A Further Analysis of AI Art Platforms
This is an early draft of an AI art project that will likely not be used anytime soon. It is one of my early experiments carried out with the Bing image generator.
Following up on the
recent request from
@Lord Durham , this is another attempt to review some of the platforms for creating AI art. AI art has proven to be a very dynamic field with many changes just within the past six months. One of those changes was the recent demise of my favorite platform.
That said, please realize this is a very subjective review and it is a bit of a sequel. These thoughts actually started with
this post from the
SolAARium. The
first post in this thread also has some aspects of this review.
As pointed out in
the recent note from
@CBR JGWRR , my old favorite and stand-by platform
Playground has changed into something else and dismantled its best AI canvas features for creating art. I’ll be downloading my cache of visuals from that site before February so I can retain many of the visuals I’ve created there.
So what’s left?
Some may remember I started with Bing’s image generator which has now become
Microsoft’s Copilot AI. I liked a lot of the quality of these platforms but got angry when images I had stored on the site were erased. Now, they clearly post that images will disappear after 90 days. However, in returning to the site after many months, I see many of my older images were magically restored somehow.
This doesn’t mean I’m returning full-time to Copilot. I will also be working to make sure I have all of my images properly saved from this site as they have already proved they are inconsistent with security for images. They also downgraded the abilities of their image editor Designer which was a big previous draw. Finally, as CBR JGWRR notes, some sites don’t let you own the images. It is clear you are allowed to use the images you generate but Microsoft owns them.
Despite those drawbacks, the site is free and the quality is sometimes tremendous, although also inconsistent. This was the first AI site I used and I find it easy for newcomers. So it may be a place to start.
Leonardo.AI was becoming a fallback location for image creation for me and that site has gone through some changes too, adding a variety of new features. CBR JGWRR uses that one because with the premium services you can own the images. One drawback I see to using the free service now is they have eliminated easy ways to delete old images! So if I want to reorganize and get rid of images I see as duds while reducing organizational clutter, I can’t do it without using a paid version.
Leonardo uses a token system for creation. The more complex the image, the more tokens. Even with the free service, you should be able to generate a dozen or so images during a session, as you get free tokens daily. But now the paid service allows you to store the tokens, depending upon how much you pay per month. The free version doesn’t allow you to bank unused tokens. AI art can take many generations and many images so a dozen is really just getting started.
The $10 per month (apologies, prices are only in U.S. dollars as that is what the site shows me) service gives you almost twice the daily tokens and a host of special services, including ways to organize images. The $24 per month service gives you six times the number of free tokens, a larger rollover token bank and other improved features. The $48 per month service gives you 15 times the number of free tokens, a larger token bank and many more high-end features. Be aware these may be holiday prices.
Not being a paid customer, can’t say if this is worth it, but CBR JGWRR seems to have had a good experience.
As I have written before, I had started to dabble with
ImageFX, an experimental service from Google. They have now rebranded that as part of the
AI Test Kitchen. This is a free service and don’t count on the system storing your images. Google says you own the image and the best way to stay connected to them is to copy their URL, as Google assigns an address to the creations.
Because I’ve been playing around with the
backstory of Mjölnir in
my AAR, as a test I used this prompt in ImageFX: "A 35-year-old beardless blonde Danish king in the 8th Century wielding Mjölnir, the sacred warhammer. Painting."
You’ll see the results look a lot like Thor. I wonder what Marvel would think about that hammer? Clearly, the platform did not follow my instruction for “beardless.” I’ve learned if you ask for Danes, or Norse, or Vikings, you had best ask for beardless if the character has no beard.
ImageFX has a rudimentary image editor and using it, I quickly got rid of the beard. Here’s the result:
The quality of these images has improved since I first played with this platform. Google says it is coming out with a Gemini Advanced image generator which you might have to pay $20 per month to use. I have not used Gemini to create images. My advice for now is to stick with ImageFX, which is free. (All Gemini image generators are currently free too.) The interface for image storage may be a bit awkward but you should be storing the images on your hard drive for safety anyway.
Admittedly, I was a bit lazy when I started making AI art and just used the services to store the dozens of images created. ImageFX is relatively easy to use with word prompts and the results are improving.
I have also written about
RenderNet in the past. RenderNet boasts that it can consistently give you images based upon a photo of a character, putting that character in new settings and poses. In my experiments with the free service that doesn’t happen, but I was willing to try again with their improved platform. So King Þorolfr found his image soon uploaded to RenderNet.
This was the prompt: "^Thoroflr^ a Danish king in the 8th Century, holds Mjölnir, the sacred warhammer, painted as if in a Romantic painting from the 19th Century."
This was the best result:
Not sure about that hammer, and then there’s that nagging beard to deal with again. But that’s on me. I forgot to ask for "beardless." I had thought that uploading the picture of what I wanted would guarantee me a cleanly shaven king.
Here’s another try from my second pass, but the king still has stubble and frankly looks less like the original. And that hammer looks like it has merged with a mace.
The free version only allowed me about ten images for this experiment. I did not find RenderNet lived up to its promise of putting my character into other settings. However, your experience may vary and I do wonder what would happen with a paid plan. RenderNet has plans starting at $7 per month and ranging up to $79 per month. Not willing to pay to experiment yet when I can find other options.
There are many other services out there and I have tried three or four others. They are not worth mentioning here as I found them too complex or limiting in their free versions. However, perhaps others have had better experiences and would want to share.
Good luck and have some patience if you are venturing into AI art creation for your AAR.
