Photo-based tools are the most powerful in the studio and the only ones that can harm a real person. So they run on a checklist, not on vibes. Before any undress, face swap or edit job involving a real photograph, walk the five points. If any point fails, the job does not run — there is no sixth point where enthusiasm substitutes.
The five points
1. Whose photo is it? Yours, or a specific adult’s. “Found it online” is not a person who consented; it is a person who did not. 2. Did they agree to this? Consent to being photographed is not consent to being transformed. The agreement has to cover transformation, in words you could show someone. 3. Could you produce it? Documented means retrievable: a message, a release, a contract clause. If it exists only in your memory of a conversation, it does not exist. 4. Is the person an adult? Unambiguously, verifiably. Any doubt ends the job. 5. Where will it live? Private library is the default and the expectation; publishing another person’s transformed image raises the bar again and needs its own agreement.
What never counts
A public profile, a public figure, an ex-partner, a screenshot from a video call, a photo you were sent for another purpose. Fame is not consent, history is not consent, and possession of a file is not consent. The studio closes accounts over this, and the severe categories are reported where the law requires.
The easy cases
Your own photos: always clear. Your own generated characters: always clear — fictional adults carry no consent burden, which is one reason the generator bench is where most series begin. Consented professional shoots with transformation in the release: clear, and the release is the paperwork to keep. Everything else routes through the checklist, every time.