The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a rad channel...
(With apologies to William Gibson.)
Honored samurai, ruthless ronin, wayward vagabonds, shadowy ninja and helpless villagers... welcome.
It is with the most humblest of apologies that I cannot bring to you the post that I had been planning. The gory details are not worth sharing here. Suffice to say, it will be delivered to your brainpans next week! So stay tuned for that.
Dreaming Metal
Several months ago, I stumbled upon an image via my Twitter timeline that caught my interest. All the Internet loves an image. It’s not uncommon to see them get thousands of shares and likes. This one didn’t catch my eye because it was necessarily popular or even by anyone famous. No, this particular image was created via the Wombo Dream app.
What in the world is that, I hear you ask. In the words of the developer’s app page:
Watch WOMBO Dream use the power of AI to transform your idea and art style into a beautiful painting right before your eyes in seconds. WOMBO Dream is expanding art to the masses. You don't need a paint brush, pencil, or any art supplies to make beautiful artwork, all you need is an idea.
On the surface, it’s pretty easy to use. After downloading the app (iOS / Android) or visiting their Internet site enter a “prompt” (short phrase of words), pick an art style, and BOOM! the app creates a work of art right before your eyes. Pretty slick! I must confess, I’ve used it to create over 500-600 pieces to date. (Some of which you have seen — the icons and images for this newsletter.) Here’s one.
(For those of you interested in more images like this above but not in info on the app itself, skip to the end.)
What I believe the app is doing is taking tagged images from a database, mashing them together with an art style (which as I said, you choose) and then significantly blurring the lines to avoid copyright issues. It’s really quite wild. However, it’s not always as easy as it seems because there are something things a computer can’t really “express” — emotions being probably the biggest. After some testing, I think I have a handle on creating some really great images. Here are a few tips on creation:
Avoid adjectives — This is a computer and in my experience, it doesn’t work with words like “melancholy” or “ecstatic” very well.
Avoid long phrases — While you are allowed to enter up to 100 letters and it would be cool to mash-up “cyberpunk turtles on roller skates chugging cans of soda” (56 letters) it doesn’t always turn out so well. Think of the app as a salad, the more you add, the less you get because something’s going to lose out.
Avoid Verbs — They just don’t work that well.
Use multiple nouns — Most of the images I’ve created are a mash-up of two or three nouns. Sometimes you have to tweak them a little to get them just right. Reversing or mixing them up can field better results sometimes. Remember, the computer doesn’t “think” like you or our friends do, nor does it have the social or pop culture references you do. It only has the images in its database.
Choose your art style wisely — Not all of the art styles are going to produce what you want, so test multiple styles with the same phrase several times over to confirm results. Then utilize the style that suits your “prompt”. Currently there are 20 different styles including a “No Style”.
Tips on Saving (Arrow icon at top right)
Be sure to give your piece a title. If you don’t, the app will simply save ALL your work as “Dream”.
Note the “Show prompt in artwork” option. Some of you will like it, some of you won’t. This turns on/off the prompt in your image. (See “Chug Rollers” above.)
Use the Set as Phone Background option. You might be thinking isn’t such a hot idea, but when you do, your device saves a “clean” version of the image do your phone that you can keep (if that’s what you like). Otherwise all your image will have the Wombo.Art logo on them, which is fine if you don’t mind. The images are stored in the Pictures > Dream Artworks folder [ANDROID] of your phone. (If anyone knows where the iOS images are stored, let me know so I can update this.)
Download Original saves the image to your phone in the aforementioned folder with the border, title and Wombo.Art logo.
Publish — Creates a page that your phone automatically accesses to save and access all the images you’ve created. Handy if you have just a couple saved. A real BEAST if you have 500 saved. Used it in the beginning but I don’t use this option any more. It would be nice if I could figure out if this page was accessible online (which I think it might be), but I have yet to figure it out. Certainly you can create one via PC, but I don’t know how the phone version sets one up.
Share — Shares to your favorite social media site.
Art Share
I really did go into more detail than I expected I would. Apologies. Without ado, the images (with prompts). At a later date, I will share my online profile.
I’ll leave you with just these four images as I don’t want to overburden readers. In all, I currently have between 500 - 600 images. Not all of them worthy of sharing, but I try to keep the best ones. Over time, I’ll include the more appropriate and fun ones.
We never meet without parting
Next issue... old school, 90s cyberpunk! (FOR REALS!)
Until then!
Made in DNA
This is loco!