Tomer

The Artist Spotlight is your inside look into the influences, collaborations and prompts that drive the NightCafe community.

We catch up with some of our most original creators to find what inspires them, who their favorite creators are, and how they use image generator algorithms as part of their work.

NC: WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR WORK?

Science-Fiction and the grand imaginative futuristic universes it proposes. This has always driven me and my work, from 3D animation to illustration, game design, and recently AI imagery.

When producing any art several questions tend to pop into mind: “One: what would I want to see as a vision of the future? and, two: what have I never seen before?”

Until now, these criteria had led me down long winding paths of months-long development, from concept sketching to 3D modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, rendering, and post-process refinement.

But now, with AI, I can run and achieve all this instantaneously with the ease of a prompt.

I can run through concepts and iterations and refinements and visualize a far grander and more complex range of science-fiction concepts and technologies than I ever had before, allowing my imagination to run free.

NC: MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST ON NIGHTCAFE?

There are so many great artists here, new and old, and I encourage everyone to look through “Newest Creations” on “Explore” to get a look at the treasure trove of recent submissions.

Some might not make their way to “Top Hourly”, but are breathtaking nonetheless. The amount of artistic talent hidden in plain sight can be incredible at times, and with new artists coming in every day, the pool of amazing imagery will only get more and more talented!

NC: PROMPT THAT MOST SURPRISED YOU?

“By award winner, …” and all derivations of “By (genre type), …” meaning by sci-fi, by fantasy, by photography, by engineering, etc.

This frames the prompts in a way that is easier for the AI to understand the mood or image type you are trying to set.

In a way, redirecting the AI to the correct databases for reference imagery before it begins interpreting the content of your prompt.

The surprising part is how much they can make a difference and set the general feel of your generated imagery before even putting in specifics.

NC: ANY TIPS FOR PROMPT WRITING?

Be as thorough as you wish to be in terms of adjectives and fine details. But don't expect the AI to interpret words exactly as you do.

Sometimes context which may seem obvious and intuitive in human speech patterns may be quite difficult for the AI to understand, and so must be fine-tuned through trial and error and re-worded based on what had previously worked.

Generalities work better than specifics. But depending on the image you are trying to create, specifics can be achieved with enough fine-tuning and exploration of different random seeds.

On another matter, start images are powerful when setting the composition and color structure of an image. Creating a start image separately with a completely different prompt set meant specifically for the composition, color, and lighting balance can work wonders when input into a separate prompt set meant specifically for fine details.

That way the AI can focus individually on the structure of the image first, creating a solid base for the later contents and details to take place, all without compromising its sense of coherence.

For example, you could create a first image that is bright, vivid, and full of colors over a sunset-lit mountain expanse, then input that image (with 20%-40% noise weight) into a separate prompt that is focused on creating a vast technological future metropolis.

The AI will compose your future metropolis imagery over the structure of your sunset-lit mountain expanse and adapt the details accordingly, all without having to muddy the details of your futuristic city prompt with color details and composition structures.

NC: WHAT LED YOU TO USING NIGHTCAFE?

While working on a science-fiction Unreal Engine video game last year, I had been looking for an AI solution to help me fill in background textures, menus, and various imagery to populate my universe.

NightCafe immediately stood out as an all-in-one AI platform perfect for this. 

Once I started producing artwork within it I was immediately and completely captivated! Soon I found myself moving far past my goals of background video-game imagery and into the sheer volume of science fiction possibilities now open for me to visually explore. 

NC: WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK TO NIGHTCAFE?

NightCafe remains a uniquely amazing AI art community, and a versatile development tool for concept art and all sorts of imagery.

The ease of use and continual updates keeping up with current AI technology have kept it cutting edge over the months.

It's the perfect destination for those looking to dip their hands into AI imagery and create beautiful works of imagination that wouldn't have been possible previously.

My love for AI art and NightCafe run hand in hand, helping me achieve visions like never before!