A random picker with pictures

Not everyone wants a duck. A teacher wants the class to see their own faces crossing the line. A family wants the dog to race the cat. A shop wants its three new flavours to race for the next special. Until now, getting photos into a name picker meant uploading a photo per person, renaming files and hoping nothing got mixed up.

Random Duck Race now does it in two quick ways: Faces, where you click every face in one class photo and give it a name, and Photos, where every photo you add becomes a runner. Both race as round badges or photo cards on the same 3D river, all the way to the winner’s screen, and both keep the photos on your device.

Faces: a whole class from one photo

The fastest way to put real faces in a race. You need one group photo and your class list.

1. Paste your class list on the Setup screen, one name per line, or load a saved list.
2. Open Faces, just under the list (on a phone: Advanced, beside the mode), and press Add photos — or drop the photo onto the window. A class photo works best: one photo, every face. Several photos work too.
3. Size the circle to the faces with the slider (or Shift + the mouse wheel, or the [ ] keys). Zoom with the wheel or two fingers and drag to move around a big photo.
4. Click each face. It goes to the name picked in the list, and the next name without a face is picked for you — so you click your way through the class in a minute. Click a face you’ve already given to pick that name again, and click once more to take a better crop. A name spelt wrong? The pencil beside it edits it, in the list too; a photo added by mistake goes with the × on its thumbnail.
5. Press Done, then Continue. Every student races as their own face.

Save the class for next time. Saved lists, under the names, keeps the list’s names and faces under a name of your own (“Class 5A”). Next lesson, open it and the names and their faces are back in one tap — one saved list per class, as many classes as you teach.

Changed the list since? The faces are kept for their names, so they come back whenever those names do. Any face whose name is no longer in the list waits under Not in your list, one tap from being added back.

Photos: every photo is a runner

For anything that isn’t a face in a group photo: pets, products, logos, team crests, food, characters, travel destinations.

1. Press Photos under the list (on a phone, in Advanced), or drop the photos straight onto the list of names.
2. Choose your photos — as many as you like. Each one becomes a runner.
3. Name them: a list shows each photo beside a box for its name. Leave a box empty and it gets a number (“Photo 3”), or tick Use the file names and golden_retriever.jpg races as “golden retriever”. Picked the wrong photo? Click it to choose another. Each name then shows its photo just after it in your list.
4. Race. Each photo runs whole, on a white card, so a wide logo or a tall poster keeps its shape.

Added them to the wrong list? Undo on the message that appears puts the list back the way it was. Into the untouched starting list, the photos simply replace the four demo ducks.

Ideas

• Who answers next: the class watches their own faces race — attention guaranteed. Pair it with the random student picker routine.
• Teams with faces: open the team generator and watch each face join its team as it comes home.
• Pet race: one photo per pet for a family game night, a vet clinic’s social post or a shelter’s fundraiser.
• Product or menu vote: race this week’s flavours, dishes or designs and feature the winner.
• Sports and fantasy leagues: race the team crests for a draft order.
• Giveaways: race the entrants’ avatars on a stream — see the giveaway picker guide.
• Where next? Race photos of destinations, restaurants or films to settle the plan.

Private by design

• Nothing is uploaded. Each face is cut from your photo in your browser and kept there; the photo itself is gone as soon as you close the page.
• No face in a link. Share links and result pages carry the names only, and the phones in a room see ducks — the faces stay on the screen that set them up.
• One tap to switch off. The tick beside Faces turns the faces and photos off for the next race; tick it again and they’re back. Remove all in the Faces window deletes them from the device.

Tips for great results

• A sharp, well-lit photo taken straight on gives the best faces. Zoom in before you click on a big group photo.
• Leave a little room around each face inside the circle: the badge looks friendlier with some hair and chin in it.
• Square-ish photos fill the card best; transparent PNG logos keep their transparency.
• Big classes are fine: up to 128 faces or photos race in one go, drawn together so the race stays smooth even on a school laptop.