Using Baidu AI to Convert Photos to Anime Avatars with PHP

The author wanted to create an anime‑style avatar from a photo using PHP, even though they lacked Python or Java experience.

First, register for a Baidu AI account, enable the "Portrait Anime" service, and note the provided API Key and Secret Key, which are needed to request an AccessToken.

Next, obtain the AccessToken by sending a POST request to Baidu's OAuth token endpoint (https://aip.baidubce.com/oauth/2.0/token) with the grant_type, client_id (API Key), and client_secret (Secret Key). The token is valid for 30 days and can be cached.

Implement a reusable Curl class in PHP to handle POST requests:

<?php
class Curl {
    public function post($url = '', $param = '') {
        if (empty($url) || empty($param)) {
            return false;
        }
        $postUrl = $url;
        $curlPost = $param;
        $curl = curl_init(); // initialize curl
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $postUrl);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $curlPost);
        $data = curl_exec($curl);
        if ($error = curl_error($curl)) {
            die($error);
        }
        curl_close($curl);
        return $data;
    }
}
?>

Create an AccessToken class that uses the Curl helper to request and store the token:

<?php
require_once 'Curl.php';
class AccessToken {
    private $apiKey = '';
    private $secretKey = '';
    private $requestToeknUrl = "https://aip.baidubce.com/oauth/2.0/token";
    private $accessToken;
    public function __construct() {
        $this->accessToken = ($this->requestAccessToken())['access_token'];
    }
    public function requestAccessToken() {
        $url = $this->requestToeknUrl;
        $postData['grant_type'] = 'client_credentials';
        $postData['client_id'] = $this->apiKey;
        $postData['client_secret'] = $this->secretKey;
        $o = "";
        foreach ($postData as $k => $v) {
            $o .= "{$k}=" . urlencode($v) . "&";
        }
        $postData = trim($o, '&');
        $result = (new Curl())->post($url, $postData);
        return json_decode($result, true);
    }
    public function getAccessToken() {
        return $this->accessToken;
    }
}
?>

Finally, use a Demo class to read a local image, base64‑encode it, call Baidu's selfie_anime endpoint with the token, decode the JSON response, and output the resulting anime image:

<?php
require_once 'AccessToken.php';
class Demo {
    public function index() {
        $accessToken = (new AccessToken())->getAccessToken();
        $url = 'https://aip.baidubce.com/rest/2.0/image-process/v1/selfie_anime?access_token=' . $accessToken;
        $img = file_get_contents('C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\6a56f099861bf4c470e5d24f7017b1a.jpg');
        $img = base64_encode($img);
        $bodys = array('image' => $img);
        $result = (new Curl())->post($url, $bodys);
        $result = json_decode($result, true);
        echo "<img src=\"data:image/jpg;base64,{$result['image']}\" />";
    }
}
(new Demo())->index();
?>

Running the script displays the transformed anime avatar, as shown in the accompanying screenshots.