How to turn your photos into Studio Ghibli art with ChatGPT

If you've been anywhere on social media this week, you've probably noticed a trend.

On March 25, 2025, OpenAI introduced 4o Image Generation. One of the first hilarious trends to emerge from this was people taking family photos and asking ChatGPT to convert them into Studio Ghibli—style illustrations.

For those not familiar with Studio Ghibli, that's the Japanese animation studio founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma which produced iconic films like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and many others. Studio Ghibli was revolutionary in elevating animation as an art form and helping usher in anime's global popularity.

One of the first was this X post by engineer Grant Slatton, transforming a family photo into what looks like a frame from a Studio Ghibli film.

How do I make turn my own photo into a Studio Ghibli inspired image?

The first thing you'll need is the paid version of ChatGPT.

Find the photo that you want to "Ghibli-fy".

I decided to go with one of my favorite stock photo subjects, András István Arató.

Arató is better known as "Hide the Pain Harold" a name given to him in 2011 by the Internet after they discovered a series of stock photo shoots that featured him in various poses but the same winning smile in all of them. The Internet of 2011 being what it was, the rumor went around that his plaintive eyes betrayed some horrible tragedy he was hiding. (FYI, Arató's been interviewed many times about his sudden Internet fame and don't worry, he's just fine IRL).

As far as my process, I went through a series of prompts in ChatGPT. Note that OpenAI's image generation algorithm has already been trained on Studio Ghibli's artwork, so you can spend less time tuning the prompts to get the right style, and more time just making fine-tune adjustments. Here's the process I went through to get his face just right.

I think my last prompt went something like, "I still want a smile, but I want his 'hide the pain' face" like the original!" I was pretty thrilled with what I ended up with.

Here's the best part. After downloading the image from ChatGPT, I can immediately use it to create products on Sticker Mule. Here's what my creation would look like as a T-shirt.

There's not a whole lot of proofing that needs to be done because ChatGPT has done a nice job with the colors, resolution, and level of detail.

Wait...is this legal?

While copyright law and trademark law is always changing, the quick answer is yes. OpenAI-generated art is generally free for personal and commercial use, but as always, check with OpenAI's latest terms of use to ensure compliance, especially if you plan on selling these.

However, there's one important principle to keep in mind.

You cannot infringe on the trademark of Studio Ghibli's intellectual property, including recognizable characters, logos, or other copyrighted material. So while you can recreate your family in the style of Studio Ghibli, you can't do anything that implies that your work is associated with Studio Ghibli, nor show yourself standing next to Totoro (sorry!)

Why isn't it working for me?

There may be a few reasons this isn't working for you.

- Your version of ChatGPT doesn't support it

As of this writing, you do need to be on a paid version of ChatGPT (Plus, Pro, or Team). The Free subscription tier continues to use DALL-E 3 image generation vs. GPT-4o. OpenAI has said they will eventually roll it out to the free tier, but that's been delayed.

- You haven't updated your app

If you're using a smartphone app, you'll need to update your app in the App Store or Google Play Store on your iPhone or Android device.

- ChatGPT is overloaded at the moment

OpenAI has reported that the virality of this feature has taken even them by surprise, so it's likely you'll experience slow image generation times. Some people are reporting they're having better luck going directly to Sora, OpenAI's image generation tool. You'll need your ChatGPT login to access it (again, paid only at this point).

What else can OpenAI do?

While this meme is only one day old as of this writing, I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of different answers to this question in your social network feeds in the coming weeks and months. Here's just a taste.

Hide the Pain Harold, and Studio Ghibli are just the start. Use ChatGPT to transform photos of your family, friends, co-workers, and even pets into any style of cartoon character or artist. Use our simple and straightforward process to turn them into posters, keychains, stickers, magnets, and t-shirts that'll make standout (and hilarous) gifts for birthdays, Christmas, or any special occasion.

You bring the creativity (with a little AI magic), and we’ll deliver top-tier products you won’t find anywhere else.