Considering the recent attention AI has been receiving in the media, I decided to examine its impact on art creation. After evaluating both Dall-E and Midjourney, I found that Midjourney was more appealing.
Midjourney is built on a foundation of advanced algorithms that analyze the artist's input and generate unique images based on that input. The software works by first learning the artist's style and preferences, and then using that information to generate images that reflect that style.
The software also allows the artist to adjust the level of control they have over the final image, so they can choose how much of the image is generated by the AI and how much is created by their own hand. This gives artists the flexibility to create images that reflect their individual style, whether they prefer a more hands-on approach or a more hands-off approach.
When you think about it, this is really amazing. It is aware of various styles and knows the difference between a sketch, oil painting, and cartoon. It also has a vast awareness of things we take for granted. For example, if I wanted it to create an image of a ladybug in the animated style used by Pixar, I would type “cute ladybug, pixar”. It knows what a ladybug looks like and knows the artistic style used by Pixar. As a tweak, I added the phrase “coloring book” to the prompt to create the second image.
The key to creating a pleasing result is knowing how to instruct the software. Fewer instructions allows the software to make more assumptions or be more creative. There is another powerful option which allows you to provide a reference image for the software to use and how true to the reference you want the final result.
The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words still holds true and Midjourney does a good job for this purpose.
For example, what if you are exploring design ideas for an online shoe store landing page? By entering the command "modern shoe store web landing page, Nike Air Hero image, navy blue, white, beige, ui, ux --ar 16:9", Midjourney creates an image that holds four designs for consideration. If one or more of the designs holds promise, they can be "Upscaled" to increase the resolution and size. For example, the following is an "upscaled" image of one of the four designs it created. I should point out that creating an image with readable text can be challenging, but for brainstorming, this is adequate. If you don’t like the results, run it again.
Clip art is big business as it is used in most online and printed content. In the circumstance when an icon does not fit, I found Midjourney a good choice for this purpose.
The best scenario that comes to mind is the creation of other images. The following is an ad for the fictitious antique store named Finley’s. The left half of the image comes from Midjourney which was added to the right using a product like Photoshop.
I noticed some folks were using it to create t-shirt designs.
For those who like to read the documentation pertinent links are as follows.
Another way is to join the beta as suggested by the quick start guide, goto one of the newbie channels, and just watch. It is like viewing a live YouTube live stream with chat turned on.
You will see what other individuals are creating, the prompt they used, and the final result. See something interesting, copy the prompt to the clipboard, modify it in your editor, and give it a try.
Using an AI program for image creation comes with a steep learning curve. For example, I observed several compositions which were created by including the command “cinematic lighting”. I am not sure I truly understand the impact.
If you decide to channel surf, the fast-paced flow of data can sometimes be overwhelming. If you need to go back to view an interesting composition, unviewed messages will accumulate quickly.
It's worth mentioning that making changes to a previously created image can be difficult. Re-entering the command will not create the same image. The reason for this is the software randomly adds elements to the composition. For example, if you do not specify a color, it will randomly choose one for you. With that in mind, you will find creating a truly inspiring image is the result of skill and some luck.
Midjourney does have limits. To keep it from getting totally out of control, they have implemented rules to prevent the creation of content which might be considered inappropriate or offensive.