Lesson №4 "Midjourney as a Source of Inspiration: Exploring Community Works and Utilizing Additional

1. "Midjourney as a Source of Inspiration: Exploring Community Works and Utilizing Additional Resources": A review of the best artworks created using Midjourney, as well as a look at other AI resources like PlaygroundAI and Lexica.

Welcome to the next lesson of our course! Today we will immerse ourselves in the world of inspiration and creativity, using Midjourney as our starting point. We will explore unique works made with this tool, and learn how to leverage other AI resources to expand our creative horizons.

Exploring the Midjourney Community

The Midjourney community is a great place to start our exploration. Many users from around the world have already created amazing and intriguing images using this tool, and you can learn from their examples. Pay attention to how they phrase their prompts, how they use different commands, and how they integrate Midjourney into their creative processes. Each piece you see can serve as a source of inspiration for your own projects.

When you open each image, you will be shown the text that was used to create it, which can give you hints on how to construct your own prompts:

Seeking Inspiration Beyond Midjourney

Midjourney is an amazing tool, but it's not the only resource one can use to find inspiration. There are a multitude of other AI resources on the Internet that can serve as sources of inspiration.

PlaygroundAI and Lexica are two other platforms created by OpenAI, each offering unique opportunities for exploring and utilizing AI.

Playground is an innovative neural network capable of generating images based on text descriptions. But more importantly, Playground is also an active community of users where you can explore the works of others, gain inspiration, and even sneak a peek at the prompts used by other users to create unique images. In Playground, everyone can find their own space for creativity and exploration.

On the other hand, Lexica offers the ability to create images based on text descriptions or photographs uploaded by users. Lexica also features a search system that provides access to an extensive collection of over five million ready-made images, created using the Stable Diffusion model. You can explore these images, learn which prompts were used for their creation, and use that data to shape your own queries.

For instance, if you want to create an image of a castle in the mountains, you can start with a search in Lexica that specifies "castle in the mountains":

Then, based on the results obtained, you can refine your query by adding more details, such as "castle in the mountains at sunset," or review the prompts used to create images you like and use them in your next request:

Thus, Playground and Lexica provide you with extensive opportunities for exploration and creativity, offering a variety of tools for experimentation and inspiration. Using PlaygroundAI and Lexica alongside Midjourney can greatly expand your creative horizons and offer you new approaches to using AI in your projects.

Inspiration through experimentation

Don’t be afraid to experiment and play with different prompts, commands, and settings in Midjourney. It can be not only an engaging process but also reveal new approaches and ideas that you might never have thought of without experimentation.

For instance, you could try using unexpected or abstract prompts and see how Midjourney interprets them. Or you could play with different settings to see how they affect the final outcome. Each experiment is a chance to learn something new and gain inspiration for your next project.

Executive Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Vi8vTjY5_JU-6PDs2jkhg7eIYXwJFMNoG1RN2f5zh8/edit?usp=sharing

Practical Assignment

Task: Your task is to use Playground and Lexica as tools of inspiration to create a new image in Midjourney. Utilize tips and ideas found on these two platforms to enhance your work in Midjourney.

Instructions:

Step 1: Explore Playground

Go to Playground and browse through the works of other participants.

Select a few images that you liked the most and take note of the prompts used.

Step 2: Using Lexica

Visit Lexica and enter the description of the image you want to create.

Explore the results you get and select those images that are closest to your description.

Pay attention to the prompts used in these images.

Step 3: Applying in Midjourney

Return to Midjourney and use the inspiration and prompts you've gathered from Playground and Lexica to create a new query.

Try to incorporate prompts that you've discovered in other images, and see how they influence the outcome.

Experiment with the balance between detail and abstraction to create a unique and harmonious image.

Example:

1. On the Playground platform, the phrase "surrealistic world" was used to create an image. Let's take it as a basis for creating our image.

2. On the Lexica platform, the prompt "ultra-detailed beautiful picture of a stylish girl" was used, and artists "Ilya Kuvshinov, Greg Rutkowski, and Makoto Shinkai" were mentioned.

3. Now, let's create our image using the following prompt: "An ultra-detailed beautiful picture of a stylish girl living in a surrealistic world, drawn by Ilya Kuvshinov, Greg Rutkowski, and Makoto Shinkai."

4. We upload this to Midjourney and receive the following image:

So, we have completed another lesson full of inspiration and creative exploration! We've learned how diverse community works and external resources can become the foundation for our own creativity in Midjourney. Remember that the world of AI is full of opportunities, and it's only your creativity that can determine how you will use them.