Touching

Figure 1. Three heads on four legs.

 I've previously commented on the challenge of getting the WOMBO AI-image generating software to correctly produce depictions of the human body. Here in this blog post, I'll continue to document my on-going exploration of AI-generated art and I'll continue to make this "personal" by referring to the software as Mr. Wombo.

 Mr. Wombo Can't Count. In a previous blog post, I struggled to get Mr. Wombo to sensibly depict a person holding the head of a mannequin. The problems of correctly positioning arms and hands got worse when I tried to have Mr. Wombo create images of two people embracing each-other. The image to the right (Figure 1) shows an example of what can go wrong when Mr. Wombo is on the job.

Figure 2. Why googles?

Another example of Mr. Wombo's artificial "intelligence" and complete lack of understanding anything about the world is shown in Figure 2. Here, Mr. Wombo correctly provided this musician with the goggles that I requested, but the right eye is only close to the viewing goggles. Mr. Wombo had no real understanding of the relationship between eyes and goggles.

Figure 3. raised goggles

As mentioned in my previous blog post, there is a new feature that allows you to first have Mr. Wombo generate an image then you get two tries to ask for alterations to the original image.

Figure 3 shows an AI-generated image with raised goggles. I asked Mr. Wombo to, "reposition the goggles and make the goggles cover her eyes".

Figure 4. lowered goggles

The resulting "corrected" image is shown in Figure 4. I liked the Hi Tek™ goggles in Figure 3, but for some unknown reason Mr. Wombo had to change the style of goggles and almost every other detail in the image while correctly positioning goggles to cover her eyes.

Figure 5. delicate fingers

For the image in Figure 5, I was satisfied with the goggles, but her fingers had a problem. Who knows? Maybe in the future it will be important to genetically engineer Visi-Sonor players to have delicate fingers so that they can play their instrument correctly.

Figure 6. super goggles

One of the things I like about Mr. Wombo is his penchant for taking everything to an extreme. Figure 6. shows some hypertrophied goggles with an extra quantum computer at the side of her head for performing calculations and generating the images that are shown by the goggles. I was fairly happy with this image except for her fingers at the bottom of the image.

Figure 7. bad teeth

 Figure 7 shows some interesting goggles and I was not even offended by the large flowers in her hair.

However, I'm trying to illustrate a story that is set on an exoplanet. On that distant world (Hemmal) the people have been genetically engineered so as to have perfect teeth and they also use medical nanites to stay perfectly healthy. I don't want to see ugly teeth and pimples.

Figure 8. take a bad image and make it worse

I asked Mr. Wombo to, "change her teeth to make them white and healthy" which did no good, so I used the second available edit to ask, "change her mouth to make a very pretty mouth". As usual, the "corrected" results were much worse than the original image (see Figure 8).

Figure 9.  Wombo style.

Mr. Wombo is never satisfied. If he has to provide goggles, then why not two sets of goggles (see Figure 9)?

Figure 10. Mr. Wombo doubles down

I tried to have Mr. Wombo fix Figure 9 by giving this text prompt: "alter the face to include only one set of goggles, leave everything else unchanged, only change the goggles". That did not work, so for the second allowed "edit" I used this simpler prompt: "one set of goggles". Mr. Wombo produced the image shown in Figure 10.

Figure 11. The future genetics of left handedness.

 More Fingers for Musicians. I'd be perfectly happy to have a science fiction story in which musicians had been genetically engineered so as to have extra fingers that help them play complex musical instruments. With advanced genome editing technology, maybe it would even be possible to have a human variant with five fingers on one hand and ten fingers on the other hand. Figure 11 shows an example of an image for which Mr. Wombo made a hand with many fingers and it all seems strangely suited for that particular Visi-Sonor model.

Figure 12. Not bad.

 Tell me why, Mr. Wombo. I was finally satisfied with the image shown in Figure 12. This particular image required some editing of the original AI-generated image that was produced by Mr. Wombo. One of the unexpected tricks that Mr. Wombo enjoys is sending the strings of musical instruments up under the clothing of the musician.

Tyhyr and Marda

I was trying to get the help of Mr. Wombo to create a scene depicting Tyhry and Marda when Marda arrives in the United States from Australia. The image shown to the right was generated with the "VFX v2" style.

Nice arm.

When I shifted to using the "Flora v2" style and asked for an image including a hug, I got the image shown to the left. This image reminded me of another AI-generated image that I recently saw. I'm particularly impressed by that arm with two hands.

Figure 13. Two women

I gave the text prompt, "two women hug each-other and kiss on the mouth" and Mr. Wombo produced Figure 13. I then tried: "change the image of two women and make only two heads" and Mr. Wombo did nothing.

Figure 14. Wombo style

Sometimes I think that Mr. Wombo must have a sense of humor (see Figure 14). Are those lips? Look at that multi-fingered hand on her back. And there is another "spare" hand at the bottom of Figure 14.

Figure 15. hand on shoulder

When I asked Mr. Wombo for an image showing a hand on a shoulder, I got Figure 15. I tried using the "edit" feature and asked Mr. Wombo to remove the hand from the middle of the image, but he refused.

Figure 16. Two-way arm

 Figure 16 shows another Mr. Wombo specialty, the two handed arm to from nowhere. Mr. Wombo also seems to really like giant red lips on his chicks. I don't understand the gray coloration of the woman's neck in this image (Figure 16).

Thumb orientation?

Besides his penchant for bad teeth, Mr. Wombo also has no concept of which side of a hand to put the thumb (see the image to the right). I tried a "text-based edit" asking for a mirror image of the hand, but Mr. Wombo had no idea what I was asking for.

better teeth

Here is an example of an image in which Mr. Wombo made better teeth, but the thumb is still on the wrong side of her hand (image to the left). Also, the necklace seems to have strands that end in mid-air rather than continue around her neck. With so many things that Mr. Wombo can get wrong, it is almost impossible to get a satisfactory AI-generated image.

"That kiss broke my necklace."

The image to the right had one of the more convincing mouth-to-mouth kisses that Mr. Wombo was able to produce, but I guess he got distracted and never bothered to complete Tyhry's necklace.

Not bad; no gross errors.

The image to the left is probably the most all-around error free version of this scene, one that did not require additional processing by me after Mr. Wombo created the image. I can imagine that is is when Tyhry picks up Marda at the airport, two days after Marda graduates from college.

Figure 16. Composite.

 Figure 16 shows a composite image that I made using Photoshop. This is a composite of three different AI-generated images. Splicing together three separate images was required to get all of the hands right, and thankfully this image only required 3 hands, not four.

Armageddon.

Before leaving behind this scene, I'll share two more pathological versions of AI-generated images. The image to the left has serious problems with arms and hands. This was made by Mr. Wombo with the "Soft Touch" style.

permanent hugs (see)

The image to the right was generated in the "Buliojourney v2" style. Maybe they have endosymbionts living in their abdomens that can produce/sprout hands as needed. Their arms lock them in a permanent hug.

Marda, Tyhry and Manny

Sometimes Mr. Wombo had trouble with human body parts when there is an inanimate object close to a human figure. I was trying to make an image to illustrate Marda, Tyhry and Manny on vacation, but Tyhry lost her arms (image to the left).

Figure 17. complicated

 The unexpected complications of social lactation. I also tried to make an image for my science fiction story called The Hua Nanites. In that story, the hermaphroditic aliens of planet Sermyth enjoy the practice of social lactation. Figure 17 shows one of the better images from Mr. Wombo for this scene. The biggest disappointment in Figure 17 is the and in the lower right. This is usually where I have to cut and past from another image.

Figure 18. arm fusion

The image in Figure 18 has a better hand in the lower right part of the scene, but Mr. Wombo performed another of his patented arm fusions in the lower left part of the image.

These playful hermaphrodites are also singing a Hua drinking song as part of the rituals of social lactation.

Hua poster promoting the
practice of social lactation

Here is one more Mr. Wombo special in which strangely distorted arms are holding a glass of milk (image to the right). It helps to have a sense of humor when collaborating with Mr. Wombo to make illustrations for science fiction stories.

Figure 19. Nanite experiments

I've been working on illustrations for Tyhry and her nanite experiments. I was fairly happy with Figure 19, but I asked Mr. Wombo to create a new image in which Tyhry would reach out to touch the nanite cloud.

Figure 20. reaching out

Unfortunately, Mr. Wombo produced the image shown to the right (Figure 20).

touching blue

I've also been crafting an imaginary movie poster for Tyhry's upcoming adventure in Alastor Cluster. When I asked Mr. Wombo to show Tyhry touching the blue alien, I got the image shown to the left, another example of too many arms being generated.

Blue alien poster

I was able to get the image to the right which still has hand issues, but not too bad. This movie poster is for science fiction fans who reside on the planet that is home to the blue alien. 

Maybe the title for the movie is "Nanite Science" in some alien language of Alastor cluster. The text prompt was: "Science fiction movie poster, tall women, a woman with blue skin, complex physics background, blond woman touches the blue girl, woman with dark hair touches the blue girl, Victoria's Secret style".

Marda's nanite experiment

I don't like the fact that Mr. Wombo generally makes images of women who are just standing around like statues. There's Marda in the image to the left. She's doing an experiment with nanites.

Nanites are so confusing... let's finger this out...

I got help from Mr. Wombo to make some images of Marda and Tyhry while they are using nanite containment bottles. Unfortunately, Mr. Wombo likes to merge the fingers of two hands that are close together (see the image to the right). Maybe that is the danger of poorly-programmed nanites?

sex hormones: oxypathin and clytykynyn

For the image shown to the left, Mr. Wombo went for two bottles, but he seemed to forget that this is supposed to be about nanites. Maybe Tyhry and Marda are experimenting with the sex hormones oxypathin and clytykynyn. Maybe this is their Valentine's Day gift exchange.

play time with nanites

In addition to hair and clothing nanites, Tyhry and Marda also experiment with the creation of nanite-based sex toys. Sadly, when I ask Mr. Wombo for sparkling clouds of nanites all I get are white clouds in the sky. This is my biggest problem with AI-generated images... they tend to just make more of whatever has previously been in large numbers of images. If you want to make an illustration for a new science fiction idea it ain't easy.

Figure 21. clothing nanites

 In the Nanite Laboratory. When I begged Mr. Wombo to make sparkling nanite clouds he made Marda's clothing sparkle (see Figure 21).

nanite programming

For the image shown to the right, both Tyhry and Marda are at work on a new nanite program.

Three nanite containment bottles:

three bottles

"Help me open this bottle..."

Tyhry gets help opening a nanite containment bottle (image to the left).

it is complicated

 Mixing Nanites. Sometime Marda has doubts about Tyhry's wild and crazy ideas for nanite experiments (see the image to the right).

nanites in a bottle

I like what Mr. Wombo did for the image to the left, putting a nanite sparkle inside the bottle.

anti-gravity nanites

Some of the nanites are made using anti-gravity hierions. As usual, I'm not sure what Mr. Wombo was trying to do with their hands for this image (to the right).

Marda's blond moment

Through the wonders of experimental hair nanites, Marda gets to have a blond moment (see the image to the left).

Feeding Nanites: see below.

Next: back into the nanite laboratory

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