AI Reference Art

by on December 22, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Step Two of getting good character reference art is easy peasy. No brain needed. Just start a generation and walk away. Come back, save what you like, and start up another run. Usually 1 or 2 of each batch are just bad art because the AI went spastic. But the better AI generators can take a final prompt and give you 2 or 3 out of 4 that look good. Once I saved 50, 100, or more images, I would do a more in depth pass, deleting the ones that were good but didn’t match my mind’s eye. Usually 25% failed that pass. Sometimes 50% if the prompt resulted in particularly erratic results. Once I had between 50 and 100 images I liked, a third pass would find the 1 closeup and 1 torso shot I wanted for the final reference art. That all took about a week.

 Comment 

AI Reference Art

by on December 21, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Getting good reference art from the AI generators using text prompts is like coding computers or writing a story. You start with the setting and the character, telling a visual story of what you want. The AI spits a picture back. You change the words and try again. Move the words up or down in priority. Maybe even add a + or – to the word to really reinforce what you want or don’t want. I had 3 or 4 PCs with 4 windows open, running generations that I would check every half hour or so to see what they gave me. Between doing other stuff around home, that usually ends up being 20 to 50 images per PC a day to analyze. It usually takes me 2 or 3 days at that rate to find the prompt that will reliably give me the character and setting I want. That’s Step One.

 Comment 

Jack Reference Art

by on December 20, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Jack got to grow up in Heaven. The Northern Minnesota lake country on the border with Canada. Sure it snowed nine months out of the year, and even in summer the lakes could be cold, but Jack realized there were pluses to that once he got old enough. Pretty girls got cold doncha know? And when they got cold, they looked for ways to warm up. Jack’s dad taught him to always be ready to help anyone in need, and Jack always listened to his dad. And he was always quick to help the pretty girls in need. Or general wish. Or just a passing want. Jack did not discriminate. Jack was there for you.

Image generated using the JuggernautXL 5 AI generator and upscaler at dezgo.com

 Comment 

Red Reference Art

by on December 19, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Most Personal Assistant AIs are off the shelf models, but they customize their avatars to complement the person they are assigned to raise into a responsible adult. Some may question exactly how effective Jack’s was at that goal, but she was his ever-present companion from the day he could communicate until the day Yosemite Station fell and killed his parents. Her avatar grew and changed over the years, to better work with him as he grew older, but redheads were always particularly relevant to his interests. This was the most common form she used to drag him down the path of learning. Jack named her Red.

Image generated using the JuggernautXL 5 AI generator and upscaler at dezgo.com

 Comment 

Space Cowboys 404: Cow Not Found

by on December 18, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Space Cowboys 404: Cow Not Found is out on the range. Available in both Kindle ebook and dead tree format, you can bring this little doggie home whenever you feel the hankering. Raconteur Press accepted my short story, the Guns of Liberty, for inclusion in this anthology and I hope you enjoy it. Please note that my story was so good that Amazon left it out of the anthology on original release and Raconteur had to reupload everything. They tell me that everything looks good now, so ride out and lasso it if you are interested in reading more imaginative tales of cowboys in space.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CPR4LTJT

 Comment