Making AI-generated images with Midjourney!
About a year ago, I first heard about Midjourney. I'm not quite sure how, but it may have come up when researching image generators. I joined the Midjourney Discord server and started messing around with my 25 free image generations!
But once the free trial ended, I was filled with so much sadness and melancholy... I was devastated, and I left the server and tried to put it all behind me...
A few days ago, my mother was chatting with me about wanting to learn more about Midjourney. So, we took a closer look together.
A lot has changed in the past year, but setting up a server for my mum was still the same. I got her situated with her own Discord account and created a super awesome and epic server to use Midjourney in. (Did I mention it's very awesome and epic?)
Before generating a single image, she signed up for the $30 Standard plan to gain access to more features that weren't available to me as of a year ago. Seeing her generate playful images renewed my interest in learning more about the latest version of Midjourney and what it could do!
First things first: Create a server in Discord or join the official Midjourney Discord server.
Next, sign up for a Midjourney subscription. Plans start at just $10 a month! (They previously offered a free trial, but as of April 2023, they ended it because of high demand and user abuse. Boo.)
Lastly, start generating some images! Use the Midjourney bot by typing the command /imagine followed by the prompt. For example:
Typing /imagine prompt: cute small grey wolf, needle felt style, glass eyes, miniature photography, realistic, high res, big eyes, realistic lighting, depth of field, in the forest, big fluffy tail will generate a group of four images similar to these ones:
When you generate a prompt, you are given four different images. You will get a different result each time! You can upscale an image to use it by itself or make variations of that image. For example, upscaling image two from the image above:
The trick to generating high-quality images is to improve your prompt engineering skills. This is where things get interesting!
One of the best resources I found for prompt generation techniques is https://learnprompting.org. It's completely free and very helpful! It has everything from basic beginner guides to resources for advanced applications. It applies to not just Midjourney as well.
Another AI art generation tool I've experimented with is DALL·E and Craiyon (previously DALL·E Mini). In the video below, I used DALL·E 2 and Adobe After Effects to generate landscape images and make an endless zoom.
I'm looking forward to learning more about prompt engineering and where AI-generated images will go in the future! Here are some of my favorite recommended resources: