Mudge

So you want to make a magazine cover?Warning: Some of the linked to images may have been tagged as NSFW by the automod. And even if they haven’t the thematic is a sword-and-sorcery Sorceress, meaning scantily-clad. So if you do not have NSFW toggled on you may not see all the test samples.That said the basic formula used in nearly all the prompts linked to created specifically for this article begin with: “Cover of pulp cinema magazine " [YOUR TITLE HERE] ", cover title: "[YOUR TITLE HERE]", sub title: "[your info here]", depicting [insert your prompt info here]”That said I just have one question...Have you ever wanted to make your own cover of a comic or magazine but worried you lacked the skills to do your idea justice?Well, friend, fret no more because with AI you can do a lot more than even photoshop can achieve! Why. Yes-sir-ee, this here AI can make your wildest fanzine fantasies all but come to life!How?It’s actually easy, once you get the hang if it, the gist, the general idea, the… Well, a good base prompt to work with. You don’t have to use the ine in this article, though it’s a good starting point. Myself, I began with remixing prompts here on Tensor. You can learn a lot by reading and editing (whether you hit the remix button or copy and paste) prompts. As with most AI art you want to start with at least the outline of an idea.What do YOU want to create?Maybe you've always wanted to see an issue of Savage Sword of Conan where Conan wrestled in mud with Red Sonja, a comic cover of The X-Men where Harley Quinn teamed up with Wolverine, or maybe you want your own magazine... A fun faux fanzine (or mock-up for a digital fanzine) something like one of these:[Warning: The theme for many of these was “Exploitation Cinema”, thus many will probably be tagged NSFW.]https://tensor.art/images/842285048855026533?post_id=842285048850832231&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/842779283626799485?post_id=842779283622605183&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843415668931080877?post_id=843415668926886575&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843556165901327491?post_id=843556165897133188&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843778396099111037?post_id=843778396094916735&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843477336071517678?post_id=843477336067323375&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkhttps://tensor.art/images/843409458408235776?post_id=843409458404041473&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkk[More in my gallery. Remix and twerk, er, tweak away!]While those may be great examples what you really want to know is where to begin. For me, I have split my prompts into two parts. First, the description of what type of magazine I want to create. Second, the type of illustration I want on the cover. With a good solid first part you can actually generate decent concept cover art. And a good second part will generate a solid image as is. As I will now demonstrate.Prompt 1: Cover of pulp cinema magazine " SAVAGE LENS ", cover title: "SAVAGE LENS", sub title: "Exploitation Cinema", depicting Hyper-realistic, cinematic film still of a 1980s Barbarian fantasy movie, epic fantasy action scene in vivid Technicolor, well-defined hands, beautiful face and eyes, realism pushed to extreme, whimsical gothic fantasy Eroticism, perfect body, beautiful, realistic, masterpiece, dynamic movement, volumetric lighting, realism pushed to extreme, vintage cinema magazine cover.https://tensor.art/images/843882055134686903?post_id=843882055130492600&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkPrompt 2a : The image shows an beautiful young provocatively posed 21-year-old Arabian girl as a sensual insufficiently attired sexy barefoot Sorceress, skyclad with a sheer see-through, off-the-shoulder sheer sky blue chiton cape draped over her nude body, athletic young body shown in intimate anatomically correct detail, mystical runes painted upon her bare skin, long lustrous windswept hair, toned body, intricately detailed nubile young athletic figure, legs spread in dramatic stance as she leans back in a forest pool, wet, posed in a tantalizing tableau that accentuates the sensual intensity and elegance of a young Arabian girl's feminine presence and mysterious mystical power. A flimsy transluscent emerald cloak billows around her, rippling like shadows in the oppressive gloom of a grimdark forest, where the columns of ancient Greek ruins rise up like skeletal fingers. With her right hand, she holds a stick, poking into a vine covered altar where a pulsating otherworldly light shines from a small statue. With an intense expression, her piercing eyes spark with power as she conjures swirling orbs of vibrant magic above the open palm of her legt hand, casting ethereal wisps of defensive energy into the blackened air. The forest is alive with a sense of foreboding, gnarled roots, detritus, and a thick fog clinging ominously to the ruins. This Lovecraftian nightmare setting is a tableau of dark danger and adventurous allure designed to captivate the viewer with sensual intensity and a gratuitously insufficiently attired beautiful barefoot young Sorceress, well proportioned limbs, Perfect hands, museum-quality nude, intricately detailed background, uncensored creative flourishes reminiscent of classic Greco-Roman nudes, Occidental Eroticism, Arabian Fantasy, beautiful bald pussy, perky nipples, ultra-realistic labia, well proportioned limbs, well-defined features, beautiful barefeet, beautiful pussy, ultra-realistic, 4k, 8k, 16k, UHD, realism pushed to extreme, 5 fingers, trending on Artstation, DeviantArt, Rule34https://tensor.art/images/843883571258176309?post_id=843883571253982007&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkWowzers! What a lot to read, right?That prompt can be edited down quite a bit. I put in extra description specifically for you to play with. (Actually I based a lot of it on the extraneous descriptors in prompts read here then copy-pasted into the prompt. Not complaining. Just saying.) In fact, if you read carefully, there are utterly pointless descriptors included. Some that will no doubt leave you scratching your head. Trust me, there’s a lot to work with. To begin you can take the above and trim it like this:Prompt 2b: The image shows an beautiful young provocatively posed 21-year-old Arabian girl as a sensual insufficiently attired barefoot Sorceress in a sheer, off-the-shoulder, sky blue chiton cape draped over her athletic young body, mystical runes painted upon her bare skin, long lustrous windswept hair, legs spread in dramatic stance as she leans back in a forest pool, posed in a tantalizing tableau that accentuates the intensity and elegance of her mysterious mystical power. A flimsy transluscent emerald aura billows around her, rippling like shadows in the oppressive gloom of a grimdark forest, where the columns of ancient Greek ruins rise up like skeletal fingers. With her right hand, she holds a stick, poking into a vine covered altar where a pulsating otherworldly light shines from a small statue. With an intense expression, her piercing eyes spark with power as she conjures swirling orbs of vibrant magic above the open palm of her legt hand, casting ethereal wisps of defensive energy into the blackened air. The forest is alive with a sense of foreboding, gnarled roots, detritus, and a thick fog clinging ominously to the ruins.https://tensor.art/images/843886629274967383?post_id=843886629270773080&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkNot bad. So, there you have it, two separate prompts. Now let’s combine prompts. I, of course, chose Prompt 1 and 2b and here is the result:https://tensor.art/images/843891156170366668?post_id=843891156166172365&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkGranted that took four tries. The first three:https://tensor.art/images/843892869862360374?post_id=843892869858166072&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843893423913154106?post_id=843893423908959804&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/843896271476536731?post_id=843896271472342428&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkSo, what happened?As you can see, no text. Oh no! 😉Do Not Panic.At the same time I generated three images offsite. Each generated, in that Flux model version, near perfect title text.The point?Sometimes you may need to make tweaks so a prompt will work, or at least output an image you want. In such cases it’s always a good idea, if you can, to test your prompt on multiple platforms. (Or at least a separate platform.) Even when technically using the same model you may discover very different results. In this case it only required minor prompt tweaking and a few additional descriptors added to the end of the prompt. And, just to be sure it really works, one last image:https://tensor.art/images/843898195621927383?post_id=843898195617733080&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkWhile it is customary to point out how your mileage may vary, instead I would like to point out that, by using various LORAs, you can generate some truly amazing custom results.In conclusion I would like to thank @Snowflake (amazing work with Weird Tales cover art), @juiwaters, @NickEden (great Sorceresses), @Jozz, @PEPA_AI (inspired my Weird Tales covers) and all those other posters of fantasy art and magazine cover mock-ups whose art inspired my recent foray into creating magazine cover art. Than you for your wonderful art and…Thanks for reading.I hope this has been helpful.

Text to Video: The Tensor BasicsDisclaimer: This article links to images and videos, some of which the auto-mod may have tagged as “NSFW”. The thematic genre of the prompt used is “1980s sword-and-sorcery” in the artistic style of Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, and Julie Bell… Which does tend toward a certain insufficiently attired aesthetic. (Think chainmail bikini-clad warrior Red Sonja and scantily-clad Sorceresses.) So you may want to keep that in mind. If you don’t have “Mature Content” toggled to on any links to images tagged as “NSFW” may not work. Sorry about that. I did put “safe for work” in the prompt after the first few but… better safe than sorry.That said this article is about using text to video, specifically comparing outputs. The best way to do that is testing one simple prompt in multiple models. I figured the best way to test the various models available here was asking them to generate a person walking toward the camera. Too simple, you say? I agree. That’s why I asked for a sorceress. No point using credits if you’re not testing the model’s limits, right?Of course, by now, most reading this probably think they have pretty much “mastered” the basics of text to image prompt crafting and figure text to video is just as simple. Is that you? I know it was me. And boy-howdy was I wrong!If you want to try creating video from a prompt, or have already tried, maybe by copying and pasting an existing prompt, like I started out doing, you will quickly discover that those prompts don’t quite work. Or the result didn’t turn out as you expected, despite generating a half dozen test images. I thought that was good enough. It wasn’t. Happens to us all. Maybe it’s happened to you?Problem is video generators are costly to use. Typically they require way more credits than generating an image. Even at the “free” level most other platforms only allow for 2-3 generations per day. And, too often, that’s just not enough to learn much of anything by trial and error.So, what to do?Not give up. That’s where this article begins. With the basics. Rule #1: text to image prompts WILL NOT ALWAYS WORK for text to video generation. (More rules to follow in other articles, if there’s a need.) Practically speaking this rule means, if you have a prompt that you’d like to use, a prompt that works really well, you will need to tweak that prompt for use by txt2vid generators. It’s a pain, but not really that hard to do. In fact once you learn the basics of what does and does not work it gets easier. But, even after reading this article, it will take some trial and error. So don’t give up.Let’s get started looking as some basic test images using the same (or only slightly tweaked) prompt:https://tensor.art/images/829469892941049736?post_id=829469892936855433&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/829468638810575778?post_id=829468638806381475&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkhttps://tensor.art/images/829387914900387766?post_id=829387914896193464&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkThe images in the above links use a prompt similar to, but not identical with, the sample prompt we’ll be playing with later in this article. Also, they had multiple LORAs applied to create a specific artistic aesthetic. LORAs won’t be available for most txt2vid models here. Something to keep in mind when crafting a prompt. Go ahead. Take a second re-reading the prompts if you want. Okay. Great. Notice anything about them? You’re right. They’re relatively simple, if verbose, lacking the usual string of descriptors. And that’s a good thing.Why?If you read my previous articles on creating images I noted how it is possible to generate an image with simple prompts like:Cinematic, Hyper-realistic, dancing toads, chibi.Hyper-realistic, Nicholas Cage, superman punching Lex Luthor, Metropolis.Comic Book Art, Maisie Williams, Raven casting spells, Teen Titans.As it happens the first two prompts might actually work, as they contain directions that are also actions, but that last one probably won’t work very well. A good text to video prompt should be like a mini script, providing camera directions and specifying action and/or movements like:1) Camera pans on a cinematic action scene of dancing toads depicted in the chibi style.2) Technicolor film scene, light grain, a dramatic cinematic scene of Nicholas Cage as superman punching Idris Elba as Lex Luthor on a Metropolis skyscraper rooftop.3) Comic Book action scene of Maisie Williams floating in the sky as Teen Titan Raven casting spells at a horde of charging DC super villains turned zombies.Those should work. But will they? Without hot linking offsite (and the magic of reading an article long after it’s been written and edited multiple times) I can positively say…1) Yes, I got dancing frogs. Needs more of a description as it was very basic.2) Sort of. I did get Nicholas Cage, actually two of him. Fighting himself. He knocked himself off the rooftop into the horizon. (Kind of a cheat. I used director mode and inserted camera direction prompts.) So a technical fail. But hilarious.If you try this prompt maybe using a different actor will generate better results? You may also try describing Lex Luthor’s appearance to better distinguish him from Superman or just choose a different villain.3) Not at all. It did look like a comic book panel, sort of, if traced by a 5 year old. Hardly any actual animation. Very badly drawn. Horrible looking, actually. Don’t waste your time or credits trying it. Use this prompt instead:Dynamic cinematic action scene of Maisie Williams as the Teen Titan Raven. Raven is floating above a hoard of zombies, clawed hands reaching up toward her. As Raven hovers above the milling zombies, who resemble characters from the DC Comics universe, tendrils of black mystical energy leap from her fingertips dramatically destroying the zombies that her dark magic touches.That is the type of generic prompt that works best. By which I mean it provides a solid foundation to build on. You can insert camera directions, easily expand upon it, and it actually works as written without additional descriptors. At least my one test of it did.But what about those prompts from the beginning of the article?Good question. Thanks for remembering.Check out the prompt of this (typos and all): https://tensor.art/images/829469892941049736?post_id=829469892936855433&source_id=njeyo1nrnEW3oPYsaX309xkkBelow is a simplified version of the prompt used to generate the image linked to above. The below prompt will work, in both txt2img and txt2vid platforms, with varying degrees of success depending upon the chosen model. Since most of what was pruned was descriptive fluff, in other words description bloat, this also serves as a quick lesson in prompt craft. Remember try to keep your prompt concise and simple. Unless you’re on a platform giving you more than a 5 second video output, then have at it.Here's the shortened prompt:Hyper-realistic, creative, Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo inspired cinematic action scene of the beautiful Milla Jovovich as a insufficiently attired sorceress stalking through a torch lit dungeon catacomb toward the camera. Her radiant statuesque form moving with elegant precision, right hand holding a gleaming wizard's staff capped with a silver skull. As Milla walks she looks around, waving her staff around defensively, as if expecting a lurking monster to leap out of the shadows. From her wary expression Milla is ready to cast a deadly spell at any attacker. Her smile is pure malice, her face exquisitely detailed with symmetrical, well-defined features—high cheekbones, full lips, and piercing, otherworldly eyes with golden iridescent flecks. A shimmering halo of magical energy surrounds her as a a magic shield. Her long, lustrous windswept hair whips around her, each strand meticulously rendered, subtly shifting as if a writhing serpent.Okay. Here we are. We have a prompt to play with. Now what?(Continues in Part 2)Part 2: https://tensor.art/articles/829676356309759027Continues in Part 3 (Hunyuan vs SkyReels)https://tensor.art/articles/837497543295351531

Many may have noticed there's an image to text feature in many AI generators. If you're like me you've probably just shrugged it off, after all why waste credits on that?Well, while searching for something else, I stumbled on a free img2txt tool. Probably not as good as the one here but, intrigued, I uploaded a movie still. What I got was not that spectacular a description, yet useful. The kind of basic description that's easy to work with.Here's the prompt I created from one of the outputs. Text in green is the AI generated text. Text in yellow was my edit. Text in blue were my additions to the prompt.In a dimly lit, mysterious temple chamber, three women stand in a circle, with one in a striking red robe dramatically raising her arms as if invoking a powerful spell. The second woman exudes an air of apprehension, while the third observes with intrigue. In the center, a figure lies on a table, draped in white. Explore themes of mysticism, women's empowerment, and the tension between fear and curiosity. Hyper-realistic, cinematic, Technicolor, creative, extremely intricate detail, majestic, mythical, museum-quality, anatomically correct, realistic, realism, lifelike textures, Occult Symbolism, chiaroscuro, volumetric lighting, hyperdetailed, art trending on Artstation, DeviantArt, classic insufficiently attired occult art in style of Frank Cho, Stephen Youll, Don Maitz, Frank Frazetta, Luis Royo, Julie Bell, Frank Kelly, Ninjartist.Not a terrible prompt. I'd probably change a lot more, especially that last sentence (in the original green text prompt), to give it a more sinister horror movie vibe. However it works okay as is. Granted the images created with basic models sometimes don't look that great. Save, of course, for Flux, which was used to generate the cover image. What's interesting is how simple the descriptions created were.If you just need help describing a scene I'd say give the text to image tool a try. I certainly will in future. Especially for movie stills.Have fun.

No need to have read my article on last minute greeting cards, though the idea here is very similar. The difference? This article is about crafting a greeting card with a personal touch, assuming you have one important factor: Time.The good news, with most AI image generators you can craft some amazing seasonal greeting cards, and it's very simple.Step 1. Choose your AI model. My preference is Flux Schnell. For a traditional greeting card look my aspect ratio preferences are 2:3 or 9:16. Feel free to use what works best for you.Step 2. Write your prompt.Here's the one used to create the digital seasonal greeting card image attached to this article:In a cozy house warmed by a log fueled fireplace, a young woman wearing a Christmas sweater depicting a snowman sits reading a glowing magic book, the central focus, from which a winter wonderland scene pops up. Framed behind the young woman are windows through which can be seen an idyllic snow-covered winter landscape. Top centered curling holiday text reads: Merry Christmas.Step 3. Save to local device/HD. Print or Attach to message. Send to friends and/or relatives.That's it.Remember: You can get as detailed as you want with your prompt. No need to rush. Take your time and consider the image you want to create. Describe it. I kept my example simple. But consider these prompts:In a cozy house warmed by a logs burning in a stone fireplace an young woman wearing a Christmas sweater depicting a Christmas Tree sits reading a glowing magical book, the central focus, from which Santa Claus in his Sleigh pulled by magicalflying Reindeer leaps forth. Behind the young woman are windows through which can be seen an idyllic snow-covered winter landscape. Top centered curling holiday text reads: Seasons GreetingsTraditional Christmas Art of a young woman wearing a Christmas sweater sitting reading a glowing magic book, the central focus, from which a sparkling Christmas scene pops up.I created images for each. You can find them in my gallery. Notice the differences, and that's without adding a lot of descriptors. But that's just to start with. Be as inventive as you want to be!Don’t worry if you don’t get text, or the text you get doesn’t look how you want. You can always create more images. You have plenty of time to tweak your prompt. If, however, you don’t ever get text you will either need to pick a different model, like Flux Schnell, that works well producing text or use image editing software.Actually that’s what most of us usually do, apply text and stickers and all manner of third party art to our source images. But, with the right model, and a well worded prompt, you should be able to generate very nice holiday card AI art without needing to do all that.Oh, one last thing, check your negative prompt if you use one. If you have “text” in there that could pose a problem, as might certain other terms.Note: You may need to generate more than one image to avoid unusual results, but that can be half the fun.For more prompt ideas check out my article: https://tensor.art/articles/795640016094197726Happy Holidays!

Need a last minute greeting card with a personal touch?Good news, your AI image generator can do that. And it's very simple.Step 1. Choose your AI model. My preference is Flux Schnell.Step 2. Write your prompt.Here's the one used to create the digital greeting card image attached to this article:Thanksgiving card Art, idyllic first Thanksgiving scene, artistic, creative, 75mm, top holiday text reads: Happy Thanksgiving!Step 3. Save to local device/HD. Attach to message. Send.That's it.Addendum: You can get as detailed as you want with your prompt. I kept it simple. But consider these prompts:Thanksgiving card Art, idyllic first Thanksgiving scene with pilgrims and Indians, artistic, creative, 75mm, top holiday text reads: Happy Thanksgiving!Thanksgiving card Art, idyllic family Thanksgiving scene of multi-generational women and children in kitchen preparing Thanksgiving feast, artistic, creative, 75mm, top holiday text reads: Happy Thanksgiving!I created images for each. You can find them in my gallery. Notice the differences, and that's without adding any additional descriptors for style. Be as inventive as you want to be!Note: You may need to generate more than one image to avoid unusual results, like heads in cooking pots, but that's half the fun. Happy Thanksgiving!

This is just an Addendum to my introductory article on making Christmas Magic. Creating a fun seasonal postcard type image is fairly simple. If you like whimsical art then your descriptions should reflect this. Simple descriptions work best. Remember the more detailed and focused your prompt the closer to what you imagined that picture may be the AI output will get.Good descriptors are key to creating seasonal themed art. In fact, in many instances, you can just add a few keywords to a Favorite prompt to tweak it's aesthetic.Keywords and descriptive ideas you may want to use in your prompt: Christmas, Yule, Yuletide, seasonal, holidays, mistletoe, Christmas Fantasy, Christmas Magic, Christmas decor, holiday decorations, Yulelog burning in fireplace, with a mistletoe border, with a Christmas tree in background, Christmas Elves...You get the idea. 😉Here's a fun prompt to play with:(Christmas Fantasy:1.1), elfin Elves, Christmas Magic, triadic colors, windswept hair, extremely high-resolution details, photographic, realism pushed to extreme, fine texture, incredibly lifelike, dynamic lighting, upon a smokey tavern stage in the City of Christmas three beautiful barefoot Christmas Elves wearing Santa hats and red and green Christmas Elf costumes battle each other with candy cane wands filling the air with the colorful sparkling word "Noel" during a Yuletide magic festival, above them a festive Christmas banner reads "Yuletide Magic", epic fantastical Christmas art, epic fantasy, vintage Christmas postcard art, Hyper-realistic, windswept hair, intricate detail, majestic, high-quality resolution, UHD, highly detailed face,distinct facial features, photorealistic,75mm, 20 million pixels,4k,8k,16k,UHD,realism,realistic,vivid,key visual, film still, cinematic color grading, depth of field, sharp focus, professional photography, masterpiece, ultra detailed photorealistic, raw, anatomically correct, Hyperrealistic, splash art, concept art, mid shot, intricately detailed, color depth, dramatic, 2/3 face angle, long shot, side light, colorful background, whimsical.Addendum: A quick explanation. Everything after "hyper-realistic" are descriptors trying to do one thing, get a higher quality better clarity more realistic image. Is it all necessary? Probably not. You can delete it entirely and replace it with something like... "artistic, creative, extremely intricate detail, Christmas art, vintage holiday postcard art, art in style of Stephen Youll, Don Maitz, Howard David, Julie Bell, Frank Frazetta, Luis Royo,, trending on Artstation, DeviantArt, classic Christmas scene." And still get a decent, if very different looking, image. Or not replace it at all. Go ahead, give it a try.(When done here check out my articles on crafting holiday cards. What you learned here should prove useful.)Remember the image attached as a cover for this article used the above prompt with Lora's to tweak the result, but you can use whatever model you want. That image and more can be found in my gallery. Plenty of prompt ideas for you to remix or copy-and-paste.Here's that same prompt without Lora add-ons:https://tensor.art/images/799639532594004905?post_id=799639532589810603https://image.tensorartassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/anim=true,plain=false,w=1024,f=jpeg,q=85/posts/images/794519944456031492/200f186e-c522-4cf8-8b4d-6c31cfccc832.png[Is there a way to post images inside articles?]I hope this has been useful.

Writing a prompt is simple. However Avoiding Unfortunate Image Results, that can sometimes pose a challenge. To begin let’s start with some basics and a few work prompt challenges…Step 1. Chose Your ThemeWhat do you want to create? An epic fantasy battle? A snapshot of models on a runway? Pirate ships in a storm? A lush garden full of gnomes? Giant Mecha battling on an alien moon? Clowns tossing pies at each other? With AI there is virtually no limit. Sci-fi space opera, Frankenstein’s monster at the prom, anime unicorns surfing on rainbows, funny chibi characters, if you can imagine it, and describe it in a prompt, the odds are you will be able to create it. You are the artist. AI is your brush.Let’s say you want “vintage” Hollywood style pics. Very simple to do with the right model, right? Sure. But you can often achieve similar results with a good prompt.You knew that? Of course you did. But what adjectives you might like to use for a really retro Hollywood style will depend upon the genre. For instance to describe Film Noir words like: pulp, sultry, brooding, sensual, dark, shadowy, steamy, &tc may leap to mind. Those same adjectives might not work as well to describe a western gunslinger or comedic clown scene. Would they?Step 2. Choose Your WordsThere’s no wrong or right approach. If you want feel free to copy and paste vintage scene descriptions or sections of old movie reviews into your prompt. Yes, that can generate images, just be aware the copied text will need major adjustment.But, wait, you may be saying to yourself, aren’t prompts supposed to be well structured? Yes. But more important is consistency of directions. You can generate an image with:Cinematic, Hyper-realistic, dancing toads, chibi.Hyper-realistic, Nicholas Cage, superman punching Lex Luthor, Metropolis.Comic Book Art, Maisie Williams, Raven casting spells, Teen Titans.Technically those prompts have a subject and style/aesthetic description, which a good prompt needs to generate an image. Go ahead. Try them for yourself. That first prompt is simple. Your results shouldn’t vary too much. The second and third prompts will likely generate wildly different results. This is because what they lack is a coherent directive.Step 3. Write a Strong DirectiveWhat is a strong/coherent directive?Something like:A hyper-realistic cinematic action scene of Nicholas Cage as Superman punching the villain Lex Luthor into a building in the City of Metropolis.Go ahead. Try the prompt. You will get interesting images. However they may not necessarily be close to the described action.Why?When images are generated that do not precisely depict what was in the prompt it’s usually because of vague directions (meaning poorly written) or filtering. Yes, filtering. In comic books punches fly like raindrops in a hurricane. But certain AI generators may balk at depicting violence, unless you use a model specifically designed for comic book action scenes.Give the prompt another try rewriting it to depict whatever actor you’d like to see as (or with) your favorite superhero or superheroine, and no they don’t have to punch a villain. It can often be just as challenging to depict them rescuing a damsel/dude in distress or just licking an ice-cream cone. You just need a clear description and strong main subject.Step 4. Choose a Strong Main SubjectThis can seem highly subjective. If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, you will assume everyone knows who Maisie Williams character was. Likewise, to fans of comics, characters like Superman and Spiderman are considered well known (as is which comic imprint they belong to). It may have thus come as a surprise, if you count yourself amongst the ranks of the Fandoms mentioned, to see the results of the third prompt:Comic Book Art, Maisie Williams, Raven casting spells, Teen TitansBecause of her pop culture fame this will generate images of Ms. Williams. But will it definitely generate images of Ms. Williams as the Teen Titan Raven? If you tested the prompt you know the answer. You’re likely to get a better result with a simple declarative sentence like:Maisie Williams as the Teen Titan superheroine Raven.Another example. Consider the image this prompt produces:Cyberpunk, heroine, neon cityscape.Now compare with the image created with this prompt:A flamehaired Cyberpunk heroine eating noodles under neon signs against a futuristic cityscape.Once you have a strong main subject you can easily, and simply, refine your image with detailed aesthetic and/or style cues.Step 5. Consider Aesthetic and StyleAs a general rule the more detailed, and tightly written, a prompt the better the output. This means judicious yet creative use of descriptors paired with aesthetic and style directives.Aesthetic means anything that describes the desired visual style. A few examples: 3D, art-deco, artistic, bas-relief, cinematic, epic fantasy, fresco, game art, impressionism, oil painting, painting, photo, photorealistic, realistic, surrealism, whimsical, and etcetera.Style, while it can overlap with aesthetic, is really just how you stress what should have more weight in the image. IE: epic fantasy painting, photorealistic game art, sci-fi space-opera, Halloween horror, Christmas Fantasy, whimsical impressionism, and etcetera et al.Remember the cyberpunk heroine from our previous example? Think of ways to tweak the prompt to your liking by adding style and aesthetic descriptors and see what a difference those tweaks make. Don’t have time right now, no problem, try this:A flamehaired Cyberpunk heroine eating noodles under neon signs against a futuristic cityscape, cinematic, photorealistic, sci-fi, intricately detailed futuristic architecture, realism pushed to extreme.Wow, quite the difference, right?To get even more depth out of your generated images you can also expand the details. Right now that’s a static photo. But what else might be happening? Are there drones hovering above? Does she have a pet, if so what kind? What if this was a “bustling street scene” or she was “sitting under the shadows of flying cars”?You can create myriad creative flourishes in your art just by adding a few additional details. Try to avoid overwriting the prompt by stacking your descriptors. However, just as you want to avoid overwhelming the AI with too much detail so, too, will you need to be careful how you combine descriptors.Step 6. Temper Your DescriptionsThe two main difficulties, I have found, with attempting artistic precision is overwriting your descriptions and combining too many descriptors.How is that a problem? To keep a prompt below a set word threshold often means taking shortcuts like reducing a sentence to keywords : “night, cemetery, Halloween theme” or eliminating entire sentences by combining descriptors : “Happy Holidays, winter scene, day, golden hour, cinematic, cookies” in a prompt. It’s not necessarily bad methodology, but sometimes subtle contextual cues may be lost when a prompt gets simplified in this way.Did you notice anything different? Two additional variables are specified: night and day.When I chose the word “temper” for this section title I did so not just to mean “keep it simple” but to suggest you hone your prompts, if not to perfection, at least to include as much basic information as possible. You are not just any artist, you are a blacksmith hammering the imperfections out of metal to forge a strong sharp blade, your prompt. That means considering whether to include directions for lighting, background details, setting description, specifying an architectural style for buildings, amplifying style by including references to genre and artistic style (or specific artist's style, "in the artistic style of [insert artist name]") or any other details you think will help make your art look better.Just remember: A prompt doesn’t necessarily need to be overly bloated with directions for style, lighting, color, and everything else you might read about in guides. Just choose what seems right to you. You’ll quickly discover what works and what doesn’t, and that can be half the fun of creating AI art!Speaking of fun Here’s one last prompt to try. It’s a subtle difference from the images generated by the prompts above, but a good one. :A flamehaired Cyberpunk heroine eating noodles sits in a café on a busy street under a neon sign that reads: “Noodles”, a drone flies overhead, fog shrouded futuristic cityscape, cinematic, photorealistic, sci-fi, intricately detailed futuristic architecture, realism pushed to extreme.I hope the challenges posed in this article have been fun and helpful.

The season shall soon be upon us and, being an artist, you want to create something to say “Happy Holidays!” with your favorite AI generator. Perhaps you've thought about making your own Christmas cards, postcard, or just a fun season image. But how to make your image pop? The best answer I can give is to show you by presenting a prompt to play with. This is a favorite sample prompt style I’ve picked up: A redheaded woman wearing an Christmas sweater depicting Santa Claus sits reading a magical glowing book, the central focus, a flying reindeer leaping up from the glowing pages, shimmering Snowflakes forming the words "Christmas Magic" float in the air above the woman as Christmas plum fairies dance around the room, cinematic, hyperrealistic, volumetric lighting, incredibly detailed. That was used to generate the image attached to this article. Obviously this prompt needs a model that’s good with text. I’ve found Flux Schnell works decently for test images, but there are plenty of options for you to choose from. That said you probably don’t just want to copy and paste. So here’s where you get to show off your creativity. Ready? First, notice how the woman is described. You can change this. Perhaps your girlfriend is a blonde, or maybe you’d rather adjust the description to be male, or maybe you’d prefer a grandmother? No problem. Just change the description. Don’t like Santa Claus? No reason that sweater can’t depict: Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Christmas presents, or a Christmas tree. This is just a sample descriptor. You can put in whatever you want. Likewise you can change the text from “Christmas Magic” to any greeting you want. The shorter the better. (Happy Holidays, Joyeux Noel, Seasons Greetings, and etcetera.) Go ahead and play around with that prompt to get a feel for it. It’s okay to rewrite it, I tried to keep it simple ans you should be able to do much more with it. In fact you can exoand it by describing the room. Do you want a cozy fireplace or Christmas trees? Then add them. Remember to write clear simple descriptions, at least to start with. Going Beyond the Theme I chose Christmas because, let’s be honest, that’s probably the easiest art for any AI model to produce. But you don’t need to create a Christmas image. Maybe you are a tabletop gamer looking to post a flyer looking for players. Consider this: A gamer girl wearing casual clothes sits reading a magical glowing book at a table, the central focus, a Amazon Warrior leaps off the glowing pages, shimmering smoke curls up forming the words "Gamers Wanted" that float in the air above the woman. Polyhedral dice, miniatures, and a Dr. Pepper soda are spread out on the table, cinematic, hyperrealistic, volumetric lighting, incredibly detailed. Remember there’s virtually no limit to what you can create. So why are you still reading? Wink. That’s it for now. I hope this was helpful.

It all begins with your prompt. You need a good solid prompt that clearly states what you want. The Prompt is how you direct the AI, so if your text isn't clear neither will be your output image.Getting StartedAnyone who’s attempted to generate concept or fan art of their favorite celebrities in scenes from popular series, or has attempted to generate crossover images, will have noticed certain AI models have these actors seemingly locked into a certain age and look. For instance prompting for actors of yesteryear like Ricardo Montalban or Lucille Ball tend to generate images of a distinguished gentleman and matronly redhead. (No need to specify hair color with Lucy.) While the opposite holds true for more recent popular actors like Jenna Ortega or Maisie Williams.If you’ve read my previous article discussing age prompts and attempted to apply that advice in reverse, sadly, it seldom works. And if it does the results may be even more inconsistent than attempting to write a prompt to generate a consistent age regression for an popular elder statesman actor. But it's not impossible, though you may need to have patience and burn through a few generations.Begin with a clear character description. What you’ll want, to begin, is to describe the target age with as few descriptors as possible. That seems to work best. Usually. Also, and this one is important, pay attention to your CFG setting.Some descriptors to try may include: older, old, grownup, aged, age [input your desired age], middle age, matronly, elderly, wizened, mature.Do they work?On occasion and depending on your chosen model.Remember: Write the prompt so it is telling the AI that your chosen actor or other personage is being depicted in a older role. For instance: “Jenna Ortega as the matronly Countess Bathory.” That might work. Results will vary depending on your chosen model. So experiment until you find the model that works for you.Sticking to a Favorite ModelWhat to do if you really have a great idea but can’t get the age quite right in the model you absolutely have to use?Option 1. Create the image you want without the actor’s name in the prompt. Then do a face swap/overlay.Don’t have access to that sort of tool?Option 2: Use complete sentences, no syntax shortcuts, with strong descriptors to spell out what you want the character in your image to look like. You can’t force a model to generate a style of image that doesn’t fit its aesthetic framework, but you can sometimes get it to come close.Examples:A) This seems to work 50/50: “Jenna Ortega aged 50 years as a matronly Countess Bathory.”B) This seemed to work better: “Jenna Ortega aged 50 years as a matronly Countess Bathory, wrinkly skin, old woman's face, haggard, tired face and eyes.”See the difference? Prompt A left quite a bit of room for interpretation whereas Prompt B narrowly defined the desired output. There are pros and cons for both prompts. For instance Prompt A, because it’s not as constricted, may generate a more authentic face whereas Prompt B may output a character barely recognizable to you.That’s it.While there are plenty of tools out there these are the basics, at least that I have observed to work within your prompt. No external image processing required.I hope this was helpful.Addendum: I very nearly forgot, and this is VERY important. Pay attention to your negative prompt, if you use one. The negative prompt also guides your image output. Check out my gallery. Look for the Countess Bathory images. The one with the younger looking Countess has my stock negative prompt. It's bloated and overwritten. A problem for another article. Edited for clarity.