How to get started with AI Art using MidJourney - Prompt engineering and tips & tricks

Aladdin Persson

26 Aug 202233:57

TLDRThis video tutorial dives into the world of AI art generation with a focus on Midjourney, a popular tool praised for its balance between cost and performance. The host introduces viewers to the basics of using Midjourney, emphasizing the importance of 'prompt engineering' – the art of crafting input phrases to guide the AI's output. The video provides a step-by-step guide on how to phrase prompts effectively, using keywords and examples to steer the AI towards desired results. It also discusses the tool's pricing structure, offers a comparison with other models like Dolly and Stable Diffusion, and shares community-generated examples to illustrate the tool's capabilities. The host shares resources for further inspiration and guidance, including GitHub pages and a prompt book for additional ideas. The video concludes with a practical demonstration of creating an action scene featuring a lion, highlighting the iterative process of refining prompts and experimenting with different keywords to achieve a desired outcome. The host encourages viewers to experiment with Midjourney, offering tips on using various arguments and settings to fine-tune the AI's output.

Takeaways

🎨 **MidJourney as a Tool for AI Art**: MidJourney is a go-to tool for generating AI art, balancing pricing and performance.
💡 **Prompt Engineering**: Crafting the right input prompt is crucial for guiding the AI to produce desired art.
📈 **Pricing and Membership**: MidJourney offers a free trial, basic membership, standard membership, and unlimited personal use at varying costs.
🌐 **Community Examples**: The community feed showcases the capabilities of AI art generation, reflecting advancements in the field.
🔍 **Understanding Model Training**: Keywords like '4k' prompt the model to recall high-quality data from its training rather than outputting an image at 4k resolution.
📝 **Experimentation Mindset**: Start with a general idea and experiment with different prompts to refine the output.
📚 **Useful Resources**: Utilize GitHub pages, artist styles, and prompt engineering guides for inspiration and learning.
🖼️ **Aspect Ratio and Quality**: Adjust the aspect ratio and quality settings to fit specific needs, like creating thumbnails for YouTube videos.
🔄 **Variants and Upscaling**: Generate variants and upscale images to explore different interpretations of the same prompt.
⚖️ **Weighting and Breaking**: Use hard breaks (colons) and soft breaks (commas) to emphasize certain aspects of the prompt and control the output.
🔥 **Adding Drama and Action**: Introduce elements like fire and fighting to create a dramatic and action-packed scene.

Q & A

What is the focus of the video guide?
-The video guide focuses on how to use AI art generation tools, specifically MidJourney, to create art. It emphasizes prompt engineering and provides tips and tricks for beginners.
What is the significance of prompt engineering in AI art generation?
-Prompt engineering is a key skill in AI art generation as it involves phrasing the input and choosing keywords that guide the output, which is crucial for producing desired art.
What are some alternative AI art generation models mentioned in the video?
-The video mentions Dolly and Stable Diffusion as alternative AI art generation models, with a promise to compare their pros and cons in a future video.
What are the different membership tiers for MidJourney?
-MidJourney offers a free trial with 20 images, a basic membership for 200 images a month at $10, a standard membership at $30, and an unlimited personal use option.
How does the user join the MidJourney Discord server?
-The user downloads Discord, joins the MidJourney server, and then sets up a subscription or uses the free trial to access the image generation threads.
What is the role of '4k' in the context of AI art generation prompts?
-In the context of AI art generation, '4k' is not about the actual resolution of the image output but rather a keyword used to prompt the model to remember and produce high-quality data it was trained on.
What is the recommended approach for using AI art generation models?
-The recommended approach is to start with a general sense of what you want, experiment with various prompts, and iteratively refine the prompts based on the outputs you like and dislike.
What are some useful resources for inspiration and learning about prompt engineering?
-Useful resources include a GitHub page with themes and styles, artist styles for modifying output, the Dalle 2 prompt book, and a Dolly to prompt engineering guide found in a Google document.
How can one specify the aspect ratio for the generated image?
-One can specify the aspect ratio by using the 'ar' argument followed by the desired ratio, such as 'ar 16:9' for a 16 by 9 aspect ratio.
What does the 'chaos' argument do in the context of AI art generation?
-The 'chaos' argument, which ranges from 0 to 100, increases the variability of the output, providing more diverse results that are good for experimentation.
How can one create variations of a generated image they like?
-To create variations, one can use the 'v' followed by a number (e.g., 'v1') to generate a new set of images based on the one they liked.
What is the purpose of weighting in prompt engineering?
-Weighting is used to emphasize certain parts of the prompt over others. It helps the model to focus more on specific keywords or phrases that are more important to the desired output.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to AI Art Tools

The video script begins with an introduction to AI art tools, specifically focusing on 'Midjourney' as a preferred choice due to its balance between pricing and performance. The speaker intends to explore prompt engineering, a crucial skill for generating quality AI art, and plans to illustrate this through examples. The script also mentions a free trial and various membership tiers for Midjourney, highlighting its affordability compared to alternatives like Dolly.

05:01

💡 Prompt Engineering and Model Usage

The second paragraph delves into the concept of prompt engineering, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right words to guide the AI model's output. It explains that inputting specific terms like '4k' or '8k' is a way to prompt the model to recall high-quality data from its training. The paragraph also discusses the explorative mindset one should have when using these models, suggesting that starting with a general idea and then experimenting with different prompts is the best approach.

10:03

🌐 Utilizing Resources for Inspiration

The speaker shares various resources, such as a GitHub page and the Dolly prompt book, to help viewers find inspiration and understand how to modify the output. The paragraph explains how to use keywords to guide the model towards specific styles or to mimic the style of famous artists. It also discusses the use of 'hard breaks' and 'soft breaks' in prompts to emphasize certain aspects of the desired output.

15:05

🤖 Experimenting with Simple Prompts

The fourth paragraph illustrates the process of experimenting with simple prompts to generate an image of a lion displaying strength. It discusses starting with a basic prompt and progressively adding more details to guide the model towards the desired outcome. The paragraph also covers aspects like aspect ratio, upscaling, and adding elements like fire to enhance the scene's drama.

20:07

🔍 Refining the Prompt for Better Results

The fifth paragraph continues the discussion on refining prompts to achieve more accurate and realistic results. It talks about the use of rendering engines like Octane Render and Unreal Engine to influence the output's style. The speaker also explains the use of weighting in prompts to emphasize certain keywords and the importance of creating a dramatic scene with elements like fire and smoke.

25:08

📈 Advanced Prompting Techniques

The sixth paragraph introduces advanced prompting techniques, such as using the 'stylize' argument to control the model's interpretation and the 'quality' argument to adjust the time spent on image generation. It also covers the 'chaos' argument for creating varied outputs and the use of emojis and image prompts for additional control over the generation process.

30:09

🎉 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In the final paragraph, the speaker concludes by encouraging viewers to experiment with the tools and prompts themselves. It summarizes the key points discussed in the video, including the importance of experimentation, the use of resources for inspiration, and the various arguments that can be used to fine-tune the AI's output. The speaker expresses hope that the video was useful and thanks the viewers for watching.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡AI Art

AI Art refers to the creation of artwork using artificial intelligence. In the context of the video, AI Art is generated through tools like MidJourney, which utilize machine learning models to produce images based on textual prompts provided by the user. The video discusses how to use these tools to create art that balances pricing and performance effectively.

💡MidJourney

MidJourney is an AI art generation tool that is highlighted in the video as a cost-effective and high-performing option for creating AI art. The video focuses on how to use MidJourney to generate images by engineering prompts that guide the AI in producing desired outputs.

💡Prompt Engineering

Prompt engineering is a skill that involves crafting specific inputs or 'prompts' to guide AI in generating particular outputs. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of prompt engineering in the context of AI art creation, showing how precise phrasing can lead to better and more controlled results.

💡Photorealism

Photorealism is a style of art that aims to closely resemble photographs. The term is used in the video to describe the level of detail and realism that the user wants to achieve in their AI-generated images. The speaker discusses using keywords like 'photorealistic' to prompt the AI to produce images with high-quality, lifelike details.

💡Discord Server

A Discord server is an online community platform where users can communicate in real-time. In the context of the video, the Discord server is used as a platform to access MidJourney's AI art generation service. The server allows users to input prompts and receive generated images, as well as interact with the community for inspiration and feedback.

💡Aspect Ratio

The aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between the width and the height of an image. In the video, the speaker mentions specifying an aspect ratio for the generated images, which can be important for certain uses such as creating thumbnails for YouTube videos. The aspect ratio can be adjusted to fit the desired dimensions.

💡Upscaling

Upscaling refers to the process of increasing the resolution of an image while maintaining or enhancing its quality. The video discusses upscaling as a feature within MidJourney that allows users to generate larger, more detailed versions of their AI art.

💡Rendering Engine

A rendering engine is a type of software that generates two-dimensional images from three-dimensional models or animations. In the video, the speaker uses terms like 'Unreal Engine' and 'Octane Render' as examples of rendering engines. These terms are used as keywords to prompt the AI to produce images with the stylistic qualities of those engines.

💡Chaos

In the context of the video, 'chaos' is a parameter that can be adjusted to increase the variability of the AI's output. A higher chaos level results in more diverse and less predictable images, which can be useful for experimentation and exploring different creative directions.

💡Soft Breaks and Hard Breaks

Soft breaks and hard breaks refer to the use of commas and colons, respectively, in constructing prompts to the AI. Soft breaks are used to separate different elements of a prompt, while hard breaks provide a way to prioritize certain parts of the prompt over others. The video explains how these punctuation marks can be used to influence the weight and focus of the AI's interpretation.

💡Stylize

Stylize is a parameter that controls the degree to which the AI interprets and stylizes the input prompt. A lower stylize value means the AI will stick closer to the literal interpretation of the prompt, giving the user more control over the final image. The video discusses adjusting the stylize level as part of the experimentation process.

Highlights

MidJourney is a go-to tool for AI art generation, balancing pricing and performance.

Prompt engineering is a key skill for generating good AI art.

The video provides a beginner's guide to using AI art tools like MidJourney.

MidJourney offers a free trial and affordable subscription plans for image generation.

Examples from the community feed demonstrate the advancement in AI art capabilities.

The importance of phrasing input and using keywords to guide the output of AI art.

Discord server access is required for using MidJourney's image generation threads.

Different commands like 'upscale' and 'variance' can be used to refine generated images.

The concept of '4k' in prompts is about prompting the model to remember high-quality data.

An explorative mindset is recommended when using AI art models for experimentation.

GitHub pages and resources are available for inspiration and learning about prompt engineering.

The video demonstrates how to experiment with prompts to generate an action scene featuring a lion.

Aspect ratio, stylize, quality, and chaos are arguments that can be used to influence the output.

Weighting can be applied to certain keywords to emphasize their importance in the prompt.

Variants and upscale commands help in refining and focusing on preferred aspects of the generated art.

Adding elements like 'fire' and 'dramatic scene' can significantly alter and enhance the output.

The final generated images showcase a range of outputs from a single prompt through experimentation.

The video concludes with encouragement to try out MidJourney and explore AI art generation personally.

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