So I tried using Midjourney AI to create Coris and---HOOOOORY SHEEEET!
Meya: HOOOOOOLY MOTHER FREEEEDAH!
Coris: Alright, ladies. You can change your mind now.
Oh, right. Forgot to add "sickly" and "sly".
Wait. No. Why do you keep getting hotter and older? No. Please stop. No.
Stop giving me Jon Snow and more Artemis Fowl please just please... (Hold up is that Edmund from Narnia in the top-left?)
Coris: Can't help it. I'm too sexy for this bot.
OH, SHUT UP!
Okay, so now you're Jim from The Office?
I gave up for the day and settled on this one. Somehow the image changed drastically when you upscale it. Also, Coris doesn't have prominent spots like that, actually, and his mouth seems too big for his face but eh, he does talk a lot, so...THERE YOU GO, YOU BIGMOUTHED DONGHEAD.
And here's Meya, by the way! Her braids weren't supposed to have this insane amount of rungs, and her nose of course doesn't have a prominent bridge, but eh, I give up XD. I've regenerated this variation half a dozen times already.
All the creations are drop-dead gorgeous, but the bot keeps messing up and making alien braids XD. It doesn't comprehend "glowing green eyes", too T^T.
(Why does her hair keeps growing darker and darker red? Oh, hello Sansa in the bottom-right!)
In conclusion, I think it's pretty useful for giving human artists an idea of what you're going for when commissioning artwork. The bot still gets facial proportions slightly wrong here and there, and weird surreal details surface here and there. As seen with Coris, it seems the bot also bases its creations off popular faces from pop culture, too, and may not always be 100% original (That variation over Sansa is definitely based on a Renaissance painting. I can't remember which one. With Queen Amidala hairdo XD). As usual, I'll still hire a real artist to work on Luminous' paperback cover and support humans if I ever had the opportunity.
Anyway, what are your thoughts? Any tips for better prompts? Which variation did you like best?
I still have my quota for the month left, so I'll definitely be tinkering with the other cast members next (hopefully there'd be enough left for Arinel, Zier and Gillian at least, after all these failed prompts XD). So stay tuned & I'll see you in the next update!
DAY 2:
I woke up next morning and decided to do the whole main cast!
So here's Arinel.
Isn't she just gorgeous? I actually liked the top-left variation of her just as much, but she reminds me too much of a certain actress whose name I can't seem to recall now, the look in her eyes was too mature, also the bot keeps messing up her snowflake necklace (OMG!) and turning it into a tattoo when I upscale it XD.
So I played around with the blending feature and here's the result! She just transformed from Elle Fanning to Amanda Seyfried XD.
And here's Zier. I specifically requested 'handsome' in his prompt and HOOOOOLY CRAP DID MIDJOURNEY DELIVER!
I think the bottom-left one is closer to what I had in mind for hairstyle, but Zier must have large round eyes and an air of naivete about him. The gorgeous one also looks a bit too old. So I'm gonna go with this one.
And now, the male lead the readers actually care about XD...
And I've also played with blending for Coris and Meya, and ended up with this new version of Coris. If only he doesn't still remind me so much of Jim from The Office and Theon Greyjoy XD. Maybe it's just me.
I'll leave you off with Meya's blending results (because TIL you can only post 20 images per chapter; a window popped up just now to warn me XD). I blended two variations of the same realistic-style image, but somehow it gave me this utterly different style. She looks cute, though! Her nose is also less prominent, her braids less elaborate, her face more pointed, and her eyes so large it's somewhat unnerving, kinda like Anya Taylor-Joy?
Right...Okay...Last one for real now. I tried Coris once again and FINALLY! FINALLY, THEY GOT MY BOY RIGHT! I reduced his age in the prompt from 18 to 17 (Because Coris looks somewhat younger than his real age due to malnutrition). Perhaps that steered the bot well away from the Game of Thrones photo database XD.
Those pale gray eyes, oh Goodly Freda...