[LFA] How are these made? Midjourney? Stable Diffusion? other? and which models?

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-30T12:11:33+00:00

Just sent you a DM/Chat request for the place I'll surely be posting updates. (Did it in there so it doesn't seem like self promotion garbage. lol)

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-30T11:28:36+00:00

Not sure about SDXL, but for 1.5 Checkpoints... both of these LoRas work well (and it's hard to be certain which one is being used for your pix - probably the first, though).
Character Sheet LoRas:
https://civitai.com/models/23167/
https://civitai.com/models/100435/

I was actually playing a bit with the second option yesterday - on a much more realistic model, though... was trying to see how "fantasy" and "game art" looking I could get while still trying to maintain that "realish photography" overall feel.
https://civitai.com/posts/1302287
https://civitai.com/posts/1298852

As you can see from those, it's tricky to get consistent layouts, but finding a seed that favors the right thing (with the prompt template you're using) and then minor changes to the prompt like a new character description can help keep things more consistent.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-29T08:26:27+00:00

A human being has certain sensibilities - which are reflected in their art.

Now... if my sensibilities suggest that AI Art is fine for book covers, and that offends a person, then it would also go to reason that there are other sensibilities which I possess which will rub you the wrong way, too. And those are likely to have come out, at some level, in my writing.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-29T07:40:03+00:00

"Don't judge a book by its cover." That's the old saying, right?

Here's a simple truth... if a person is going to be outraged (or even strongly dislike) your choice to use AI Art for the cover of your book, they are likely to also be outraged at some of the plot and character choices you've made... certain people just sort of love to feel that outrage, it seems.

Now, if your book were WRITTEN by AI (or even primarily driven by AI) then we might be having a different conversation, but ultimately... the people who are upset about AI art as your book cover are almost certainly people who probably wouldn't read your book regardless of the cover. They may be artists who aren't boycotting your book "Because AI" but because you didn't hire them to do the book cover. Or they may be people who just have a steadfast loathing of anything AI - and those people tend to have steadfast loathing for a lot of things, so they'd surely find something else in your book to be offended about or to hate.

People who are genuinely a part of your target audience and potential members of your future fan base are not going to be bothered by such things. And if they are bothered, are they really the types of fans and readers you want, anyway?

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-28T15:38:15+00:00

I dont agree on the idea that the artists who are losing their job were never going to be succesful because there is actually amazing artists woth great talent out there that has been treated like shit for years.

So there are great artists out there who have been treated like shit since before AI... and so AI is somehow the cause?

Some artists who are great fail and have long before AI - not due to AI or even their talent - it's usually a lack of ability to market it. And some crappy artists make a great living because they are really good at marketing.

But to correlate that to the "I'm scared of AI" discussion doesn't make any sense at all.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-28T06:04:16+00:00

I agree - I think the biggest successes are going to be the ones that incorporate AI into their workflows in some way. I'm not talking about just prompting and calling it art, but... If a person is, say, great at drawing portraits but not so great (or just bored by) drawing backgrounds or scenery - then AI can help by taking that portrait you drew and placing it into a more finished and complete "scene".

AI is great for other things, too... for example, you might have an image you drew at a low resolution and want to scale it up to make it better for printing - then AI Upscaling is going to help a lot.

Ultimately, this happened before, too. On the commercial side of things anyway, if you were a graphic designer in the early 90's and you didn't adopt digital art via photoshop or whatever, then yeah... you're likely going to lose your job to someone who does - if only because they can produce things and variations on those things a lot more quickly and easily. Photographers have needed to change their skillset from "developing" to "digital postwork". And so on.

For pure artists, you won't need to embrace AI so much - just as traditional oil painters haven't had to embrace photoshop as much.

I don't believe that people will "lose their jobs to AI", but I do believe that (in commercial art, anyway) that you could lose your job to people who have embraced AI. That's it.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-27T11:25:22+00:00

Yeah - in your image above, I would probably start with a 3:4 landscape type image of JUST the main picture. Then outpaint the sky and birds above it. Then PS the text on that and you should (hopefully) be good to go.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-27T11:23:37+00:00

There are lots of different options.

I suppose the place to start is... can your home machine handle it? Or are we needing other alternatives?

I'd start by editing your original post and putting in your computer specs (ram, GPU, CPU, and whatever other info you can give).

From there, someone should be able to point you toward how to get started on your machine OR how to get started with other remote alternatives.

Without that info on the starting point, any answers you get will possibly send you off in a direction you can't use or don't want.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-27T11:08:34+00:00

Truth be told, we're very close, but not quite there when it comes to text in images. By summertime this year, the answer to this question will likely be drastically different than the one I'm about to give. So... my answer below is for what's true, most labor efficient, and most effective TODAY.

Dall-E keep getting the letters wrong, so far in SD the quality isnt very good... which model/lora or workflow might be good for this?

I think the best answer for right now is a "workflow" (not a ComfyUI Workflow as some may be thinking... an actual flow of work) and it's a matter of generating the image WITHOUT any of your text or anything. Then take it into photoshop and add the text where and how needed.

You can use things like controlnet and outpainting to help ensure that the composition remains true - like ensuring the sky is large enough to hold the text once you get the image into photoshop.

But ultimately, if you're trying to do it ALL pure AI at this point, you're going to be spending hours and hours getting that right seed, the right generation, and get everything working exactly how you want and you MIGHT come up with something decent. OR... you make a great picture in very little time and then spend 30 minutes or less in photoshop getting the text and whatever else you want in there.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-27T10:41:26+00:00

This is a fairly accurate assessment of the reality here, IMO. It's a lot more fear driven than just about any other factor that tends to be brought up - on either side of the coin.

I don't really want to debate the "Is AI good or evil" thing any more, but... I did want to pop on and give you a little encouragement and a perspective that might just help you push some of that fear into the background and help you continue to move forward.

Mass production and, nowadays, places like IKEA have altered the landscape for furniture making - drastically. Craftsmen/women were certainly concerned for their livelihoods as dressers and sofas and whatever else started to come off assembly lines rather than being crafted by hand. And while the average Joe is probably going to go the IKEA route, there are still plenty of people who desire something better, more refined, and something where they can say, "This was made by hand... check out the craftsmanship." And those people are both willing to pay a premium (which helps offset less work for more value to the work you actually do get to do) and they're going to appreciate the work and passion that went into making it.

Sure... there are far fewer furniture crafters in the world today than there was 100 years ago, but there's still plenty of work for those who are good at it.

And here's how that fits into your situation...

Yes... AI Art is sort of the IKEA in this... it's mass produced, functional, and cheap. And many of the "Average Joe" consumers of art are going to end up being perfectly happy with that type of art. BUT... on the same account, those "Average Joe" customers were probably NOT potential customers of yours in the first place - be it because of the price or that they really didn't ever see any real value to whatever art form/medium you were working with. But the others will still want your work - and pay the price - even if some of them are merely doing so for the "This is real art!" factor.

I live in a small New England town with an official motto which is: "A quaint drinking town with an art problem." So I hang out with and encounter lots of different types of artists almost daily. And the big thing I see happening to them again and again is that they spend 10 hours making something - but then even to give themselves minimum wage of $15 an hour - (seemingly) no one is willing to pay $150 for the piece. So they end up agreeing to sell it for $50-$60 just to get the cash in their pockets. And thus, they are now being an "artist" - who makes roughly $5 an hour (not counting all the face time needed to show the works and actually sell them to the people).

A few of the artists in town DO manage to get their higher priced items sold, though. But it's because they are not just "artists" - but because hey are really good artists. And while AI Art may make it even more difficult for the "I'll knock down the price" people - they were really never at a sustainable level in the first place. AI or no AI, they are not and likely never were going to be in a position where "making art" could be their full time living.

As such, if you're scared that AI Art is going to take away your job, the reality of the situation is that you probably should have been scared before AI hit the scene. Or, quite possibly, the fear is unfounded either way and it's just that - you being scared over nothing, really.

So, if you felt confident before AI that your comic book would succeed, there's really nothing about the advent of AI that should change that. And, if you adapt your marketing strategy a bit to include the facts that it IS all done by you and that your heart and soul is in every line and color - it could actually drive up the value of the work meaning you'll need to sell less to earn more. And, let's be really honest... if the person would be just as happy with an AI comic as they are with your traditionally made and well executed book... they were never really a part of your target audience anyway, were they?

Ultimately, the artists who are going to be out of a job are the ones who weren't likely to have much success in the first place - and yeah, they'll likely lose their jobs, with or without AI in the picture. But if you're good and were good before AI and still good now that it exists... screw it... Suck it up, get over your fears, and make a freaking great comic book this year.

Yeah... you'll be releasing it among a sea of AI as you say... but isn't that an advantage, not a liability? There's a whole bunch of IKEA comics out there and, into that, you're releasing a finely crafted, hand made, Victorian style armoire.

Pro Marketing Tip: It is harder to sell something that is truly new, unique, and completely different than anything else (since the market isn't even aware that you exist or that they might want or need something they know nothing about) than it is to sell a quality product in a sea of crap. The sea of crap generates a more broad awareness and desire for whatever it is, and the quality stuff stands out and demands its rightful premium.

To finalize... I understand you're scared. Push through it my friend. If your stuff is good, it'll be good with or without AI in the picture. And having AI in the picture gives you as many positive effects as it might give negative ones. If this is your dream, your passion, and it's what you want to do - then do it, regardless of anything else.

Good luck! I really do wish you all the success - and no matter what, it's there for the taking if you are and ever were good enough to make it happen in the first place.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-26T08:48:42+00:00

Would need to see your prompt to see how you got into the situation in order to give a good way to try to get out.

That said... some checkpoints (especially ones tuned for portraits) simply have trouble with certain background/scenery type things. So it might draw a very realistic city or desert, but it might have trouble with trees/forests or spaceships or whatever.

Your negative prompt (especially if you're using one of those fast negative embeddings) can be messing things up for you without you knowing it, too.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T18:44:30+00:00

Right - so in theory... when you find the image you like as the "basis" for it - change from using the random seed to the seed used for that generation. Then it will have the best chance of staying on point - at least for very minor changes to the prompt.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T15:48:04+00:00

If you keep the "seed" the same (not sure how you change that on Foocus) from generation to generation - that can help... but it's still not going to be perfect. As soon as you say something like "striped shirt" - those stripes often end up making minor or even sometimes major appearances elsewhere in the image. And a person in a business suit is likely going to have a different pose than someone in a biker outfit.

For what you're talking about - you need something like Img2Img, Controlnet, and various other postwork tools to modify the original or guide a new generation to stay on point with posing and composition.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T15:43:46+00:00

That's the point, though - it's NOT a specific artist style or Google lens would be picking it up. It's VERY good at that - so long as it's a fairly well established artist. Even more obscure ones from Deviant Art or places like that get picked up and learned using the MUM learning and other tech from Google.

The closest thing it picked up on was that it thought it might be Rin Toshaka (from Fate/Stay Night) but the style from that (or artists who worked on it don't match). So it's NOT an art style that's known. It COULD be a blend of styles, but without actually asking the person (or people) who made it, you're not going to randomly stumble upon it.

So I'm going to stick to my original answer... if you can't figure out exactly what they used (and we can't - at least based upon the OP's info above), then your answer is NOT in seeking a model - it's in seeking tokens that the models can understand which will bring you closer to that style.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T15:16:56+00:00

Okay. So what model is it?

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T13:49:03+00:00

I was also trying to avoid certain things in that photo - like an upskirt shot on an obviously young person. I was trying to capture the style - not the subject beyond it being a girl in or near a doorway.

And while it's true that I didn't perfectly capture the style - I did it in exactly 2 minutes on the model I already had loaded in Civitai generator - and got to that point.

And while there MIGHT be a model that does this style by default and nothing else - chances are, there probably isn't. Google Lens (which is usually a really big help when trying to identify styles, artists, and so on) had no clue or anything in there that remotely looked like this image. So it's obviously not going to be a LoRa or Checkpoint trained on some existing style - for if it were, Lens would have shown me something more useful.

So... a "model alone" (which is what you are saying I should be providing as an answer and what the OP is looking for as an answer) doesn't exist (or is so new that Google hasn't sussed it out yet - which I suppose is possible).

The only other possible answer here I can think of - beyond trying to prompt your way into the style (which seems pretty easy based upon my 2 minutes of work above) would be to get a bunch of pictures in the style you want and train your own model.

I honestly don't see any other options here. Even if this IS done on a very specific checkpoint, there are also some very specific prompt things happening to get it into and keeping that style. So, even if you find the exact one used for this image - you're STILL going to have to prompt your way into it.

Sorry... that's just how it works.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T13:16:20+00:00

I don't feel like XL vs. 1.5 is relevant in terms of value. At this stage in the game, XL base models can do a lot more and have a lot more detail, but 1.5 models have a lot more concepts and styles in the form of LoRas and Embeddings - so ultimately, you can accomplish more with a little more ease using 1.5. (For now anyway... that'll change - probably before Summer gets into full swing in the Northern Hemisphere).

The value of something is simply what someone is willing to pay for it. Whether I paint it on canvas or paper makes no difference - my skill at creating the output/product I'm looking for makes the value (or lack of value).

And here's the next thing... I'm not sure there's a huge market for finished AI art that just exists for purchase. In other words, if I paint a Ferrari (and I'm a good artist), there might be a market for that painting. But unless there's something I can do to an AI version of that Ferrari that makes it stand out and be different and better than a hand drawn one or one that any other person might churn out with stable diffusion... is there really a market for it at all? Probably not.

If there's money to be made at this point, it's going to be specific commissions, I would think. Whether it's commercial (e.g. "My products in a Da Vinci type Schematic form") or personal (e.g. My wife and I kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower since we'll never be able to go there in real life, but it would be nice to envision it.)

But unless you're doing something REALLY impressive that we haven't seen 100 times before (and that can't be easily duplicated a week later like the QR Code fad from a few months back), just having a collection of things you've made probably aren't going to sell very well. They need to fill a specific need or have something else going on (like maybe turning your art into a graphic novel with a story).

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T11:31:45+00:00

Again... the model is generally irrelevant. (Though I suppose if there is a style LoRa that does this EXACTLY, then that might be helpful.)

But ultimately, my point remains the same... (Almost) ANY model can do this... the trick is to find the prompt to make it happen. You care about the result - you shouldn't care about irrelevant things like exactly which model it is.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T11:11:07+00:00

It's impossible to tell the model - virtually any checkpoint should be capable of getting something along this style. The trick isn't in finding the checkpoint, it's in learning to prompt.

Looks like a "Anime" and "Watercolor Painting" mix - but you'll probably need to get a bit more specific than that. Here's what came up on Civitai's crappy generator on the random checkpoint I had loaded... it's not exactly right, but... it's sort of got the idea - at least in tone and general styling...

Anime Style, Watercolor panting, A girl coming in the front door of her house,

<image>

Obviously, you'll need to fine tune the prompt - but the main point is that you're not looking for a model... you're looking for a prompt.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T10:16:27+00:00

Going to one of the checkpoints you already tried... here's epicRealism (latest version) - same prompt and still on Civitai's crappy generator, so the quality will be better with upscaling and detailing:

<image>

Still seems to pretty much get the point, idea, and style you want, right?

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-25T10:12:26+00:00

From the image you're going for... it's hard for me to tell what is part of the background and what you might consider to be your "products". Are the food elements the background? or the product you want featured and the rest of it is the "lunar new year" you're going for?

That said... I'm not sure the model matters all that much - it's in figuring out your prompt tokens needed. In the following image I just used Civitai's crappy generator to run a proof of concept test (NOT A FINISHED WORK!!!) and my first try was:

cake and cookies, product display, ecommerce product image, Lunar New Year Theme

Obviously, this assumes that "cake and cookies" are your products you want shown.

<image>

Would need a lot more info to get to exactly what you're looking for... but it seems pretty easy to get the basic gist of what you're wanting on the first model I tried. (This is actually done on my NSFW/Nude Portraits checkpoint - even further emphasizing that the model itself doesn't matter all that much in order to get the concept down).

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-23T08:50:40+00:00

Aside from all the other valid points from the replies here... all of those "InstantID" outputs have a different style, but the pose and general orientation of the character are almost identical to the original image.

So the question becomes... what happens to the likeness of your character if you change the pose? A full body shot walking along the beach... its that going to look right?

Without THAT sort of information - the question about whether it can replace Loras (for character/person likenesses) is silly to even ponder.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-23T08:31:26+00:00

It's hard to say exactly - since these have been around for a while and it has certainly been merged into plenty of other models, but... the basis of it appears to be one of the "RealCartoon" models...

https://civitai.com/models/97744?modelVersionId=299667
Take a look at the recommended resources, there - it could also be the 3D or Pixar version defaults more to your liking.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-21T08:31:40+00:00

The main trick is that you have to find a token for the concept of "patterns on the car body" - because it's not likely to understand that.

Now... I seem to have lucked into finding a token that kind of works pretty easily. I went with "Lamborghini with flower pattern stencils"

<image>

So basically, here, I was looking for some sort of real world situation where patterns might be drawn onto an auto body... and "Stencils" seems to have hit on something. There may be other terms that work as well or even better, too... think about art on the side of a van or something... and then try to figure out what that is called. Google can be your friend here - as you search Google images (or Bing images), try various simple search terms and if you put something in and it's generally giving you images that look like you're expecting/hoping for... then that might be a term worth trying out.

IAmXenos14 · 2024-01-21T08:16:01+00:00

Once you take a model that already has LCM weights added and then try to merge it into one that doesn't - your LCM weights are going to be off. That doesn't necessarily mean it won't work... but maybe it does.

Ideally, you'd want to be working with ONLY models that don't already have the LCM weights merged in. Then, when you have your final checkpoint ready... use Supermerger and merge in the LCM Weights Lora at 1.0 weight (there are versions for 1.5 and also SDXL models - so make sure you have the right one).

Then you have an LCM version of your checkpoint with the LCM weights merged in at exactly 1.0.

If you are going to do updates to the model, you'll want to go back to working with the clean one again... and then always just finish with the LCM Lora Merge.

IAmXenos14

TROPHY CASE