191. Midjourney Helped Me Again
It is 2nd of August. And piggyback riding sharks is fun. Let’s go!
Okay, I’m pretty sure it could be fun, however, I’m not sure how safe it is. So better don’t if you don’t want to get your ass bitten off up to your lungs. I heard sharks can be really persistent when somebody pisses them off for real.
The entry title isn’t clickbait. If something it is true. Midjourney helped me again. At first, I wanted to write an AI helped me again, but I believe it will be too general and not completely true. So Midjourney helped me again. Now this is true.
Since I started using it to generate images (at first for fun, then applied to my entries), I had a sudden revelation. I have a powerful tool capable of generating almost anything I can imagine. And even more, than I don’t. The more I used it, the more I started to realize that I enjoy more giving it some range of creative freedom. Like Bob Ross would’ve said, let it have happy little accidents.
What am I talking about? Yesterday, while getting rid of my fast hours before the end of my subscription and basically generating lots and lots of random images for the sake of it, I remembered that through months of using Midjourney, I didn’t try to generate Patrick Bateman, aka American Psycho (after reading some of the authors like Burrows, I start to suspect Patrick Bateman was actually fairly sane in comparison to more bizarre and disturbed characters). Now, since I find Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale, of course) a somewhat interesting character that depicts an attempt to come off as classy, intelligent man while being completely shallow inside… and also a maniacal killer or imagining himself as one (also sort of comical, thanks to internet memes), I was kind of surprised I never tried to turn him into some sort of fan art or male model, especially considering character’s obsession with fashion and clothes (besides murdering people, trying to get inside the most exclusive restaurant, and running around Times Square screaming and yelling whenever he has another meltdown).
Anyway, I did it. And it returned me to a rather stylish image of Patrick Bateman in red shades holding onto his drink and smiling like he knows he just won in the game of life while his eyes are actually looking somewhere down. I used the option to zoom out, and it returned me to the picture where he holds another drink in another hand. And his eyes actually were looking at the other drink all this time. I sat there, looking at this image, and I knew this is going to be another character for my next novel. And not just another character for my next novel, but a parody of a very self-absorbed stylish young man who goes after the most messed up trends like drinking two drinks of the same color as his glasses and tie but with different ABV. And… eh… it sounded funnier in my head, alright?
Yes, it seems like nothing big, right? Well, the thing is, Midjourney generates, at times, art that makes me snap my fingers, point at the screen and say, That’s it, that’s what I needed. Chances are, I am the only one who will ever see this exact picture as I won’t use it, but the fact that I saw it and it gave me a lasting impression is good enough for me. Pure randomness that’s what I crave. I know there are people who go all scientific about their queries, try to come up with the most efficient and precise way to make AI work for them. Not me. I have no time for that, I’m going with few words and more creative freedom (can we say that about AI?). The more you roll the dice, the higher chances are you’re going to get something crazy, bizarre, or straight funny. It’s a good ideas generator because sometimes you just need one little detail to fit in the place like a puzzle, and the magic starts happening. The whole world becomes alive in your head, and you have your story, your characters, their behavior, and other stuff which is important. Probably.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. I did a lot of work today, and I can’t think straight, but I still wrote this. Daily entry it is. Also, it feels kind of strange that I’m not generating images for my entries anymore. As I wrote yesterday, I’m using a neat little library of pre-generated images I saved from Midjourney. Thank you for reading, and see you tomorrow. Bye!
Originally published at https://tolyszew.com on August 2, 2023.
