Month ago, I wrote my first children’s book and illustrated it with Dall-E and wrote about the experience. Since then, people suggested I play with Midjourney and I found the product so engaging, I re-illustrated my book in a version 2 with all new Midjourney images.
If you like to see the results, just scroll to the end.
Difference between Dall-E and Midjourney
After using Dall-E and midjourney, the quick conclusion is that, besides not having an easy to access web app and outpainting. Midjourney is just better in every way.
Depth/ability to generate a style
In Dall-E in my first version of my children’s book, I ended up picking a style I didn’t really like to generate consistency in every image. Midjourney did not have that problem. Midjourney can take a very specific style and almost generate any kind of scenario with it, while Dall-E breaks on scenarios that are too specific.
This alone would make it a no brainer to use Midjourney.
Pro level features
Dall-E doesn’t have pro level features, but midjourney has several complex tags which affects the pictures that are generated; These tags are almost killer features.
Aspect Ratio ( — ar): This is a game changer for AI generation since it means you don’t have to generate squares anymore, you can generate in the exact size you want for an piece of artwork.
Upscaling: Midjourney can create pictures that are twice the the original quality through a feature called upscaling
Seed: A random number is generated at every prompt and you can attempt to re-do a generated image in the same style but using the same seed; This didn’t work that well for me but some people has gotten incredible results such as changing the expression on the same person.
Remix: You can generate changes in new versions of a concept on the fly by adding in new prompts at eat step. I’m personally just a fan of redoing the prompt but it could be good for someone who wants to fix an image that is close.
My redo process for illustration
With midjourney I played around with several styles but decided to pick a children’s illustration + studio ghibli feel animation. Doing research on children’s books, I think most illustrations feels western and have a very simplistic or funky look. I was searching for a feeling similar to the surreal detailed world that studio Ghibli creates.
My prompt ending was “children’s story book, illustration, studio ghibli, spirited away, howl’s moving castle, on a white background”
Here’s an example to show the style :)
Press enter or click to view image in full size
I also used the tag ar at 6:10 to produce vertical images in the aspect ratio I want.
The results
Below is the result! It’s also launched in Amazon, feel free to support my efforts by buying a copy and leave a 5 star review for me.