Midjourney Breakdown
It wasn’t all that long ago when ‘artificial intelligence’ or ‘AI’ was nothing more than a buzzword. Now, it is probably one of the most exciting pieces of technology that is disrupting the industry in so many different ways. Recently, it has taken the world by storm with the idea of AI-generated art. While there is a lot of debate and theoretical think-pieces around this topic, one cannot deny that it is certainly a very intriguing concept. People have actually started to find fascinating applications for this technology beyond just creating funny reaction pictures for internet points!
I myself am guilty of using AI generators to my advantage. I have tried out several different available tools and sites, but can comfortably say that Midjourney has been the most useful of all. Here is an overview of what Midjourney is and how I have been using it for my website:
What is Midjourney?
Midjourney is a powerful AI-based tool that allows you to input words and phrases as prompts so the system can process and generate interesting artistic images for you to save and use. It is a great tool to create concepts and brainstorm artistic ideas by combining the predictability of your words and the unpredictability of the algorithm.
/imagine a robot that is painting a picture in an atelier, messy environment, typical artist scenery, using a paint brush, futuristic style –ar 19:5 –version 3
Fascinating Results
A lot of people simply use Midjourney for entertainment purposes as the results are so fascinating to explore. With so much room for creativity and exploration, the applications for different niches and businesses are practically limitless with artistic tools like this. It is a great way to experiment with potential ideas and get an initial impression of a concept without investing too many resources into it.
Quick Return Time
Midjourney has really fast GPU processing times, with each rendering taking around a minute to generate completely. You receive four options in response to your input from which you can choose to upscale your favorite. You can also create variations with the V button.
Ease of Use
Once you have joined the Discord server, Midjourney is pretty straightforward to use. You simply choose a channel to go into and enter your prompt in the message area preceded by /imagine. All you need to enter are keywords to describe the artwork you want to generate. This can include subjects, styles, colors, words, moods- anything you can imagine. Wait for the system to process your request and save your results once they arrive in the app.
However, keep in mind that there is a lot of trial and error with these kinds of tools. You may not get the desired results the first time around. Most users have to run prompts multiple times with corrections and additions to generate satisfactory results, so take the time to practice and experiment if you want to maximize its utility.
Discord Community
It gives you access to a pretty great and creative community of individuals. Since the workspace is essentially a shared Discord server, you can also view other people’s generations and take inspiration from their ideas.
Midjourney Pricing
To start using the midjourney AI art generator, you have to go to their website and Sign Up for the beta. You also have to connect to their Discord by using the invite link mentioned on the Home page. Once you accept the invite, you can start giving prompts to the bot on Discord. Everyone starts off with a free trial to the beta which includes 25 free prompts. If you want access to more, you can sign up for full membership. Here are some of the plans Midjourney offers:
Basic
For $10 a month, you get 200 generations per month along with metered mode and personal bot chat.
I’m currently using this plan and it is perfect for my needs. I’m having a private feed of all images I generate within Discord itself, which I use all the time anyway.
Standard
The standard plan gives you 15 hours of GPU time per month, with each generation taking up to a minute. You also get features such as ‘relax’ GPU time, more than 4 times as much ‘fast’ time, as well as metered mode and personal bot chat. This plan costs $30 a month.
Corporate
The corporate plan gives you 120 hours of fast GPU time per year for an annual subscription of $600. You also get private visibility in addition to the previously mentioned standard features. You are required to get the corporate plan if your company makes over $1 million in revenue annually.
Alternatives to Midjourney
If you would rather use another AI art generator, here are a couple of options I recommend checking out:
DALL-E 2
Apart from Midjourney, DALL-E is another very well-known and well-used AI image generator. The latest version, the DALL-E 2, comes with an improved algorithm designed to create even more realistic images and art by interpreting natural language descriptions. However, the quality is variable based on how specific your prompt is and it may take you several tries to get a usable result.
NightCafe Creator
This is a free option that can be used to generate images very quickly, in a matter of a few minutes, with a number of preset effects. You can upload your open images and transform them into different styles and artistic mediums in just a few clicks. The studio also gives you access to text-to-image art generators, although there are restrictions compared to paid generators.
Why Should You Use Midjourney?
Midjourney is an exciting peek into what the future has in store for us in terms of art, design, and creativity. While it is nowhere near replacing artists and designers, it is certainly an extremely helpful tool for those looking to turn their ideas into tangible forms.
Pros
- Great interaction opportunities with like-minded individuals and artists over the Discord server.
- Ability to explore other artists’ generations and share your own work.
- Really quick turnaround, enabling you to experiment and brainstorm ideas in sessions.
Cons
- Requires repeated tries to get ideal results.
- The results are shared publicly with everyone using the server (unless you have purchased a private plan).
- The service is still in its beta stage and needs more development.
How I Use Midjourney
As you probably have seen, I use Midjourney to create all artwork and imagery on my website. I find it to be a lot more tastefull then stock-material and you can achieve great consistency across your whole site. In addition, you can achieve amazing results with a little bit of iteration and can pour your creativity into the prompts to get very specific results. Unhappy? Just keep tweaking your prompt and you’ll get there eventually.
/imagine a robot that is painting a picture in an atelier, messy environment, typical artist scenery, using a paint brush, futuristic style –ar 19:5 –version 3
Keep in mind that you can achieve a certain level of consistency by re-using certain parts of your prompts that relate to aspect ratio, art-style, genre etcetera. For banners I like to use an aspect ratio of 19:5 and you can save prompts that you like and copy in the ‘styling’ so to speak.
/imagine #description #style #camera #lightning #camera #artists #colors #materials #size #quality #depth-of-field #other
Use the help of a prompt-builder or have a look at the best images coming from the community for inspiration and insight into how you can improve your prompts to get the results you’re after.
I try to create a visual non-standard representation of the page content, something that speaks and strenghtens the content itself. Ideally, the image itself should already convey (part) of the message.
