#artbreeder is more difficult to use then it seems

[magic-polygon]

How to avoid AI art on DeviantArt

Although I don't upload on DeviantArt anymore, I still go on there to look for new artwork, especially from those I follow, and add to my Favorites.

That said, it's become increasingly difficult to find new artists to support because it seems like the majority of new uploads are AI generated images.

So, for those of you who still use DA and are looking for quality art to view and artists to support, I put together a handy list of things to watch out for. Things to help you make sure that you're not inadvertently supporting an AI "artist."

Accounts created within the last two years. In other words, accounts that popped up just as these AI technologies started to take off, because that's when they decided to try becoming an "artist" themselves. The shorter the account age, the more suspicious you should be.

Galleries with large amounts of uploads submitted within a short time frame. It's easy to submit a whole bunch of images when you don't have to manually paint each one and just have the AI program create them for you. Especially look out for those with multiple images that look very similar to each other; they're all alternate versions of the same AI prompt. Conversely, images that look VERY different from each other and have no consistent style are another obvious sign that the uploaders didn't make anything themselves and are just using various prompts.

Uploads with generic titles, or titles that sound like keywords being strung together. In some cases, they may literally just be using their AI prompts as the titles. In others, the titles may even sound like random computer file names, because that's basically what they are and the uploader isn't making much of an effort to hide that.

Uploads with minimal tags or descriptions, or none at all. Most actual artists who take hours to create a new piece would have something to say about the process, their thoughts about the image, or what the piece was for. AI uploaders just generate and upload, and thus usually have nothing to say about it.

Conversely, uploads that actually mention in the tags or descriptions that they are AI generated. This seems to be happening less often as certain bad actors want the reputation of being a great artist while hiding the fact that they didn't actually make any of their images. However, if you take a few seconds to look for these things, some of them may still give it away. Keep an eye out for AI generator names like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Artbreeder, and so on. Also, some uploaders will actually mention AI in their username.

Images of characters from the waist up, but very few full-body ones. AI generators seem to favor faces over other parts of the body. As a result, most galleries of AI character art will consist entirely of portraits. Bonus points if there are no hands. Also be on the lookout for images where the shading is a bit too smooth on the face, and where the quality starts to dip the further away from the face you get.

Male users. This may seem random and arbitrary, but seriously, since the beginning when crypto and NFTs first became widespread, it was men who were the primary consumers of this technology. There's a reason they're called cryptoBROs after all. In fact, a lot of AI users are part of this same exact crowd. Even more of a reason to stay away from AI art. But you will always be able to tell when a man is uploading AI images because of the way he writes and interacts online. They are very dry, minimalist, transactional, and often shady or even perverted (how many AI images are there of the "sexy girl with big boobs" type by now?).

Lastly, here's a handy journal by Stop-AI-replace with some tags you can block, plus how to make DA stop recommending AI art to you on the home page. Sadly it won't work for every image ever, but it's a good start:

That's all for now. As usual, certain images have that particular style that you can just tell at a glance could only come from an AI program, but some uploaders have been going to great pains to try to hide it the best they can. Don't get duped!

[maelerie]

I saw some peole sharing their artbreeder creations and I wanted to try it out too. So, say hello to the most gorgeous siblings in Western Europe!

[vintagegenderpunk]

Shitposting Divination Methods

I don't do this publicly, but I absolutely love coming up with offbeat, strange methods of divination. They're mostly using the internet and generators, but I get a kick out of them. I've compiled a number of my methods for your entertainment.

I'm not going to educate you on how to divine properly, but here's simple pointers: look for patterns, look for inconsistencies, compare them both, be aware that sometimes these just won't work.

Behind the Name - Random Name Generator

My newest abomination. It's relatively simple to use. Make sure it's set to First, Middle, and Surname option has random checked, select x5 to get 5 options, and pick a number one through five. Generate it with a question or theme in mind. You'll be given a list of First Middle Surname, each of which is clickable and leads to an etymology page for those names. Go down to the one you picked the number for and have at it.

https://www.behindthename.com/random/

Random Pokemon Generator

This one is more niche because it works best if you know the Pokemon franchise pretty well. Generate a team of the amount of your choice, preferably with your question in mind. Pay attention to the groupings -- I tend to look at them as either three columns or two rows unless some other pattern becomes evident. Things to consider: type coverage, unevolved vs evolved, newer pokemon vs older pokemon, rarity / special kinds. Type, for me, seems to indicate mood or reactions. The evolution status is indicative of the stage of the answer, kind of like how King of Suit is more mature than Page of Suit in Tarot.

https://randompokemon.com/

Artbreeder

This is absolutely the most difficult method I have, but I think it's my favorite. It's ridiculously conceptual and kind of hard to learn how to use the site. First, you have to have a login to use it. Then, click Create. Choose your image type -- I tend to go for General, Portraits, or Sci Bio Art. General is more random. Portraits can be great for asking 'what spirit/deity is trying to contact me?' And Sci Bio Art is just abstract and lovely. Choose Compose, then you begin.

Artbreeder works by selecting 'Parents' (on left) to combine into Offspring (on right). You can select for certain genes, like color, age, ethnicity, artistic vs realistic, etc. The Genes are a bit reductive when it comes to Portraits, but it's an AI and it's kind of a dumb one, so give it a little space to be wrong.

Select Parents and poke at the genes until a picture pings with you, then save it and analyze it for an answer. You can also choose a random number of Parents to add, and add them through intuition and pick one of the three Offspring options as your answer.

My advice: Play around with it and get comfortable before trying to divine. It's fun trying to make portraits that look like you or your friends as practice.

Also note: I'm an artist and an art historian, I'm literally trained to find meaning in the most nominal of visual information. It may be easy and fun to me for this reason, whereas you might hate it.

https://www.artbreeder.com/

Poetry Generator

Warning: this link reads out the poem aloud automatically and there's no way to stop it.

I do love it though? This is an AI poetry generator that's pretty hilarious. My method is to get a question / theme, pick a number of refreshes for the page (manually refreshed), then pick a random number under 50ish and count down the lines for it. If I pick a number of lines to count down (let's say 37) and there's not that many lines, I may alter the count and try alternatives (like 3, 7, or 10). Find the line you selected, go back to the start of the most rational phrasing and work from there with interpretation. It can be pretty wild but it can also be weirdly relevant.

https://www.poetrygenerator.ninja/poem/

Inspirobot

I'll admit upfront that Inspirobot doesn't wanna cooperate with me, re:divination. But! Many of my friends enjoy using it for divination purposes. It's simple, refresh a chosen number of times to get an answer.

https://inspirobot.me/

[idrellegames]

Hello! Can I ask how you search for images on Canva? I use the program and I adore it for some things, but I have just the worst time trying to find references for human characters. I find the search function extremely un-user-friendly. But you have clearly found some lovely images that work well for your characters! What sort of search terms do you use? Do you have any tips? You might have no real answer (which is fine!), but thought I'd check, since you seem to have better luck than me <3

Hiya! 

Honestly, searching any photo database is really difficult, especially royalty free ones that don’t have dozens of filters for different things. I really struggle to find decent photos of POC for my non-white characters, let alone factoring in age and a fantasy context on top of that. It’s one of the reasons why I gave up on photos for some characters and just went with their (arguably bad and kind of inaccurate--not that the photos are more accurate ahaha) Artbreeder edits. 

With Canva, I usually start off with a general search (i.e. “blonde woman” or “woman green eyes”), see what it generates and try to refine from there. Sometimes searching by an idea or theme will give you better results than specifics and then do a lot of scrolling (like I found Sero’s image by searching “viking warrior” and that stock image just happened with be tagged with those filters). Sometimes I’ll search by things like “sorceress” or “enchantress” if I’m trying to find an image of someone using magic and then scroll through multiple options that don’t fit until I find something that works. Sometimes the keyword doesn’t work (around Christmas, ”elf”, “elven woman”, “elven man” turned up an awful lot of Christmas elves). 

If you find something that is close but doesn’t quite work (angle, lighting, special effects, whatever), try clicking on the “view more by artist” link that opens when you click on the 3 dot menu on an image. Usually there will be a set of different photos of the same model, with different poses/lighting/effects. Can be helpful too if you’re looking for something specific (like a photographer who does photoshoots of people in medieval garb).   

Searching by artist is a bit of a misnomer because Canva does lump in any other artists whose work is associated with the brand. In the search bar, instead of the artist’s name, you’ll see something like brand:BACsIfMoQVQ. Leave that there and add whatever keyword you want after it and it will filter it according to those terms. 

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

Hi Eff idk if you remember me, but I'm the one that did the artbreeder for some of your oc's. I absolutely adore your oc's so when I saw the opportunity to ask questions about your wip I jumped on the train as soon as possible. 👀👀🚉

What would you say is your oc's greatest fears are? Also I saw the kestrel art and I was blown away at how talented you are at drawing. Your art style is really beautiful and keeps getting better and better. Like iev scrolled through your art blog and your illustrations are just breathtaking like wow. If I wasn't a broke ass bitch I would definitely purchase some commissions for my ocs.💖

Staying on the topic of your wip what was your inspiration for you dragon wip and what would you say is the overarchimg message you hope to achieve with the book? Also will it be a standalone or a series?

Also I'm really curious about your vampire if. How is the process of writing an If going and I was wondering if you could give us a little sneak peak or tell us a bit more about the ROs and other characters because I'm dying to know more. 👀👀

OK last question I promise what's your process of writing such unique and multilayered oc's. Like your oc's just have this really unique aspect to them that makes them really likeable. All your oc's seem to have really cool personalities so I was wondering what your process behind creating them are. Do you discovery write them and shape them as you go throughout the story or do you outline them before starting?

Hope you have a good Christmas and that you and your family stay safe. 💕

How could I ever forget you, ArtBreeder anon, my beloved?

I was only recently thinking about you tbh! Wondering how you were doing, since I saw you deactivated your blog. Hope you're well!

Thank you for the sweet compliments about my art, I've been feeling pretty crap about it lately and it's nice to hear that it's not as bad as I fear it is. I'm hoping to have a period where I just practice my anatomy and color theory and all that jazz. Because my eye has evolved but my skills haven't.

I think Kestrel's greatest fear is being abandoned? But it's not like she'd break down if she was, she'd probably just finally start her descent into villainy. Like, "if nobody likes me or wants to be around me, then I'll retroactively justify their feelings by making their life a nightmare," ya know? It doesn't go that far and the story isn't rly about her corruption arc (she actually improves, a little bit), but that's basically it. As for Falk, I think he's afraid of failure. Hence why he doesn't try anything, he doesn't believe himself to be capable of success but he also doesn't want to disappoint anyone so he just kinda exists. It's a little sad tbh. I love creating pathetic men.

As for inspirations ... Hmm. I think I answered a similar question before? Yup, found it! On the topic of messages, I don't really write with messages or themes in mind? Those tend to come up naturally as I write and rewrite, but I always try to just tell a fun, engaging story, and people can take away from that what they will. Sorry if this is a disappointing answer, but I have never been someone who writes to say something. I like to entertain with my stories. If I've done that, then I've succeeded, in my book, even if it's not the deepest or most cerebral story in the world. This WIP in particular is just me having fun and hopefully the reader will have a good time, too!

Also, the dragon WIP will be a trilogy I think? It could possibly also be a duology. I don't want it to be too long and am trying to keep it on the shorter side, so even if it turns out to be a trilogy I don't expect any of the books to be chonkers.

About my IF ideas: I've currently put both on hold, mainly because I have so many writing projects already and creating an IF is a lot more difficult in terms of storytelling, coding, and audience expectations. That last one is probably the scariest part to me tbh, as an anxious people pleaser. Sorry if that's a disappointing answer :/ I can write up a separate post about my ideas for the vampire IF though, if you're interested! I do like the OCs I've came up with for it.

And on the topic of OCs: I tend to keep things pretty organic and fluid as I write. The way I build OCs is that I have a plot hook in mind, figure out what roles need to be filled, and then I throw some half-baked people at the roles and see how they interact. Most of my character creation happens in my mind, where I come up with scenarios in my head and see how the characters react. Then I figure out why they react that way, how someone else might react to that reaction, etc etc. I do prefer to have a relatively clear picture of the character in mind before I start writing, but it's only after a few rewrites that the character becomes their own. I think they have to interact with the world and the plot and surprise you a little bit as you write, that way you get a clearer picture of who they are. So it's a mix of both outlining and discovery!

Hope that answered your questions, and thank you for sending this ask! It's always great to hear from you! <3

[cherryquitecontrary]

Elvira Casimiro

Decided to do a character bio for @arcana-echoes​ and because I haven’t made one since I first made this blog oops

Art by the talented @joeyhazell-art​​

Full Name — Elvira Casimiro

Meaning of name — Elvira: “foreign and true”; Casimiro: “peaceful”

Family — Ignacio Casimiro (Father; deceased), Camila Casimiro (Mother; deceased), Marina Valeriano (Aunt; deceased)

Nicknames — Evie, Starlight (by family & Asra)

Favourite meal — Pozole

Favourite drink — Honey lemon tea

Favourite flower — Marigold

Birthday — August 8

Age — 26

Height — 5′ 4″

Gender — Female; she/her pronouns

Romantic/Sexual orientation — Bisexual/ Biromantic

MBTI: ISFJ

Zodiac — 

Sun: Leo

Moon: Virgo

Patron Arcana — 

Major: Judgement

Upright: Judgement, rebirth, inner calling, absolution

Reversed:  Self-doubt, inner critic, ignoring the call

Minor:  Queen of Swords

Upright:  Independent, unbiased judgement, clear boundaries, direct communication

Reversed:  Overly-emotional, easily influenced, bitchy, cold-hearted

Familiar: Luna the Xoloitzcuintle

Appearance 

Plague-Era and Present Elvira (sans white hair) created via Artbreeder

Height: 5’ 4”

Hair: black, thick and wavy (2c hair type), white at temples post-resurrection, about mid-back length

Hair style: parted to the left, typically worn down

Eyes: emerald 

Build: slim, but wider at the hips, toned arms and legs (from climbing things)

Distinguishing features: strong nose, full eyebrows, full lips, birthmark under left eye

Skin tone: Honey Tan

Typical outfit: black dresses paired with a well-loved fringe shawl made of burgundy fabric, barefoot if she can help it

Languages spoken —  Venterran, Vesuvian, knows some Vesuvian sign language

Hobbies — reading novels and poetry, tending to her many exotic plants, playing the guitar. singing, dancing, telling stories

Love Interests — Asra, Nadia, & Julian

Background — UNDER THE CUT

Childhood —

Elvira was born to Ignacio and Camila Casimiro on a small farm in the Venterre countryside. The small family was not wealthy and did not have the help of immediate or extended family. Ignacio was orphaned young and Camila had no contact with her parents or her older sister Marina. However, they were a very close and loving family unit. Elvira’s parents worked their land and managed farm animals, selling the products of their labor to survive. Camila was also a seamstress, and would make and repair clothes for the people in the nearby village. When Elvira was young, her father was in an accident on his way to a village further away to sell produce. He died and left Camila and Elvira to fend for themselves. Camila grew depressed when her husband died, but she tried to hide it from her daughter and continue to manage the farm without him. It became difficult to manage a young child, a farm, and herself as she grew sick from an illness she didn’t know she had at the time. Slowly, her health grew fragile, and many of the farm chores that couldn’t be supplemented by young Elvira went undone. The crops went unplanted, the farm animals were slaughtered for food. Eventually, food became scarce and Elvira had to steal from the surrounding farms for survival. She spent much of those years tending to a bedridden Camila. At the end of her days, Camila wrote a letter to her estranged sister Marina, letting her know that she was dying and leaving her little girl behind, and sent it to the last known place she knew her sister to be: Vesuvia. When Elvira was 15, Camila passed away, not knowing what would happen to her daughter. 

A couple of days after Camila’s passing, a woman dressed in black came to what was left of the Casimiro farm. She was tall, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a striking resemblance to Camila. She told Elvira that her name was Marina, and that she was her mother’s sister. Showing her Camila’s letter, she informed the young girl that she was to come and live with her in Vesuvia, upon her mother’s request. Initially, Elvira refused. The years of struggling and watching her mother slowly die had hardened the girl. She didn’t trust her aunt, who was a stranger to her, nor did she want to leave behind everything she’d ever known. Eventually, she came around and left Venterre with Marina to live with her in Vesuvia. Initially, living with each other was not easy for the two women. Marina had spent her adult life living alone and she had no children, so she frankly didn’t know what to do with a teenager. Elvira was also wary of her estranged aunt, unsure of how to react to her and her new living arrangement. However, the two eventually grew close and changed each other for the better. They were both guarded people, traumatized by their pasts. But, they made each other open up. Marina became Elvira’s mentor and taught her everything she knew about magic- from potions, to spells, to fortune telling. Elvira adopted many things from Marina, like her fashion sense and her love of worldly topics- like romantic poetry and foreign languages. Eventually, Elvira befriended a young orphan named Asra that she had met a couple of times during the Masquerade and Marina took him in too. The three of them lived in happy bliss until the Plague came to Vesuvia.

The Plague —

At the start of the Plague, Marina dedicated herself to the research effort at the palace, leaving Asra and Elvira to run the shop. After months of working tirelessly to find a cure, Marina caught the Plague and died, never having the chance to say goodbye to her wards. After this devastating loss, Elvira and Asra started debating on whether or not they should stay in Vesuvia. Asra wanted to leave, but Elvira wanted to stay and finish the work that her aunt had started by any means necessary. After a huge fight tore the two of them apart, Asra left Vesuvia and Elvira offered her help to Doctor Julian Devorak as his assistant. The two worked closely together during the plague and managed to find comfort in each other while the Plague grew worse and worse (NOTE: this manifests as a romantic relationship only in Julian’s route). Eventually, Elvira, too, fell sick and died of the Plague. She passed away alone in her home, and was found with forget-me-nots tucked into the bodice of her dress and a book of poetry in her hand.

Resurrection —

When Elvira was resurrected by Asra, she had lost all memory, along with the ability to speak, read, and generally care for herself. She spent many tireless months with her former-friend-turned-mentor relearning how to perform essential tasks and how to perform magic again. While she regained some aspects of her former self- like remembering how to play certain songs on her guitar and how to care for her plants- she was no doubt different. There was only one physical difference: the hair at her temples grew out white as snow (Asra quietly remembers this as the way that Marina’s hair used to look). Personally, she had become a person Asra hardly recognized. She had guarded her heart, shut the world out like she did when she was a child and rarely ever ventured out of the shop alone. Elvira had also become fixated on regaining her memories. Even though Asra had to stop trying to help her access her memories through magic, she still had an aching in her heart to know who she was. 

When Asra left on his first trip without her, she had to learn how to tend to her own needs. Her first time venturing outside of the shop, she found a small dog shivering in the cool night air out behind the shop. The dog was still a puppy and was scrawny. She initially avoided the dog, not knowing what to do or how to take care of it. But, the dog stepped closer and seemed to be illuminated by a moonbeam. Elvira took this as a sign to bring the dog in. She named her Luna and decided to keep her as a pet after she felt a connection with her. When Asra came back, he told her that Luna was likely her familiar, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Presently, Elvira still runs the shop and lives with Asra and Luna. She is now fiercely independent and has taken more of a partnership role when it came to running the household and the shop. She is still guarded and tends to keep other people at arm’s length by nature. But, she is learning to be more open to others and new experiences.  

[hypnoticwinter]

down the rabbit hole character concepts using artbreeder

As a writer, often I find that I get a better conception of who a character is if I have a good reference picture of them, but just personally, I find that just combing through google images or a booru or something to get someone else’s image of a different character, or god forbid a photograph, is really, really tacky and I hate doing it. A tool I’ve really taken a liking to in order to generate fairly unique images for characters without having any artistic know-how of my own is artbreeder.

Artbreeder uses AI and procedural generation to iterate on images to create fairly convincing-looking unique portraits that are not always immediately obvious as being artificial. they won’t stand up to close inspection usually and the process can be a little time-consuming, but the results can be very impressive if you’re willing to put the time in to get exactly what you want out of it. 

When I started writing Down the Rabbit Hole I had conceptions of what each of the characters would look like, but having an actual concrete image to look at and reference when I’m writing a scene is something I find really helpful. For example, here are some of the images I’ve used for main characters in my novel:

Roan Dzilenski

Elena Novak

Makado Veret

Erica Walken

Peter, who I am just now realizing I never gave a surname for lmao

As you can see, at first glance these images don’t scream that they were created through an algorithm - they aren’t especially stunning or anything but I find them absolutely more than serviceable for what I want to use them for. Each one of these images took me about fifteen to twenty minutes of iteration and fiddling with settings in order to get exactly what I wanted.

That’s not to say that artbreeder is completely perfect; I think my biggest issue with it is that it’s very difficult to make realistic-looking people who are either average-looking or unattractive; it seems to want to make everyone a supermodel by default. This certainly isn’t a dealbreaker for me but I do wish that Roan and Elena weren’t quite as pretty. Also that Roan’s nose was bigger; for whatever reason there isn’t a slider specifically for the nose.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve to getting started; when you first go to the site you’ll find yourself staring at a massive wall of portraits, and it can be a little overwhelming - what you can do is either pick one you like, or go up to the top right corner and click the ‘create’ button. At that point it’s fairly self-explanatory; my favorite method is to take a picture I like and just generate children, making minor tweaks as necessary, until I find one that fits what I’m looking for.

With a free account you can only download five high-resolution images - I think it may be per month but the website isn’t incredibly clear - but I’ve found that the standard images it generates are plenty big enough for my purposes, and the prices they charge for paid accounts with more hi-res downloads seem fairly reasonable for the amount of hardware they must be using to create all these images as quickly as they can.