I've been using google images for years this way: I write the text description of my characters in the manuscript, then copy/ paste it to images. I've gotten a LOT of my character pix that way. I'm excited to try a whole new way to get the images that are 'my' characters!
I used the metahuman tool, and I was able to create some great faces, but I was seriously frustrated by the limited hairstyles and my inability to do images of people of color in way that felt true to character.
One thing I like about MidJourney specifically is its more painterly style. Metahuman is remarkable, but it's almost TOO realistic for what I want. MidJourney's concept art style still leaves some interpretation to the imagination.
Yes, I've used Google images for a long time, but I would spend HOURS searching for just one character. This way I can get closer. Perfect? No. But I think as I get better at using the tool (there is definitely a learning curve!) I will be able to better approximate what is in my head.
It's good to continue hiring real artists for books, too, though -- AI is also being used to replace writers, so right now might be a good time for the creative community to stick together and support each other.
Yes, this is something I am aware of, and plan to write a piece about the issues and ethics of using AI for creative activities (like Midjourney for art, and these AI writers as you mention) for my day job.
But it is a good question. Can - or should - you replace artists with AI? I mean, I can use this tool for just that, a writing tool, but I will still need help from an artist for my covers because the images are imperfect and I would still need text and layout that looks professional. And as for writing tools, AI writing software can draft something, but it would need a human to polish it (I have seen some bot-written news stories and they're atrocious). But in five years who knows, everything could be done with a computer. But then the question is, should it?
In my case, MidJourney isn't replacing an artist as such, because I unfortunately cannot afford to hire an artist. If I did have budget, I think I'd always prefer to go with a human artist. That said, I can imagine even then still using AI for testing out concepts and ideas. I see it as a useful tool for exploring, or to use as part of a longer process. Using AI to generate components that I then combine into something new, for example - a bit like using found items or cuttings or kitbashing, but with the added quirk of the source material being generated specifically for it.
It's going to be an evolving debate, though, especially once AI generation gets fast enough to generate image sequences in real time. Generating entire video scenes? Or generating the art for a video game on the fly, based on what the player is doing? Fascinating stuff, but it's certainly going to require some careful thinking along the way.
While it's true that some regular people might not be able to afford to hire an artist (to be very blunt, you could probably easily find a human artist and trade services with them), I would argue that because this technology is also available to corporations that *can* afford to hire and pay humans fairly for their creative work, many will now choose not to. That's the actual concern here.
Companies that could easily hire and pay artists a fair wage for their creative work will instead choose this new AI-made stuff, both for its bizarre novelty and to save a few bucks so their executives can have a raise and buy themselves yet another car or house with the money the company saved by eliminating its creative budget.
At the end of the day, concerns about this technology aren't about the regular people that will use it. It's about the fact that these programs will be used by big companies as an excuse to avoid paying yet another group of humans -- in this case, highly talented ones.
The same thing will likely happen to writers once technologists are done "perfecting" intelligent writing technology. This is about watching artists, and eventually writers, inevitably lose their ability to make even a humble living when companies that very much could have afforded to hire and pay them chose not to due to the "benefits" of technological "progress."
Thanks for the Midjourney tour! I didn’t know that you can’t solely own a Midjourney piece. I can imagine some interesting court cases in the future. (Or maybe I should have Midjourney imagine them for me!)
They flip-flopped their T&Cs recently to make it more in the user's favour. You now grant Midjourney a non-exclusive license to use the images you generate, rather than the other way around. And I think you can optionally enable private creation so that images don't go into the big community pot.
I imagine the business model will be evolving as rapidly as the machine learning itself.
Yes both of those are true. I can't recall if anyone can do a private image or if you have to have a paid account, but generally, most artwork seems to be generated in the public channels for now.
thanks so much for this and for your enthusiasm. I still can't get my mind wrapped around the concept of using bots to create art. My son, creative director for a large company you've heard of, says I'm being to anal about it that, in fact, a lot of artists and graphic designers are using it and it's another "tool." Still weird, though. And all I can think of is how I feel about writing bots.
Anyways, thanks for your post. Really appreciate it.
I'm not sure if I consider it "art". I still need to wrap my head around that too. But it is a great tool. And there is one channel in their Discord that is specifically for people to post their images and then how they have modified them with Photoshop, either by cleaning up the images or making montages. For example they might use Midjourney for the background and then put a character they drew on top. Or they might create an image of a person and then clean up the image, tweak the color balance, remove the weird AI artifacts, etc.
Thanks for this great guide! I’ve been curious about experimenting with Midjourney for a while now, but I wasn’t really sure how it worked or even where to get started.
The images you were able to create look cool and this seems like it could be a really great tool for writers. (I definitely have a bunch of photos meant to represent characters and landscapes in my story, but they’re not perfect.)
I’m a little leery about making and using artwork I don’t have exclusive rights to, but that’s maybe something that can be dealt with by combining images in photoshop, etc. I’m curious about the specifics.
And of course as a traditional artist, I cringe at the idea that people will replace “real” art and artists with this. Obviously it’s easier and cheaper to let an AI churn out hundreds of custom images in the time it would take to commission an expensive piece from an artist. But artists don’t paint what they see, they paint what they feel. No computer will ever be able to replace that.
You have the rights to use the images in any way you want. The only issue (unless you're using them on a corporate site) is that others COULD use them (but there are thousands so it's highly unlikely) and that Midjourney could also display them somewhere (again, unlikely). So I think it should be fine unless you intend the images to be used in a book published by a major publisher (in which case, you would need to talk to them about it).
As an artist I’m on the fence about it. Yes, for non-artists it’s a great resource much like Google Images, Pinterest, or Instagram, but I worry. Already an artist’s time and resources are ignored when a customer looks at the price of an original piece. We frequently are lectured that we overprice our work when many of us are charging less than if we paid ourselves minimum wage for the time we put in. What will happen when anyone can produce such images with just a handful of keywords? Will this eventually be seen as equivalent to a painting that took an artist weeks to create and required years of practice to get to that level?
I agree, there are some distinct ethical issues here, and it can ultimately undermine visual artists, just as writing bots can undermine the work of writers and authors. I don’t intend to use this artwork in final form, and I will still enlist the assistance of artists as needed. but as a tool to help me visualize things in my writing, it’s invaluable, and I may be able to use midjourney as a way to communicate what I’m thinking about for commissioned artwork in the future. in other words, it can be miss used, and it’s up to us to make sure that all of these automated tools are used in a fair way.
I am absolutely against this sort of stuff. I think it's reprehensible, and as someone who does my own illustrations for my novel on Substack, it feels like I'm being assaulted. This is very wrong as it will be wrong when (and it's probably already happened) someone uses AI to write the novel/short story and then proceeds to use AI to make pictures to go with it. Do you consider it a good thing for artists are replaced by machines? All I have is my talent, my intelligence and my hard work. Please do not use a computer to replace what nature graced me with and what I strive for.
I appreciate your position. It is a bit daunting to see how good AI artwork and writing (and many other things) is getting. While some people may opt to use Midjourney as a way to cut an artist out of the process of publishing a book, I'd like to think that won't be the norm. There is absolutely a place for artists and graphic designers, and I value the skill of people such as yourself because I have so little ability myself to create visual art. And in my opinion, there's no way an AI program can replace the skill and close understanding of genre and marketing (among other things) that an artist or cover designer brings to the table.
At any rate, I certainly don't intend to use Midjourney in that way. For me, it's just a tool — just like Google Image Search or Pinterest are tools — that help me write my stories. Even if I had unlimited financial resources and time, I don't think I could hire an artist to create vignettes of all of my characters because it is so difficult to explain in words exactly what is in my head. It's one of those "I will know it when I see it" kinds of things. And in that way Midjourney is brilliant.
You are right. The drawings are very good, may be better than my own work. If you look at my Substack you’ll see about 25 illustrations I’ve done for my novel. I’d say they average me about two days of work apiece. what am I to do? What am I to say? In a capitalist society cheapness, efficiency, and convenience reign. Maybe it’s time for me to hang it up, illustration-wise.
Hey Ruben - I too, find this troubling. With a daughter interested in a future in art, I can't help but think that AI like this (and others to come) has somewhat dimmed that future. However, as to your illustrations, they are closely tied to your story and you made them yourself, just as you are writing your story. That's cool! Remember, Tolkien created numerous illustrations for the Hobbit and LOTR so I say draw if you want to draw. Tolkien did.
Thanks for the kind words. I'll continue to illustrate my book of course. I'll be doing it for myself. I'm no longer a professional commercial artist, though I worked as one for over 20 years. And it seems I was lucky to get paid for so long. I'm sure my employers would have been thrilled to replace me with software. The AI thing is going in a very bad direction and young people will be the ones most impacted by it. This should be a huge issue and yet the only talk I hear is: "it's just so cool that I can speak into the microphone and be rewarded with this lovely visual." Illustration s only the latest thing. Society will be shaken to its core as job after job disappears. Driver jobs, customer service, knowledge jobs such as law and medicine; journalism for sure, fiction writers, why not? Maybe AI will create some decent poets as well. Almost any job that doesn't require physical human touch or deep empathy can probably be done by an "intelligent" machine. I suppose there will be some dirty or dangerous jobs that will need to be done by humans too. If you think our politics are unstable now, wait about six or seven years when everyone's out of work... I decided not to finish that sentence with my dark prediction. By the way, I'm gonna check your substack now. Thanks for noticing my comment. Good luck to your daughter. She should focus on art that IS NOT digital I think. Digital artists are likely to be replaced pretty quickly.
I love this!
I've been using google images for years this way: I write the text description of my characters in the manuscript, then copy/ paste it to images. I've gotten a LOT of my character pix that way. I'm excited to try a whole new way to get the images that are 'my' characters!
Another good way to generate faces, in a more controlled way, is using Epic's Metahuman tool. I wrote about it a bit here: https://simonkjones.substack.com/p/bringing-your-characters-to-life
I used the metahuman tool, and I was able to create some great faces, but I was seriously frustrated by the limited hairstyles and my inability to do images of people of color in way that felt true to character.
The limited hairstyles and clothing is annoying. I've had some success with a range of faces and backgrounds, eg https://simonkjones.substack.com/p/bonus-meet-the-galbraiths
One thing I like about MidJourney specifically is its more painterly style. Metahuman is remarkable, but it's almost TOO realistic for what I want. MidJourney's concept art style still leaves some interpretation to the imagination.
Yes, I've used Google images for a long time, but I would spend HOURS searching for just one character. This way I can get closer. Perfect? No. But I think as I get better at using the tool (there is definitely a learning curve!) I will be able to better approximate what is in my head.
It's good to continue hiring real artists for books, too, though -- AI is also being used to replace writers, so right now might be a good time for the creative community to stick together and support each other.
Yes, this is something I am aware of, and plan to write a piece about the issues and ethics of using AI for creative activities (like Midjourney for art, and these AI writers as you mention) for my day job.
But it is a good question. Can - or should - you replace artists with AI? I mean, I can use this tool for just that, a writing tool, but I will still need help from an artist for my covers because the images are imperfect and I would still need text and layout that looks professional. And as for writing tools, AI writing software can draft something, but it would need a human to polish it (I have seen some bot-written news stories and they're atrocious). But in five years who knows, everything could be done with a computer. But then the question is, should it?
In my case, MidJourney isn't replacing an artist as such, because I unfortunately cannot afford to hire an artist. If I did have budget, I think I'd always prefer to go with a human artist. That said, I can imagine even then still using AI for testing out concepts and ideas. I see it as a useful tool for exploring, or to use as part of a longer process. Using AI to generate components that I then combine into something new, for example - a bit like using found items or cuttings or kitbashing, but with the added quirk of the source material being generated specifically for it.
It's going to be an evolving debate, though, especially once AI generation gets fast enough to generate image sequences in real time. Generating entire video scenes? Or generating the art for a video game on the fly, based on what the player is doing? Fascinating stuff, but it's certainly going to require some careful thinking along the way.
While it's true that some regular people might not be able to afford to hire an artist (to be very blunt, you could probably easily find a human artist and trade services with them), I would argue that because this technology is also available to corporations that *can* afford to hire and pay humans fairly for their creative work, many will now choose not to. That's the actual concern here.
Companies that could easily hire and pay artists a fair wage for their creative work will instead choose this new AI-made stuff, both for its bizarre novelty and to save a few bucks so their executives can have a raise and buy themselves yet another car or house with the money the company saved by eliminating its creative budget.
At the end of the day, concerns about this technology aren't about the regular people that will use it. It's about the fact that these programs will be used by big companies as an excuse to avoid paying yet another group of humans -- in this case, highly talented ones.
The same thing will likely happen to writers once technologists are done "perfecting" intelligent writing technology. This is about watching artists, and eventually writers, inevitably lose their ability to make even a humble living when companies that very much could have afforded to hire and pay them chose not to due to the "benefits" of technological "progress."
Midjourney is an amazing tool for fiction writers.
Great, easy to grok overview. I will be sharing this with more than a few folks!
Thank you! I hoped it would be helpful!
Thanks for the Midjourney tour! I didn’t know that you can’t solely own a Midjourney piece. I can imagine some interesting court cases in the future. (Or maybe I should have Midjourney imagine them for me!)
They flip-flopped their T&Cs recently to make it more in the user's favour. You now grant Midjourney a non-exclusive license to use the images you generate, rather than the other way around. And I think you can optionally enable private creation so that images don't go into the big community pot.
I imagine the business model will be evolving as rapidly as the machine learning itself.
Yes both of those are true. I can't recall if anyone can do a private image or if you have to have a paid account, but generally, most artwork seems to be generated in the public channels for now.
You do have to pay for one of the higher tiers, I think.
thanks so much for this and for your enthusiasm. I still can't get my mind wrapped around the concept of using bots to create art. My son, creative director for a large company you've heard of, says I'm being to anal about it that, in fact, a lot of artists and graphic designers are using it and it's another "tool." Still weird, though. And all I can think of is how I feel about writing bots.
Anyways, thanks for your post. Really appreciate it.
I'm not sure if I consider it "art". I still need to wrap my head around that too. But it is a great tool. And there is one channel in their Discord that is specifically for people to post their images and then how they have modified them with Photoshop, either by cleaning up the images or making montages. For example they might use Midjourney for the background and then put a character they drew on top. Or they might create an image of a person and then clean up the image, tweak the color balance, remove the weird AI artifacts, etc.
You sure have intrigued me, Jackie—this I soooo cool! Thanks for sharing with us!
Awesome! Give it a try!
Mind blown.
I know, right? You are right where I was a couple of weeks ago when a friend started posting all of these amazing images online.
Also I’m addicted, already buried under a mountain of images. Helpffnnnmmm!
Thanks for this great guide! I’ve been curious about experimenting with Midjourney for a while now, but I wasn’t really sure how it worked or even where to get started.
The images you were able to create look cool and this seems like it could be a really great tool for writers. (I definitely have a bunch of photos meant to represent characters and landscapes in my story, but they’re not perfect.)
I’m a little leery about making and using artwork I don’t have exclusive rights to, but that’s maybe something that can be dealt with by combining images in photoshop, etc. I’m curious about the specifics.
And of course as a traditional artist, I cringe at the idea that people will replace “real” art and artists with this. Obviously it’s easier and cheaper to let an AI churn out hundreds of custom images in the time it would take to commission an expensive piece from an artist. But artists don’t paint what they see, they paint what they feel. No computer will ever be able to replace that.
You have the rights to use the images in any way you want. The only issue (unless you're using them on a corporate site) is that others COULD use them (but there are thousands so it's highly unlikely) and that Midjourney could also display them somewhere (again, unlikely). So I think it should be fine unless you intend the images to be used in a book published by a major publisher (in which case, you would need to talk to them about it).
Cool, that’s good to know!
Those are some pretty cool characters that you created. I might have to try that program out. Thank you for sharing.
Oh good, I'm glad you found it useful! Let me know what you come up with!
As an artist I’m on the fence about it. Yes, for non-artists it’s a great resource much like Google Images, Pinterest, or Instagram, but I worry. Already an artist’s time and resources are ignored when a customer looks at the price of an original piece. We frequently are lectured that we overprice our work when many of us are charging less than if we paid ourselves minimum wage for the time we put in. What will happen when anyone can produce such images with just a handful of keywords? Will this eventually be seen as equivalent to a painting that took an artist weeks to create and required years of practice to get to that level?
I agree, there are some distinct ethical issues here, and it can ultimately undermine visual artists, just as writing bots can undermine the work of writers and authors. I don’t intend to use this artwork in final form, and I will still enlist the assistance of artists as needed. but as a tool to help me visualize things in my writing, it’s invaluable, and I may be able to use midjourney as a way to communicate what I’m thinking about for commissioned artwork in the future. in other words, it can be miss used, and it’s up to us to make sure that all of these automated tools are used in a fair way.
I am absolutely against this sort of stuff. I think it's reprehensible, and as someone who does my own illustrations for my novel on Substack, it feels like I'm being assaulted. This is very wrong as it will be wrong when (and it's probably already happened) someone uses AI to write the novel/short story and then proceeds to use AI to make pictures to go with it. Do you consider it a good thing for artists are replaced by machines? All I have is my talent, my intelligence and my hard work. Please do not use a computer to replace what nature graced me with and what I strive for.
I appreciate your position. It is a bit daunting to see how good AI artwork and writing (and many other things) is getting. While some people may opt to use Midjourney as a way to cut an artist out of the process of publishing a book, I'd like to think that won't be the norm. There is absolutely a place for artists and graphic designers, and I value the skill of people such as yourself because I have so little ability myself to create visual art. And in my opinion, there's no way an AI program can replace the skill and close understanding of genre and marketing (among other things) that an artist or cover designer brings to the table.
At any rate, I certainly don't intend to use Midjourney in that way. For me, it's just a tool — just like Google Image Search or Pinterest are tools — that help me write my stories. Even if I had unlimited financial resources and time, I don't think I could hire an artist to create vignettes of all of my characters because it is so difficult to explain in words exactly what is in my head. It's one of those "I will know it when I see it" kinds of things. And in that way Midjourney is brilliant.
You are right. The drawings are very good, may be better than my own work. If you look at my Substack you’ll see about 25 illustrations I’ve done for my novel. I’d say they average me about two days of work apiece. what am I to do? What am I to say? In a capitalist society cheapness, efficiency, and convenience reign. Maybe it’s time for me to hang it up, illustration-wise.
Hey Ruben - I too, find this troubling. With a daughter interested in a future in art, I can't help but think that AI like this (and others to come) has somewhat dimmed that future. However, as to your illustrations, they are closely tied to your story and you made them yourself, just as you are writing your story. That's cool! Remember, Tolkien created numerous illustrations for the Hobbit and LOTR so I say draw if you want to draw. Tolkien did.
Thanks for the kind words. I'll continue to illustrate my book of course. I'll be doing it for myself. I'm no longer a professional commercial artist, though I worked as one for over 20 years. And it seems I was lucky to get paid for so long. I'm sure my employers would have been thrilled to replace me with software. The AI thing is going in a very bad direction and young people will be the ones most impacted by it. This should be a huge issue and yet the only talk I hear is: "it's just so cool that I can speak into the microphone and be rewarded with this lovely visual." Illustration s only the latest thing. Society will be shaken to its core as job after job disappears. Driver jobs, customer service, knowledge jobs such as law and medicine; journalism for sure, fiction writers, why not? Maybe AI will create some decent poets as well. Almost any job that doesn't require physical human touch or deep empathy can probably be done by an "intelligent" machine. I suppose there will be some dirty or dangerous jobs that will need to be done by humans too. If you think our politics are unstable now, wait about six or seven years when everyone's out of work... I decided not to finish that sentence with my dark prediction. By the way, I'm gonna check your substack now. Thanks for noticing my comment. Good luck to your daughter. She should focus on art that IS NOT digital I think. Digital artists are likely to be replaced pretty quickly.
Makes sense that you like dystopian! (Me too) In the meantime, we keep pressing on. Writing, creating art and doing what we love to do. Cheers!
Been fooling around with another AI for images/- wonder. Love ❤️