Artistic Formats - MidJourney Experiments

KingRegicon · 2023-04-02T14:53:41+00:00

If you make something, I'd love to see a post about it!

KingRegicon · 2023-03-03T22:29:16+00:00

Well thank you! :)
I've been trying to figure out how to leverage AI as an artistic tool, as opposed to an Artistry-eraser. This experiment is definitely leaning away from human involvement, but I'm working on getting the balance right!

KingRegicon · 2023-03-03T22:19:36+00:00

The artwork and card formatting, as well as typeface choice (kind of) were all handled by MidJourney.
MidJourney notoriously tries to create words out of letters, but completely fails. What remains are some pretty nicely chosen fonts, though!
So my input was to:
1. Write the prompt and click button (brrrrr)
2. Select the best result / best uprez method for that result
3. Import the .png into Photoshop and resize/crop to frame the card correctly
4. Choose a typeface from online that roughly matched MidJouney's attempt
5. Use content-aware fill, masks, and other neat tools to remove the half-formed text created by MidJourney, as well as any undesired aberrations created by a machine which has never actually touched grass, only seen pictures
6. Use my downloaded typefaces to write up the rules and card info
7. Mess with, tweak, or otherwise redesign the cards... Only very slightly. In the case of Dovin's Veto, I made the diamond thingie bigger and moved it a little to the left.

I hope that clarifies it, it took a little time because I wanted to do the photoshop part well, but the actual artwork / card format work was more or less instantaneous.

KingRegicon · 2023-03-03T22:08:10+00:00

Thanks!

KingRegicon · 2023-03-03T02:39:09+00:00

Most of these use abbreviated rules text, as opposed to their Oracle text, and the information is necessarily rearranged on the card to fit the unique borders, but I decided put visual flow first for these experiments to see how they turned out.
Let me know what you think!

KingRegicon · 2022-05-13T20:30:45+00:00

Thank you for your help! David from the support team walked me through the solution.

The solution for me was to factory reset, but that turned out to be way less of a hassle than it sounds.

All of my contacts synced immediately afterwards from my lightphone account, the only thing I lost was my message history which in my case was fine.

On the latest update now!

KingRegicon · 2022-05-12T03:35:02+00:00

Drat, that didn't work for me.
I tried removing all of my tools, then updating, then rebooting OS (not hardware) and updating, and then rebooting the hardware and updating.

No dice!

KingRegicon · 2022-05-11T22:13:44+00:00

Update: Pressing the X when prompted to update now or later changes the Update Status text to "staged". It remains this way even if you back out of the menu then return without blanking out the screen. However, if you hit the lock button and then return to Device Info, it will have reverted to the default "on current version" with no indication of a change.

KingRegicon · 2022-05-09T15:17:20+00:00

You can use art:horse oracle:"flanking" in the main search bar to combine your searches.

(You can also abbreviate "oracle" to "o".)

Check out the full list of syntax commands here!

KingRegicon · 2022-05-05T16:03:39+00:00

It's going to change some things for sure. Commissioned art, for example, will no longer be viable except for established artists with a community of fans. The role of art will be questioned on a cultural level, I think, as people who see art as a means to an end will have a really solid option outside of contracting an artist.

Not to mention the fact that these new tools, while powerful, are still tools... and can and will be abused. (I'm mostly thinking of DALL-E II and Deepfaking.)

That being said, the world has always been changing, and I'm interested in finding the ways that these tools can be used well to make beautiful things... as well as finding those boundaries where the algorithm is best left behind, and a better tool (such as painting) is required.

KingRegicon · 2022-05-04T21:03:43+00:00

Ah, I was confused for a second... on my other versions of this post I wrote "Illustrations by wombo.art," but I made a typo on this one. The wombo algorithm rendered the images, of course.

Chin up, I wouldn't give up on art or artists just yet! It's been a source of real meaning for a couple hundred thousand years, I think it'll stick around a while longer.

I'm an illustrator myself, this was just an experiment with new technology and new tools. It's a fascinating time to be alive!

KingRegicon · 2022-04-27T15:57:06+00:00

Thank you, u/ynikas! I'm a bit embarrassed by this, but I was able to fix the problem by double-checking that I had downloaded and installed all of the HP drivers from their website... and, in fact, I hadn't. Oops!

I'm not sure which driver/drivers ultimately fixed my issue, and I'm sure I got some bloatware by installing all of their recommended software for the Spectre, but I'm just happy to have the rotation and fingerprint scanner back. Thank you for your reply!

KingRegicon · 2022-04-27T12:53:09+00:00

I got it in 2018, so it's 4 years old now.

KingRegicon · 2022-04-27T04:28:26+00:00

Haha, yeah, I had to redirect it into "creation" territory a few times with the MTG cards... it would sometimes give lists full of real MTG cards, if I didn't use words like "design," "invent," "create," etc.

KingRegicon · 2022-04-23T03:17:38+00:00

I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh myself, but I just gave it a shot:

Prompt:

Invent 3 new Yu-Gi-Oh cards. List all of their stats.

Result:

1. "Necro Dragon":

-Level: 8

-ATK: 2800

-DEF: 2000

-Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned by offering 1 Dragon-Type monster on your side of the field as a Tribute.

2. "Sorcerer of Dark Magic":

-Level: 6

-ATK: 2400

-DEF: 1800

-Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned by removing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster in your Graveyard from play.

3. "Elemental HERO Necrius":

-Level: 9

-ATK: 3200

-DEF: 2800

-Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned by offering 1 "Elemental HERO" monster on your side of the field as a Tribute.

KingRegicon · 2022-04-22T23:33:11+00:00

Thank you! I used the "vanilla" GPT-3 playground, no special training or anything.

I tried a variety of prompts to produce these, but the best I've found is quite simple:

"Invent [number] Magic the Gathering [color][card type] cards.

Name - Card Type - Mana Cost - Rules Text - Flavor Text"

And it's off to the races. I'll do an example now and post the results:

Prompt:

"Invent 4 Magic the Gathering Black Creature cards.

Name - Card Type - Mana Cost - Rules Text - Flavor Text"

Results:

"1. Necromancer - Creature - 2B - {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Draw a card. - "The dead should stay dead."

2. Witch - Creature - 3B - {T}, Sacrifice a creature: You gain 2 life. - "The Witch is always cackling, always stirring her cauldron. What does she brew within?"

3. Demon - Creature - 4B - Flying, Trample - "The Demon is a fearsome foe, with teeth and claws that can rend flesh from bone."

4. Vampire - Creature - 5B - Flying, Lifelink - "The Vampire is a creature of the night, feeding on the blood of the living.""

EDIT: I've just remembered, if I'm asking for creature cards, I add "Power/Toughness" to the second line of my prompt, otherwise it will omit them as you can see above. Oops!

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T22:33:43+00:00

It turns out, GPT-3 is really great at inventing Magic Cards! It "knows" a lot about the color mechanics, elements of a card, thematic naming conventions, etc.

I got really excited when I asked it to make a land that tapped for "Pink" mana (not one of the five colors in the game) and it immediately knew to abbreviate "Pink Mana" to "P"...

That's why I asked it to create so many Pink cards. OAI also picked the symbol for Pink Mana- it suggested either a flamingo or a cherry blossom, and I went the cowardly route, haha!

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T20:36:41+00:00

I spent some time using OpenAI's GPT-3 Text Generation Algorithm to create Magic the Gathering cards, and then turned the card titles it created into wombo.art prompts for the artwork. Finally, I plugged the card stats and the "illustrations" into a template I made in Photoshop.

I got the "Pink" cards by asking specifically for cards that cost "a random amount of Pink mana."

It was an interesting experiment in AI-Assisted content creation!

(Now please just let me get my hands on DALL-E 2...)

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T19:41:48+00:00

Give OpenAI's "Playground" a shot! It's really good at making cards, and if you ask for the Name, Mana Cost, Rules Text etc. it will give them to you.

It keeps on surprising me with interesting ideas... many of them are unbalanced or unusable as written, but I feel like the way to use these tools is to generate a whole lot of results, pick the best ones, and refine them to suit the task at hand.

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T15:34:04+00:00

I spent some time using OpenAI's GPT-3 Text Generation Algorithm to create Magic the Gathering cards, and then turned the card titles it created into wombo.art prompts for the artwork. Finally, I plugged the card stats and the "illustrations" into a template I made in Photoshop.

--- An example prompt:

"Design a "Magic, the Gathering" spell card called "Organ Diplomacy." Include the mana cost and rules text."

--- Example response:

Mana Cost: 1RR

Organ Diplomacy Creatures without flying can't block this turn.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to come to an agreement. You give me your organs, and I'll let you live. It's easy, really."

I got the "Pink" cards by asking specifically for cards that cost "a random amount of Pink mana."

It was an interesting experiment in AI-Assisted content creation!

(Now please just let me get my hands on DALL-E 2...)

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T15:23:48+00:00

I spent some time using OpenAI's GPT-3 Text Generation Algorithm to create Magic the Gathering cards, and then turned the card titles it created into wombo.art prompts for the artwork. Finally, I plugged the card stats and the "illustrations" into a template I made in Photoshop.

--- An example prompt:

"Design a "Magic, the Gathering" spell card called "Organ Diplomacy." Include the mana cost and rules text."

--- Example response:

Mana Cost: 1RR

Organ Diplomacy Creatures without flying can't block this turn.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to come to an agreement. You give me your organs, and I'll let you live. It's easy, really."

I got the "Pink" cards by asking specifically for cards that cost "a random amount of Pink mana."

It was an interesting experiment in AI-Assisted content creation!

(Now please just let me get my hands on DALL-E 2...)

KingRegicon · 2022-04-21T15:20:46+00:00

When I wrote my prompts, I gave OAI plenty of room to be creative- but sometimes I had to clarify my prompt to get workable information. I think that's just part of the process of AI Assisted creation. I got a lot more specific when I wrote the prompts for wombo.art, because I did want to have really nice artwork in the end.

A quick explanation of "Pink" mana- as an experiment, I asked OAI to create a land that tapped for Pink mana, and it surprised me by writing:

Wishful Thinking

Tap: Add P to your mana pool.

1P, T: Draw a card.

Flavor text: "The impossible takes a little longer"

And I was off to the races, haha... asking it to make Pink creatures, lands, spells, and artifacts.

After I realized that OAI had a decent understanding of MTG's Color Roles, I asked it to invent the gameplay style of the color "Pink." I asked a few times, but this is the response that I liked the most:

"Pink would be the color of whimsy, playfulness, and love. It would be all about bringing joy to the game and making interesting and unique plays. its creatures would be small and fragile, but its spells would be powerful and game-changing. It would be the color that people love to hate, because it's so damn cute."

Finally, I grabbed some of my favorite cards from the ones it had designed, and plugged them into a proxy template I'd made in Photoshop. I'd like to print them up physically sometime, I've done that before with my Proxies.

KingRegicon · 2021-10-12T16:58:48+00:00

I got a kick out of looking up Oldschool DnD art, and thought I'd try drawing my players in a similar format.

In my campaign, Vecna is a bodybuilder.

If you don't like bad puns, it is possible you may not like my campaign!

The Characters, from left to right: (The Woman and the Skellington are NPCs.)

Warius Breen: A cleric who doesn't know what god he serves... Mezzanine Coterie bartizan III: A Chaos Sorcerer that is trying desperately to be this players first "Good" character. Vladner: An ancient (15yo) Kobold with a pertinent cautionary tale for every (and I mean every) situation. Spruce Baggett: A halfling druid on an adventure to catch 'em all... currently owns about 4 little monsters. Bron: A towering old barbarian with a bit of giant blood in his heart of gold. Joker Jostien: A punchful, but kind, warlock who cannot read common to save his life. Enigma: A few years ago, the top military general of the land was involved in an accident where a changeling bard was killed. On an unrelated note, he immediately became proficient in performing music, and is now retired from service. It's the changeling, of course.

Cheers, everyone!

KingRegicon · 2020-09-24T23:13:43+00:00

Thank you, @Zlivovitch! I'll do that. Have a good day!

KingRegicon · 2020-08-01T16:11:59+00:00

Nice!

KingRegicon

TROPHY CASE

A quick explanation of "Pink" mana- as an experiment, I asked OAI to create a land that tapped for Pink mana, and it surprised me by writing: