A.I. Explore: Getting Out the Spices…

I love to cook. The mixing of ingredients ‘just so’ to influence and enhance the flavors – turning up a dish from decent to extraordinary. Take my approach to the lessons shared around A.I. and you may have an understanding of how I do everything!

In the same manner of opening the spice rack in my kitchen, I want to spend several days digging up some the powerful seasonings for your A.I. concoctions that will really ‘turn up the flavors’ on the things you are creating. I remember my son Benjamin loving Bungie’s Destiny game, so let’s play with their character as though we are developing concepts for Destiny 3. For these – I will include the group of 4, with 1 detailed image from the group. We will start with the anchor visual. The prompt follows:

Bungie Destiny Hunter character

With Midjourney, even though that is a very basic prompt, it got some impressive results. I like the digital painting appearance behind the character – but otherwise this is visually non-descript. I will begin adding words to the prompt which will provide a greater story to the visual and draw out other attributes in the render.

Let me start with some body enhancements.

Bungie Destiny Hunter character in cybernetic mech battle suit

Note the body plating and visual armor that is showing up. The Hunter character is not just wearing a fancy jump suit with randomly placed football pads, he is now decked in some sort of mechanical robotic suit of armor. Also note the complexity of the background setting. The image surroundings have more story involved in its setting. Midjourney is crafting the story setting from the visual cue words supplied in the prompt.

For game concept artist, a term that further enhances the setting, are the key visuals. The key visual is used to help convey a vision of the game to the team of artist working to develop it. This term is also used in advertising, and refers to a graphic theme that appears on all advertising materials and communication of a brand (or its products, services or events). It establishes consistency and distinguishes the brand (or the game) from competitors, and elicits an emotional connection by conveying its main values to a specific group of recipients. (After 27 years in Branding and Marketing – this is a core concept of communication I live and breathe.)

Bungie Destiny Hunter character in cybernetic mech battle suit, key visual for Destiny 3 –ar 3:2

With Midjourney, this was both a very solid prompt and an impressive result. For one, I moved away from the square default, to an aspect ratio of 3 to 2. Additionally, there are some key things happening in this that is a significant step up in the setting and the background. Note the step up in presentation. We no longer have the isolated character, there is now a reason for his/her being in the scene. Things are happening around him. Not only active sparks and particulate are in the air – but there is a jungle, there are flames, there are mechanical elements… there are things that provide a setting and purpose expressed for this well-outfitted Hunter.

With defining that the key visual was for Destiny 3, it gave us a certain look for the character and the surrounds. What if we changed that up a bit, maybe give the overall look a wash of something a bit different?

Bungie Destiny Hunter character in cybernetic mech battle suit, Pixarian, key visual for Wall-E –ar 3:2

Note how we influenced the overall look of the visual, by adding the words Pixarian (reference to Disney Pixar movies), and refocusing the key visual to something for Wall-E. The grit is still present in the image, but there is a visual lightening, more refinement, a cleaning up… It is still a “Bungie Destiny” focused image, but the spices added to the prompt, has redirected the flavors.

Bungie Destiny Hunter character in cybernetic mech battle suit, Pixarian, key visual for Wall-E, 3D render, Unreal Engine

The prior renders were really nice – digital paintings. But if you want the finished result to look more 3-dimensional, simply request it in your prompting. Adding the words “3D render” and referencing a rendering engine “Unreal Engine” refined the look to a more technical, polished 3D appearing render.

There are 3 classes of warriors you can use in the game. The first referenced was ‘Hunter’… For the next I am looking at ‘Warlock’. Since they might have ancient symbols inscribed on them, their clothing, etc – I added a new spicy term for you – ‘fractal‘. If you are wanting spiraling, looping, woven looking patterns, fractal tends to give you that look. Try ‘ancient tome pattern, mythological symbols, fractal‘ all by itself… I think you’ll like it!

Bungie Destiny Warlock character in cybernetic mech battle suit, ancient tome patterned outfit, fractal, key visual for Destiny 3, 3D render, Unreal Engine

What if you wanted to totally twist things up? Maybe your character lands on some strange planet to explore – and it needs the neon pinks, cyan blues and glowing purples. Simply add the word ‘vaporwave‘ to enhance the style in a new, novel way. Prior to V5, vaporwave tended to override everything else in the prompt results. Now it works alongside the prompt and acts an accent.

Bungie Destiny Warlock character in cybernetic mech battle suit, ancient tome patterned outfit, fractal, key visual for Destiny 3, 3D render, Unreal Engine, vaporwave