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AI services
I'll be sharing discoveries in AI, such as this free-to-use website Promeai.
It features several AI services, but for now I'm focusing on one in particular: Sketch Rendering.
Sketch Rendering is taking a sketch -- penciled, inked, or doodled image, and changing it into a 3D, realistic, or fully rendered image based on your drawing and text prompts.
It still needs to be highly tuned. There is much to improve, and getting what you want is hard.
That being said, the results are fascinating, and I can see great potential in AI doing this in the future.
Below is an inked sketch of a basket design I did years ago. It has enough detail to let the AI do its thing.
I'm going to use my text description as follows: "(Yellow Moon Character with indent craters) (Easter basket) (red rocketship attached to a blue rope handle) (Plain white background)"
Note I use parentheses to group related words into phrases. On some websites, this helps the AI understand better.
I could generate the following images by importing this image and typing the prompt. The coloring and detailing are still random, even though I specified what colors should be used. Again, this technology is in its infant stage, and there is much to improve. But the results of 2D to 3D are quite amazing, especially considering the mere seconds it takes to generate such images.
Bear in mind I did prompt the same sketch quite a few times (about ten times, generating about 30 images), and these three were what I consider to be the best of the bunch.
The most frustrating thing about using AI is control. There are SO MANY factors to consider.
You must practice your typing descriptions, learn the way AI thinks, and use other AI tools to work around issues that occur.
So, give the website a try. It's free. It's fun. There are many other tools to experiment with there. It could be better, but it is free.
Here's the direct link: www.promeai.com/
Jim Romer’s blog: character designs, writing picture books, and random thoughts!
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Hello Again . . . and what's this AI stuff all about?
It's been awhile. Not much creativity when dealing with a pandemic, parents hosptialized and father passing away; along with moving to a new state, work issues and dealing with constantly having to repair and replace everything lately.
Yea, it's been alot.
I figure now is a great time to get back into blogging, especially with AI altering the entire business.
It's a new tool.
It's not going away.
It will greatly improve my creative process, and I thought it would be a gpd subject to focus on here.
So, let's see where this goes.
(And let's see if I'm up to blogging again and sharing thoughts, concepts and techniques I used everyday.)
Yea, it's been alot.
I figure now is a great time to get back into blogging, especially with AI altering the entire business.
It's a new tool.
It's not going away.
It will greatly improve my creative process, and I thought it would be a gpd subject to focus on here.
So, let's see where this goes.
(And let's see if I'm up to blogging again and sharing thoughts, concepts and techniques I used everyday.)
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Baby New Year 2023
Thursday, September 16, 2021
UPDATE C-BOT: The Smart Bot (supporting Picture Book character)
UPDATE: Color! (Originally published on Saturday, January 26, 2019)
It's been quite a long time since I stepped foot in this blog.
Not only was the pandemic affecting everything, but this year has also been one family emergency after another. We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, but still have a way to go.
Anyway, this is my attempt to slowly get back into this blog.
Inktober is approaching, I hope I can do some sketches during the month, but I'm not expecting to have much spare time.
Today's quick sketch warm up. Possible support character for a fun picture book with robots. You can see the protagonist to the story here.Friday, October 16, 2020
#Inktober2020 Day04 RADIO
With the prompt word "Radio", I instantly thought of the old Captain Marvel/Shazam villain, Mr. Mind. He definitely was one of the weirdest characters I remember reading as a child.
Friday, October 9, 2020
#Inktober2020 Day 03 BULKY
Good ol' King Mudsok.
Reposting an old favorite character from my story idea about the underground people,
A fair and kind-hearted leader, though one who would definitely dislike being labeled as BULKY.
Reposting an old favorite character from my story idea about the underground people,
A fair and kind-hearted leader, though one who would definitely dislike being labeled as BULKY.
Saturday, October 3, 2020
#Scrawloween2020 Day03: WEREWOLF
#Scrawloween Day 3: WEREWOLF
This year for Inktober, I'm also following The Cartoon Art Museum prompt list jumping around the two lists, pulling and revising some old stuff, and of course, creating new illustrations.
This year for Inktober, I'm also following The Cartoon Art Museum prompt list jumping around the two lists, pulling and revising some old stuff, and of course, creating new illustrations.
Friday, October 2, 2020
Thursday, October 1, 2020
#Inktober2020 Day01: Cat
Well, October is here already. That means I'm about to attempt to do the month-long challenge known as Inktober for the 6th year.
This year, a slightly different approach; I'll be doing new character designs and using the prompt list of words from The Cartoon Art Museum's Scrawl-O-Ween for inspiration. (See the prompt list way down below.)
This year, a slightly different approach; I'll be doing new character designs and using the prompt list of words from The Cartoon Art Museum's Scrawl-O-Ween for inspiration. (See the prompt list way down below.)
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| The Inked version of the Day 01 image for the prompt word: Cat |
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| The original pencil sketch of the character |
Saturday, April 25, 2020
B-bot: Developing another support character
This robot is a supporting character for my story, D-Bot. In the story, the main character often wishes it was another robot, B-Bot being one of them. B-Bot is a Builder Bot, hence the powerful arms.
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| A better color comp of one of the builder bots in D-Bot |
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| The original color comp, which I found was too bright and McDonalds-ish |
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| The original concept pencil sketch of B-Bot |
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Friday, April 10, 2020
UPDATE: Daily Quick Sketch: Lil' Squire
In the past year, I rewrote my picture book story The Squire. At first, it was going to be a story about a little girl playing strong roles often portrayed by male characters. Then I rewrote the story to also include a stronger message about equality. That's where the twins' idea came into play. After all, twins should be pretty equal, right?
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Below was originally posted on 1-28-13
Been a while since I posted a daily sketch. This one is a little girl dressed in a knight's suit of armor. I was just testing out the stylus controls again, making adjustments to the pen line. I thought of making a strong little girl with a playful imagination of adventure and action. I came up with this quick little sketch which I immediately named "Lil' Squire."
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| Adding more humor to the main characters of THE SQUIRE |
The story became more of a dialogue between the twins. More humor was put into the characters reacting off each other. Their arguments intensified; hopefully in a seemingly funny way. I also found an ending that I feel fits perfectly with humor and hitting the key message of the story.
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| The original pencil sketch of Erica and Oliver, including their lovable sheepdog, Max |
Below was originally posted on 1-28-13
Been a while since I posted a daily sketch. This one is a little girl dressed in a knight's suit of armor. I was just testing out the stylus controls again, making adjustments to the pen line. I thought of making a strong little girl with a playful imagination of adventure and action. I came up with this quick little sketch which I immediately named "Lil' Squire."
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