I really meant to make it sound weirdly repetitive. But it is really a journey and I cannot, I repeat, I cannot get myself off Midjourney's discord and playing with words and see how AI would put my words into am image. It is UHM-azing and more than that. It is ASTOUNDING!
I have heard of Midjourney maybe thrice before really finally getting myself to look it up. And hey! I looked and I am hooked!
Yes. That is me. Thank you AI for giving this imaage
I first searched for YouTube videos. That's how I got further encouraged. I searched for Midjourney and was surprised one of the great "mentor" I am following has an entry for Midjourney. I watch PiXImperfect because his tutorials have always been easy to follow and understant. The way he says the words are clear as well. For Midjourney, his surprise and excitement also affected me.
So more searches, more searches and then I am in and trying out words to test the AI.
This is one of the first four variations the AI gave me through Midjourney. The keywords I used were inspired by a recent event that is in my head - a friend dropping her phone while we were out and chilling by the beach and the phone giving that heart-sickening thud on the concrete stairs (what are the chances) and you know there is a slight crack sound with the thud and you also know, for sure, that phone is dead.
I did not use to many prompts. I just use this : broken corner of a cellphone. Simple and yet the AI came up with this. I am sure there are thousands of other variations but I am satisfied with this set. It is workable.
As I was gong through and having fun and thinking of "what now"? Because I am sure a lot of artists are having this "another robot takeover". Another thing that was going in my head was that "oh so this is where our hashtags/tags go!".
Further along with the usage, I already felt the limitation of the tool. It is still, after all, a tool. Although we address it with much wow on how it is "thinking like I think", there are parameters in thinking, let alone, artistry that makes every output a projection of the real artist. It won't be long, that although this is fascinating, the picture we are imagining and the output will not always be in sync.
So do I think this will be a major threat for artists? Maybe. But I think it will be a great tool for them as well. Use their command to "imagine" put in the elements you want to see, and whatever the output, you can still take it to photoshop to further enhance it.
Think composites. It is like that. I don't know about you, but when I was younger I have this weird habit of collecting colored magazines and cutting out images from there that I find I can use later and then pasting those together. It is similar to what the AI does.
This is one of my dreamy favorites.
One of the fascinating places I've visited pre-pandemic was Venice. It was a short trip and the first night we were there, we experienced the rain and the aqua alta so we stayed indoors. Piece of advice, when you're there and it is aqua alta, go out still! I keep going back to my pictures and re-imagining many other variations I can think of how to capture the beauty of that lovely place.
So back to the picture. It gave me the gondola. It gave me Venice. It did give me the moon. Though I imagined this rather differently, it is close. It also reminded me of my "remix" or first attempt at composite when I was trying it.
A portion is captured below. The full blown image can be found in my page where I place what I play around with or what I capture.
The page link is : https://www.facebook.com/SecondInAFrame
Not sure if the links work, but hey, do go visit some!
Do I think it will replace art from the heart of any and every artist out there? It won't. It is a game changer as were Photoshop and Lightroom before they came out. But properly used, it is a powerful, hands-down, amazing tool !
Let's go capture that imagination shall we? *
© clicksinaframe (a.k.a pichi28 in some other universe.. and many other names in other dimension)
All contents original
Unless specified otherwise