Introduction

Luma launched Character Swap & Insert on November 11: a closed, credit-based image editing tool inside the Luma app that recasts an existing scene. Upload one target image, point at who should change, add character reference photos, and Luma swaps a person out, drops a new one in, or removes someone entirely, all in a single render that keeps the room, the light, and the framing.

Luma's pitch is the one every art director knows: "The client has notes. Swap the cast, swap the car, add a dog, take someone out. Same shot." It's a sibling of the Character Sheet tool we covered last week, and together they read like a quiet push to make Luma the place where agency teams fix a frame instead of reshooting it.

How the Editor Works

The tool lives on Luma's Solutions page and is built around one target and a cast list:

  • Target image: one still, the scene you want to keep
  • Outlined target: a marked-up copy of the scene so the model knows where each change goes
  • Up to six characters per run, each with its own reference image
  • Per-character action: Swap, Insert, or Remove
  • Per-character direction (optional): a short text note, like "turned toward the window, laughing"
  • Quality: Low, Medium, High, Extra high, or Max (Max is the default)
  • Variants: 1 to 4 takes per run (2 by default), and each take costs credits

Every mapped character renders together in one pass, so you aren't stacking six separate inpaints and praying the lighting matches. Luma's own examples come back at close to the input size, including a roughly 4K widescreen frame (3838 × 2160) and a portrait-format still.

Where It Fits

This is a still-image tool, not a video model. The launch reel cuts between swapped casts in the same café and an inserted car-and-driver scene, but the editor itself takes and returns images. The obvious workflow is to recast the hero frame here, then animate it with whichever image-to-video model you already like.

A few practical things to keep in mind:

  • Closed and credit-based. There are no open weights and no published per-run price yet; cost scales with quality and variant count.
  • Model under the hood isn't named. Luma doesn't say which image model powers it, so judge it by your own test frames.
  • Likeness and consent. Swapping real people into real photos is powerful. Use references you have the rights to, and get a yes before you put someone's face in a client deliverable.

Try It Today

Open Character Swap & Insert in Luma, sign in, and start with a simple two-person scene. A direction note that tends to keep swaps natural:

match the original pose and eyeline, keep the existing lighting and color grade, same wardrobe fit, natural skin texture, no change to the background

For an insert, describe placement and interaction instead:

seated at the right side of the table, leaning in toward the other person, hands resting on a coffee cup, lit by the window on the left

Conclusion

Character Swap & Insert won't win a benchmark chart, but it targets the most common real-world edit in commercial work: same shot, different people. Six characters, three actions, and one consistent render is a neat little superpower for storyboards, ad variations, and pitch decks. Bring a frame you love and see how far one round of client notes can go.

Original sources:

—Aurelia ♡