It’s Saturday morning, and the sun is shining brightly, here in the great Northwest.
Find your favorite project, your most enjoyable past time, or your favorite binge-worthy Netflix series… it’s Saturday, folks. I hope it’s sunny wherever you are, but either way, it’s still hopefully a play day.
Whether you’re working or playing, may you find joy in your day…
Hugs
Well… how else is a camel supposed to take a bath?
Sometimes, trying to create an idea or image that fits with a story can be tricky. You can have all the right tools, resources, and materials, but still feel clueless. At times, I find myself feeling sort of like the little girl in the above image. She has everything needed for that letter, except the pen to write it!
Now that I’m preparing to work on Volume II of my book series, it’s important that I have a good working image or two, of the main characters within the story. It was rather easy to create our dragon, as I’ve always had a clear picture in my head of what he should look like. Maybe it’s because he was a baby when all this began. Who knows.
All I know is that it’s not been that easy to come up with visuals for our heroin, as I’m always focusing on the dragon in the story. Now that we’re entering the second leg of our characters’ journey, the heroin needs to find herself, in a manner of speaking. For this, I’ll need an image in my head that captures exactly who she is.
First, I set about asking Norbert, my ai assistant, for some images of a cloaked woman with a satchel over her shoulder, walking along a path…
While I like her face, I don’t like the suitcase. Not only is it the wrong style, but it’s also a completely inaccurate depiction of what I consider a satchel. It’s far too modern. Not only was the bag wrong, but since she’s walking in the wrong direction, I can’t really get a working image for creating the avatar.
I corrected the wordage on my prompt to reflect a frontal image, as well as, changing the style and positioning of her satchel…
Much better, but a bit too sultry. We aren’t doing a Victoria Secret photo shoot, here. Plus, she needs to have more of a hooded cloak to reflect a mysterious traveler. I don’t want that image of her face, but I will be able to use it for a pose image when I make the actual character.
I changed a few key words in the prompt, and asked again…
Much better, I thought. Her face is softer, and a bit more moody.
I took this image, along with three others that offered differing angles of our subject, and plugged them into the Character Creation machine…
I like her, though the clothing will need to be altered to fit the story. I was able to add another character to her image, which was helpful. There are two main characters in the story, so I needed some images of them together…
Now that we’ve a real heroin to work with, I just need to get this handsome fellow into his own avatar. But that’s for another day. For now, I will be satisfied with our somewhat successful creation of our first main character. She may change a bit, as time goes on, but I am connecting with both of these two adventurers… hopefully, you are, as well.
While I’m nowhere near finished tweaking things, I’ve come up with what I hope will be a fitting addition to Live Novel Friday’s tale.
While I can’t tell you the story yet, it is coming along rather nicely. I won’t say anything on names, as of yet, but I wanted to give you a chance before Friday to offer up some names and more ideas for this weeks episode of The Wharf.
Let me know what you think so far…
He still needs to become more animated, so as to match up with the visuals I’m using for our story.
Oddly, Norbert offered up a rather realistic looking baby, though he’s a bit too real to work with if I want him to blend into the story properly…
I’m nowhere near done, but once we’ve gotten a good number of images for him, I’ll create his permanent Avatar. I like the second image better than the first, but I want to fix his teeth to match up with the first image. Those teeth should be on the second of the two images, as well as the first. This way, the final Avatar will always have baby orc teeth in his mouth. We want continuity.
Isn’t he just adorable, though…
Hugs
The Wharf…
Episode II
**As per our conversation last week, I’ve settled on Ollie for our portly Ogre innkeeper. He has a rough and intimidating presence, but for those who know him, there is also a kind heart hidden beneath all that muscle and aggressive demeanor. Our young barmaid has learned to avoid Ollie’s grumpier side, using her quiet and unassuming nature to sooth his rough mannerisms. Though his frightening appearance and frequent angry outbursts keep the customers in line, our young lass has grown to love the grumpy old innkeeper. We’ll call the tavern The Ogre’s Rest, and I think that Maiyah is a fitting name for our young barmaid. Be sure and answer the questions at the end of each episode, so I’ve a story to work up. Enjoy Episode II…
This night, like any other night here on the wharf, Maiyah has been busily serving customers and helping in and around the kitchen. The cook asked that she bring in another fish from the barrel out on the dock in front of the tavern, so she retrieves a container and heads outside for the barrel.
As the young barmaid is pulling a sizeable fish out of the barrel, she spies movement from behind the container. Briefly glancing down, toward the disturbance, she spies what looks like a tiny shoe sticking out from behind the barrel. Rule number three kicks in, warning her not to bring attention to herself, so she continues on about her business, carrying the fish inside to the cook.
As she cleans and serves food to the customers, several pieces of dried meat and fruit cake left on guests’ plates, happens to fall into her apron pocket.
Her sleight of hand skills rewarded her a small water flask, from the pocket of an old tinker, snoring blissfully in the corner.
Since her shift is coming to an end, Maiyah carries her cleaning supplies out to the shed, next to the barrel on the dock. Inside the shed she takes a strip of cloth hanging on the wall, folds the food and water inside, and casually walks back toward the tavern, discreetly dropping the small package behind the barrel as she walks past.
Once inside The Ogres Rest, Maiyah retreats to her room above the bar. Her room is small, but offers a window that looks out over the wharf, to the sea beyond. From here, she can see directly down upon the front of the tavern, where the shed and barrel both sit beside the water’s edge. She dresses in her nightgown and settles in at the window ledge to watch…
There is just enough light cast, from the tavern’s doorway lantern, for the young barmaid to have a clear view of the barrel. She spies movement from behind the container, but only enough to confirm that there is indeed someone there, but whomever it is, hides themselves very well. She falls asleep with her head resting upon the window sill of her tiny room above the bar.
Who or what do you think might be hiding behind the barrel?
With the clues given and remembering the three survival rules, what do you think Maiyah will do?
Be sure to leave your answers in the comments…
Hugs
I have to be a bit mysterious this morning, as I don’t really want you to see what I’m working on. I’m creating the avatar for our Live Novel Friday episodes, and I wanted it to be a surprise. Unfortunately, I need you to help decide on the final touches of our heroine in the story.
Without disclosing too much, I will share the final image that I want for her…
Short day, I know, but I’ve several important appointments that are unavoidable. I shall return tomorrow…
Hugs
Well, I think last weeks tinkering session was a total success!
Not that I’ll be winning any academy awards, or anything. I just mean that I challenged myself to do a thing (creating a new character on Tuesday, and then writing a story about it by Friday), and it worked out.
So, it got me to thinking (I know, dangerous pastime)… what if I sought to write a whole series of children’s character books, only employing my tinkering sessions and a two day rest before kicking out a little story, song, or poem to accompany the images. I don’t see why I couldn’t, what with todays insta book mentality flooding across the web.
While I get my jabs in at all the ai created mumbo jumbo being printed out there, currently, I’m not being snarky when I say that I believe it’s possible to actually write imaginative content without my computer telling me how… or worse, doing the writing for me. Not on my watch!
Anyway, getting back to the tinkering plans I’ve set for us, I plan on making a habit of mixing up writing styles, as well as, continuing to expand my illustration skills. My hands on learning is all that can be afforded, at this present moment, so if I wish to become a better writer, more brain stretching work is involved.
I know your probably saying, “Great, now she’s gonna start wearing even bigger hats on her noggin.” Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but if I do then that means my cookies will need to be bigger, as well.
Go big or go home, right?!
For today’s next challenge, I went with another water baby, but on an entirely different patch of sand…
This isn’t the finished character, by the way, but it was the first image offered by the ai. All I typed in was “a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus”.
While the little guy seems awful cute and chubby, we’re nowhere near satisfied. He’s got no nostrils, for one thing. So, I used the auto-enhance on the prompt…
“a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus, trying to learn to swim along the shore of a beautiful sandy beach”
Getting a better shot of his nose, but now his eyebrows look like they were individually stuck into his little forehead. It made him look too much like a plushie toy.
Again, I returned to the auto-enhance feature, asking it to expand the prompt even more…
“Imagine a photorealistic scene at a picturesque sandy beach where gentle waves lap against the shore. The sun casts a warm, golden glow across the landscape, illuminating the fine grains of sand and sparkling blue waters. In the foreground, an adorable baby walrus, with soft, wrinkled gray skin and big, curious eyes, awkwardly paddles in the shallow surf. Its flippers splash playfully, sending droplets gleaming in the sunlight, while a few sea gulls circle overhead, drawn by the joyous scene. The sandy beach is dotted with tufts of sea grass swaying in the light breeze, enhancing the serene atmosphere of this tender moment.”
At least he has more expression with his eyes, even if he lost his eyebrows. His facial expression seems far more realistic, though his fat rolls look rather like sweatshirt material than skin. I kept at it for nearly a half hour before, coming up with numerous images that were similar to this one, but with differing poses and expressions.
Now that we’ve come this far, let’s give the ai our best 10 images. From there, we’ll generate some possibilities for a solid Avatar.
I’ll be right back! Give me about 10 minutes, or so….
Everyone, meet our newest character…
I’ve decided to name him Booker, though I’ve ne earthly idea why! The ai decided to give him tusks, even with him only being a baby, but I think it makes him super cute.
Norbert gave me several differing shots, but I think he looks most realistic in this one…
… minus the grown up tusks, mind you.
I don’t think Booker took nearly as long to create, as it took me last week, during pumpkin’s creation.
Now that he’s here, I’ve only til Friday to create his story, so I best get moving!
See you Friday… hugs
Perhaps you’ve asked yourselves how I get from an idea, all the way to producing an actual story, here on WordPress. Well, I doubt you were actually wondering that exact thought, but for all intents and purposes, I’m going to act as if you asked. Humor me, if you would.
We will just call today’s tinkering, a tutorial on how to create a brand new story character from scratch. Did you know that I usually develop the character, or Avatar, if you will, before I even create the story that goes with them? While there are some stories that are born in my imagination first, most of the children’s stories are born upon the visual produced for the main character… that first few, rough around the edge images that are produced by Norbert, the OpenArt ai assistant.
So, today I want to create a brand new character, build up a supply of appropriate images, and then on Friday, I’ll hopefully have a cute little story to post. I’m by no means expecting you to anticipate an academy award winning performance, or anything.
I suppose that one could say, it’s an exercise in story development. Hopefully, I will learn a good many things about my own writing style, how accommodating Norbert can be, and how flexible I’m willing to be, when it comes to my own content. While I might need Norbert for producing the right images, I don’t need any assistance in the imagination process, nor in my ability to write a decent story.
For this particular act of literary science and exploration, I randomly selected a baby hippo, as our story subject.
My first query was simply asking for a photorealistic image of an adorable baby hippo, but before finishing the prompt, I selected the auto enhance option for a more complete description. This was my first full query…
A photorealistic image of a baby hippopotamus joyfully playing in a sun-drenched meadow, surrounded by vibrant wildflowers swaying gently in the breeze. The lush green grass glistens with dew drops, catching the soft, warm sunlight that filters through a few wispy clouds in the azure sky. The baby hippo, with its round, cherubic face and big, glistening eyes, frolics playfully, splashing water as it leaps into a small, shimmering puddle. Its skin glistens with a hint of mud, adding a touch of earthy charm to its playful antics. In the background, a gentle stream sparkles, reflecting the peaceful atmosphere of this idyllic setting. This photorealistic scene captures the essence of childhood joy in nature, filled with colors and a warmth that embodies happiness.
These were the first images offered…
So far, so good, though I notice that Norbert wasn’t willing to actually put the hippo in the water, for some odd reason.
Without overthinking it, which I have a tendency to do sometimes, I took the very first three images offered, and then I went straight to character creation.
After only a few moments, Norbert gave us our newest character, and I’ve named her Pumpkin…
She even has a little tuft of hair on her head, like little bangs. I think it will be so fun to put a bow in her hair, and I can even change the color of the ribbon, depending on the day. Don’t ask me why I opted to name her Pumpkin. It just sounded like a sweet term of endearment, I guess.
Anyway, throughout this whole creation process, Norbert did fairly well, and only had to remove an object from one of the images. For some reason, the ai thought a hippo should wear a crown on their head. I’ve no earthly idea where a crown was mentioned in my query…
I told Norbert to get rid of the crown, and he actually did it without changing too much else in the image…
Unfortunately, her bangs disappeared, which I really wanted to keep.
For that reason, I asked for a different image, all together. But, still not enough hair on her head…
I spent nearly fifteen minutes arguing with Norbert over the stack of ridiculous selections I was given…
I even tried putting bows in her hair, to see if that would improve things.
Nope!
Sometimes, you just have to go back to the drawing board, as they say. You simply have to query a new background, and/or positioning of the character, in order to produce a workable image…
See what I mean? Change the background and her hair returns, just as I hoped it would.
Now that we’ve a loveable image to work with, the task at hand is to gather a decent supply of differing images that will aid in the building of her story.
By Friday, I should hopefully have a wonderful tale to share with you about our newest guest, here in the Barnyard.
Yikes! Friday’s only a few days away, so I should probably get started.
Hugs
Yes, Osrig. Today is gonna be all about you, my sweet boy!
It’s high time we do some serious work on our favorite flying canine. From the very beginning of his creation, I struggled with making him look realistic instead of resembling a Claymation character. It’s always been a bit of a challenge to give the dog realistic traits, while also making his imaginary ones look adorable and endearing. If I can make an avatar of myself look real, then so to shall I embark this editing journey for Osrig. He’s worth it, I think.
I already went ahead and took the plunge last week, by upgrading his character images into the advanced avatar that we’ll be using today. I must say that as much as I loath to admit it, Norbert (resident openart ai) actually did me proud this morning, for the most part. There were a few moments that I wanted to say something snarky, but I refrained, for your sake!
Surprisingly, this was the very first image given this morning, and in all honesty, it seems perfect! I even made you a short video of it, so as to reflect the improvements they’ve made on their video creation section. I know it’s not much, and I am far from a videographer, film maker, or tv producer, in any real sense of the words. But it’s still cute, so I’m using it…
The reason I have to give so much credit to Norbert today, is because I only had one image that we didn’t see eye to eye on, literally, because the ai never could correct the problem. Here, I’ll show you…
This image would’ve been perfect, aside from the demon glowy eyes… sheesh!
I asked the ai to change the dog’s eye color to a gentle green, but ended up with a radioactive dog…
As I’m not one to give up on a thing so easily, I had a rather short but meaningful chat with Norbert…
“I’ve never met a dog with glowing green eyes. Please look up images of what a canine’s eyes should be, and then color them a gentle soft green please.”
It took several more tries, but we finally got a compromise out of the deal…
The image is alright, I guess. It’s certainly nothing to write home about, but definitely far better than the alien shots we started out with, in my opinion. I will say that the ai is doing a fantastic job of textures and realism, both in the scenery and also the dogs fur. But, unfortunately, I can’t really use the image because his wings are missing.
I pressed on, wanting to get a real handle on the realism of the dog’s fur, expressions, and body posture. You should feel as if you could reach out and touch him, you know? I put Norbert through his paces, and got a solid handful of really decent images. Take a look…
Aside from the image with the strange looking arrow head on the end of his tail, these images took no editing at all. But I’ll certainly be fixing that tail… ugh!
I did make another little video, but the first one is still my favorite, over all…
So, that’s it for today’s tinkering session. All in all, it was a very successful day, and I hope it wasn’t too boring for you.
As a sign of good will, and also my willingness to share with others, I’ve made you some homemade virtual oatmeal. It’s got a little brown sugar and some blueberries, too…
Breakfast is really the most important meal of the day, or so I’ve heard. They also say that it’s good for your heart.
You’re welcome!
So I decided on the final image for mini Wiwohka, and went ahead with the character creation feature, using the image you saw last week.
Let’s made a whole new portfolio for her this morning, now that we’ve a new and revised avatar. I started with collecting some profile shots…
So far, so good. Now let’s try changing her outfit…
Wow! I’m really impressed with how they’re keeping her so true to the original. But, what if we take her out of the studio and into the real world…
She’s coming to life, in my opinion. And, she fits in perfectly at the Barnyard, both in doors…
… and outdoors.
Well?
What do you think?
I know that being the one who created her images, I feel rather partial to mini-me. If it were possible, I think I’d adopt her and bring her home with me!
I haven’t tried to alter her hair color yet, but I’d like to see if we can change that little red streak to another color… just to match her outfits. I think we’ll try that next week, right before we move on to some more work with Brutus.
I think it’s time to go deeper into the dragons facial features, now that OpenArt has revamped their system. I’m kind of liking the changes, but don’t tell them that… it’ll probably just go to their heads.
Journey With Me! 