The Lord of the GANs

A visual retelling of JRR Tolkien’s epic created with AI text-to-image software.

Lately I’ve become extremely interested in AI art, mostly through the incredible work of the artists at Brain Drops. A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to create art of my own using AI software. And because I’m a huge Tolkien nerd, I decided that The Lord of the Rings would be my inspiration and subject matter. This post is the output of that exploration.

The 66 images below were curated from over 1,500 images created using Wombo Dream. Images were created by entering text prompts, applying simple pre-set filters, and waiting for Wombo to generate an image. All text prompts were generic and no imagery or language from JRR Tolkien’s works were used in the creation of these images.

More information on how to explore or create AI art is included at the end of this article. I hope you enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed making them, and I hope they do justice to the story that I and so many others love. If you are so inclined, each image can be purchased as a 1/1 NFT on Open Sea (along with a few easter eggs if you can spot them). If not, feel free to right click and save. All images are sized to work as iPhone backgrounds.

The Fellowship of the Ring

History became legend. A simple life. The Tree.

The party. The rider. The chase.

Fog on the downs. The inn. Attack in the dark.

The elf. The sanctuary. Stories by the hearth.

The mountain. The mine. The bridge.

The land beyond time. The mirror. The guardians.

The steps. The last stand. A brave choice.

The Two Towers

The departure. The riders. The oldest living thing that walks.

The turn of the tide. The hall. The ailing king.

Battle in the deep. They go to war. The drowned tower.

The stone. Lost. We’re not alone.

The marshes. The gate is closed. The elephant.

The company. The window of water. The pool.

The deadly vale. The secret stairs. The spider.

The Return of the King

The wizard and his horse. The white city. The traveler and the steward.

Under siege. The sorcerer king. They passed like ghosts.

The muster. The great ride. The heroine alone.

The black ships. The king victorious. The servant’s choice.

The black land. The gate opens. An ambiguous victory.

The ring. The eagles. The white tree.

The road home. The scouring. He was once great.

Sailing into the west. Home again. The last pages are for you.

Resources for Learning More About AI Art

This was an incredible learning experience for me. Creating and selecting from over 1,500 images — even with the quick rendering times of Wombo — was no small feat, and it taught me a ton about the power and limits of text-to-image as a creative approach.

In this project, I was hugely inspired by Claire Silver’s Genesis collection, which introduced me to the idea of using AI imagery to tell a consistent thematic story — a visual novel, if you will.

So what will I do next, and what can you do to get started?

For anyone looking to immerse themselves in the community, I highly recommend joining the Brain Drops Discord community. Curated artists, practitioners and enthusiasts all hang out in the chats and are happy to answer questions.

My next stop will be Art Breeder, the tool that Silver used to create her Genesis collection. Art Breeder allows users to mix and match elements of photos to create new images that share those traits.

Artbreeder

After that, things get more complicated — technically speaking — and I’ve been told that a great place to start is Machine Learning for Arts, a site set up by Gene Kogan, a founder of Brain Drops and the first person to make art using a generative adversarial network (GAN).

Machine learning for arts

This has been an incredible journey for me so far, and I can’t wait to see what is possible with these other tools. For those who have read this far, many thanks. I hope you get as much out of it as I have. And if you are interested in purchasing any of the images, they can be found here on Open Sea.