Website Images & Content ©2024 Robb Schmidt / All Rights Reserved

From the "X" Files


From ordinary to eXtraordinary!



Here's another eXample of how easy it is to take your AI artwork to the neXt level. Just by adding a few simple manual edits, then changing your prompt accordingly, and re-feeding your images back through the AI to get what you want.



How I turned "THIS" into "THAT"
(with just a few easy edits and renders!)

"THIS"

"THAT"

This morning I was looking through my files and noticed that I still had all my transitional images from my "The Colour of Summer" picture, so I thought it might be fun to publish them all and eXplain how I made it.

It wasn't really difficult at all, (I actually find the process a lot of fun), so here's how it was done...

THE ORIGINAL RENDER #1

Above we see the original picture I started with. I asked the AI to produce a "Jackson Pollock inspired portrait of a black and white woman", or something along those lines, with "paint splatters and dribbles". The result was nothing like I had envisioned in my mind, but I thought it was interesting all the same.

It's not really something that I would publish personally, but instead of just putting it into my 'throw away folder', I decided to play with it instead.

The first thing I did was use the above image as a visual prompt and fed it back into the AI, giving it a lot of freedom to do whatever it pleased to with the image. I can't remember specifically what I used for the written prompt, but I probably just used the same original, removing the "Jackson Pollock inspired' part of it, as I wasn't getting what I wanted out of it anyway.

This is what the AI returned to me...


RENDER 2 - A NEW START

Already the image was more interesting to me than the original was. I liked the woman and her blowing hair more than the original and the AI added what looked like the makings of some trees to me.

So once again I took the above image and used it as a visual prompt, and I changed my written prompt to reflect what I was seeing develop. I told the AI that my black and white woman was now seen against a summer sunset sky with trees.

It apparently knew eXactly what I meant!

RENDER 3 - A SUNSET APPEARS

Oh yes, now I was getting somewhere! I really liked the black and white contrast against the summer sky, but now it seemed like there was too much black and white in the image. What to do?

I decided to try and make her hair match the sunset sky, so I uploaded the above image into IRFANVIEW, a free image editing program I use, (but any half decent program will do).

EDIT 1 - SOME SLOPPY SCRIBBLES!

As you can see above, I just used a pencil tool to draw in some orange and yellow strands, and a fill tool to colour in some larger spots in her hairdo. It doesn't need to be neat and tidy, I'm just showing the AI what I have in mind. Then I took the above image back into the AI as my visual prompt again. I changed the written prompt accordingly, telling the AI about her matching sunset hairdo.

RENDER 4 - A COLOURFUL HAIRDO

You have to give the AI a lot of creative freedom to fiX the sloppy edits, but not too much or you'll lose the look and feel you're trying to keep. If you compare RENDER 4 and EDIT 1 above, you'll see that practically everything has changed, (so I could get the hair looking real), but the overall composition is the same. If it's your first time doing this, it's about finding that 'sweet spot' as to how much freedom to give to the AI, but after a few tries you'll know where it is moving forward.

Again, I took the above image back into the AI as my visual prompt, and slightly changed my written prompt to put an emphasis on the clouds and sunset and to add a 'shoulderless dress'.

RENDER 5 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

TA-DA! My AI rendering is done! It only took me 5 of them to get to a place where I now like the image. If you've never done this before it'll likely take you more than 5 tries to get where you want to be, but as I mentioned above, this becomes natural after a few times doing it, and in no time you'll be a pro at the process!

So, I like everything about the above image and am done with the AI and its renders. It just needs to go for its 'final clean up' now. I don't like the top strands of hair on her head, they look out of place, and there are hints of her hair under her chin and along her neck that don't need to be there.

EDIT 2 - THE FINAL IMAGE

I uploaded Render #5 at LunaPic.com, a free online editor, and erased the unwanted hairs, then took the result and uploaded it back into IRFANVIEW to sharpen the image and enhance the colours slightly. It was DONE, time to add my watermark!

Interestingly, somewhere along the line of the above work I ended up with that dappled border. I have no idea HOW that happened! I could have easlily fiXed it and removed it, but I actually thought it was quite interesting, (and it matched), so I left it there.

So there you go, that's how "The Colour of Summer" was created. Just 5 easy (and fun) renders, and just 2 easy (and fun) edits!

Also, I think I should probably mention here that the title of this article, "From ordinary to eXtraordinary", isn't commentary on how I think MY above image is "eXraordinary". It's referring to the fact that ANY AI produced image can be improved upon by using a few simple and fun creative steps along the way.

So that's that! I know many folks who read this are likely already doing these things themselves, but if you are an 'AI editing virgin', I highly recommend you give these steps a try. It's eXtremely rewarding!  ; )

Happy creating to you!

"X"

December 18th, 2024

If you found this article interesting, you can learn more about my adventures in editing AI artwork by clicking on the image below!