Team photographer

Every professional club has a photo day each season: the whole squad in the same shirt, the same set, the same light, and one consistent set of portraits that then appears on the website, the posters, the player cards, every match day graphic. Youth teams have no photo day, so the public page shows parents' snapshots facing every which way, and the posters show cut-outs.

The team photographer gives your team that photo day. One phone snap per child, and Hobbit generates a square 2K player card for each of them in a look you chose, all matching. It is the foundation of Hobbit's visuals: once a player has a portrait, the public page, the roster, the starting lineup image and the player report certificate all pick it up automatically, and posters draw on it too.

Open Team photographer in the sidebar and choose a team. Part of Hobbit Pro.

How it works

It all happens on one page: the team style at the top, the whole squad below, laid out like a darkroom, with the sample card on the enlarger's easel and every child's card hanging on the drying line.

1. Set the look: with the captain as the model, choose a scene, an art style and a framing, make a sample card, try another until you like it, then lock it.
2. Make the squad's cards: once locked, every other child goes into the captain's sample card with their own face and hair: same light, same rendering, same shirt, same pose.
3. Portraits fall into place: each card replaces the photo on the player's profile, and every place in Hobbit that shows a player shows the card.

The captain is the team's visual baseline and the only player wearing the armband, so step one is naming a captain in team management.

What to prepare

• The captain's reference photo: a clear face, a phone snap at training is enough.
• A kit photo (required): a real shirt; the AI reproduces it on every player, numbers included.
• The club badge (optional): used as a blurred backdrop in the "Studio · Logo backdrop" scene, not needed elsewhere.
• Photos of the other players: one each, uploaded straight into the empty slots on this page, or to the team roster beforehand.

A player's number comes from the roster's number field. A player who should not show a number has a "hide number" switch on their profile.

Choosing the look: three dimensions

One scene, one art style, one framing, combined into your team's own look.

Scene (setting and light)

Art style (the rendering language)

Framing: half body (shoulders up), close-up (the face), full body (the whole pose), action (a moment in motion).

Two more things: an optional note ("smiling, holding a ball, club year in the background"; the AI does its best, with face fidelity and image safety first), and whether the captain wears the armband, which you must choose; there is no default.

For parents, and to look like the child: photoreal in a studio. For posters and impact: cinematic or chrome under floodlights. For the children's own taste: manga. A team locks one look, so decide before locking.

Make a sample, lock it

With no style yet, the settings are open at the top of the page; once a style is locked, "Change style" next to the sample opens them in place. Press "Make a sample" and a sample card of the captain appears, usually in about a minute and sometimes two, drafts developing as it goes. Not right? "Try another"; each sample uses one image from the allowance.

Happy? Press "Use this style" and it becomes the team style; every card from then on follows it. Leave with a sample made but not locked, and it is still there the next time you change the style, so it does not cost another image.

Making the squad's cards

Every child has a slot on the line, and its state shows at a glance:

• Add photo: no photo yet; tap the slot to upload one.
• The photo in a film frame, with "Make card": the photo is in and there is no card yet; "Make card" makes just this one.
• Old style: the card was made in an earlier style; "Make card" makes it again in the current one.
• Developing: the card is being made, with a timer and its drafts developing in the slot.

"Make cards (N)" queues every child who has a photo and no card in the current style. Two develop at a time and the rest wait in their own slots, so the squad itself is the progress view. Keep the page open while they develop; closing it stops the ones still waiting. A failed card says why in its slot; press "Retry".

After generation

Open a card: tap any card to see it large, switch between the card and the original photo, and "Make it again", "Change photo" or "Download" that one.

It replaces the player's photo: the card becomes the child's photo in Hobbit; the original is kept.

It appears automatically in the players section of the public page, the roster and player profile, the attendance board, the exported starting lineup image, match results and season stats, the player report certificate and your coaching career page. Nothing to place a second time. For a match day poster, hand the card to graphic design as a reference image.

Download all: one click zips the whole squad's cards for the player wall, the parent group or the club magazine.

A new player: add a photo, make one card, and it fits the same set.

Only the latest card is kept: making a card again deletes the previous one, and a new photo deletes the card made from the old photo (the child goes back to no card, and the next one is made from the new photo). The photos you upload are always kept. To keep a particular card, download it first.

Photo requirements, and the usual failures

• One person per photo, face clear, front or near-front, no mask, not backlit. A phone original is fine.
• Very young children: the AI refuses photos with infant features; use one that reads as a youth player.
• "Blocked by content moderation": try another reference photo; it is usually the photo.
• It does not look like the child: open the card, "Change photo" to a clearer front-facing one, and make it again.
• Ink and manga draw the child's own face shape, eyes and smile, but a drawing always carries less detail than a photo; for the closest likeness use photoreal.

Photos live in your team's own storage and are used only as references for generation.

Allowance

The team photographer is part of Hobbit Pro. Each card and each sample uses one of Hobbit Pro's 50 images a month, shared with graphic design; only a card or sample that comes out counts, so a failed one costs nothing. A squad of 15, one photo day plus a few samples, fits comfortably in a month. See the count on the "Usage" tab in Account.

Just one child

If you do not want the whole-squad flow and only want one creative portrait of one player, use the "Player poster" scene in graphic design: a single image in any style. The team photographer is the matching set.