how it works
From one photo to their table.
You send one photo of a dog or a cat. We draw it both ways in about 15 seconds and show you, before any money changes hands. Pick a look, order, and a few minutes later you have a link.
They open the link on their phone, pull a ribbon, and their pet is standing there.
- two portraits first, free
- nothing to install
- nothing ships
01 / the photo
The photo decides most of how this goes.
Everything downstream is built from it. A good snapshot from an ordinary phone beats a beautiful portrait where half the dog is out of frame.
This works
- One pet on their own, filling a good part of the frame.
- The whole animal in shot, head to paws, nothing cut off by the edge.
- Daylight, or a bright room. We need to see the shape.
- Them facing roughly towards the camera, standing or sitting.
- An ordinary phone snapshot. You do not need a good camera.
This makes it harder
- A head-and-shoulders crop. We have to invent the body, and it shows.
- Two pets in the frame. We build one of them and we may pick the wrong one.
- Black fur in a dark room, where the shape disappears into the background.
- The pet small and far away, across a garden or a whole living room.
- Motion blur, heavy filters, or a photo of a photo on another screen.
- Half of them behind a blanket, a sofa arm or a hand.
We look at the photo before you pay. If we can only see part of them, if there is more than one pet, if it is soft, or if we cannot find an animal at all, it says so on the next screen in plain words. You decide what to do about it while the price is still nothing.
02 / the two looks
Same pet, two different jobs.
You get a portrait in each one before you choose, so this is a decision you make while looking at your own animal rather than at a description.
Real
Exactly how they look.
The closest to the photo. Pick this if being unmistakably them matters most.
Figurine
Like a collectible toy.
Smooth and glossy, standing on a little display base.
One order builds the look you pick. If you would rather not choose, Dearling Plus builds both and lets the person opening it keep whichever one they like. See what each plan costs.
03 / after you order
What the wait actually looks like.
- 01
The build starts the moment you pay
There is no queue and no approval step. The payment goes through and the pipeline picks it up.
- 02
A screen shows where it is up to
You watch it move through 5 stages, by name, so it is progress rather than a spinner.
- 03
It takes a few minutes
Watch it if you want to. You can also close the tab: the build runs on our machines, not in your browser, and we email you the link when it is ready.
- 04
You get your own page with the link on it
Copy it into any message app: WhatsApp, Messages, Signal, email, whatever they actually read. Nothing ships and there is no address to enter.
the stages you will see
- 01Looking at your photo
- 02Working out their shape
- 03Building them in 3D
- 04Getting them ready to stand up
- 05Making your card
04 / what they get
The ten seconds you are buying.
It arrives wrapped
They tap the link and there is a parcel with a ribbon across it. Nothing else. They pull the ribbon.
Then the pet is standing there
Turning slowly, with their name, your name and your message underneath. They can drag it to turn it around themselves.
Two things to try
One button stands the pet in the room they are sitting in. The other gives them a card to print. Both are on the page, no account needed.
They can write back
There is a line at the bottom to send a thank you to you, so you find out it landed.
If you choose In memory, the page changes. No confetti, no celebration wording, and it opens more slowly. The greeting reads in memory of, and the rest of the page gets out of the way.
05 / in their room
Standing it on a real table.
On the gift page there is a button that says Place in your room. The phone camera opens, they point it at the floor or a table, and the pet is standing there. It stays put while they walk around it, so they can photograph it from the other side.
On iPhone
Open the link in Safari and the button hands the pet to the viewer Apple already builds into the phone. There is nothing to install and no permission to hunt for.
On Android
Open the link in Chrome and the button hands the pet to Google Play Services for AR, which most Android phones already have. Same result: the pet stands where they put it.
Some older phones cannot do the room view at all. When that happens the page says so instead of failing quietly, and the pet still turns on the page itself. Point the camera at a flat surface with some light on it and move the phone slowly for a second, so it can work out where the floor is.
06 / the card
The one you print at home.
How it works
Every order comes with a card that has the pet on the front. Print it on ordinary paper on any printer. Point a phone camera at the printed card and the pet stands up out of it, turning slowly, on top of the paper.
It is the version to use when you want something to hand over in a room, at a table, in front of other people. The link is the gift. The card is how you give it in person.
Getting a clean read
- Lay the card flat, not curled in a hand.
- Decent light, and no glare bouncing off the paper.
- Hold the phone still until the pet appears, then move freely.
- Colour printing helps. A grey photocopy is harder to recognise.
07 / when it goes wrong
Because sometimes it does.
We cannot find a pet in the photo
It says so straight away and nothing is charged. Try a different photo. This is usually a very dark shot or one where the animal is tiny in the frame.
The portraits do not look like them
Then do not order. That is exactly what they are for, and closing the tab costs you nothing. Usually a second photo with the whole body in frame fixes it.
The build stops partway
Your photo is safe. Go back and start the build again. If it keeps failing, tell us, because that one is ours to fix and not yours.
The dearling came out wrong
Tell us and we build it again. We would rather spend the compute than have you send a gift you are embarrassed by.
The full version of this, including what happens to an order once the build starts, is on before you buy.
Find a photo. It takes 15 seconds.
Two portraits of their pet, before you decide anything.
Or look at real ones made from ordinary snapshots first.