences that are already complete, so only rewritten sentences and the last one wait for the classifier.

The full reply is saved normally; playback only controls its display. The mode requires the expression model to be downloaded and enabled. Missing expression images resolve to neutral or the normal avatar, so they do not create extra pauses. Characters without an expression pack, structured HTML cards and fenced code appear as one part. If classification fails, the complete reply appears. Changing conversations, starting another turn, or editing a reply ends playback.