Crystal Dreams

crystal creature

I've been experimenting with the WOMBO Dream cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software as a way to make illustrations for my science fiction stories. The image to the right shows Mr. Wombo's depiction of a "sparkling crystal creature".

Figure 1. crystal Tyhry

I also asked for a "crystal Tyhry" and got the image shown to the left. Mr. Wombo's neural networks were given their weights from millions of images, mostly 512 x 512 pixel images, so it is quite common for Mr. Wombo to stack to heads one above the other as shown here (Figure 1).

I took the upper crystal Tyhry head from Figure 1 and put it on the crystal creature's body (see below, Figure 2).

Figure 2. crystal Tyhry creature

The resulting image (Figure 2) is shown to the right. My goal was to find a way to get Mr. Wombo to make an entirely crystalline replica of Tyhry.

sparkling "crystal" Tyhry

Using Figure 2 as a reference image, I asked Mr Wombo to make a crystalline version of Tyhry. The WOMBO Dream software generated images like the one shown to the left. Just when I wanted Tyhry to be completely composed of crystal, Mr. Wombo seemed determined to show a lot of Tyhry's skin. All the crystals on her shoulder was about as far as Mr. Wombo wanted to go in making a crystalline Tyhry.

Tyhry's diamond dress

I then started asking for images of: "a statue made of diamond, sparkling diamonds". Mr. Wombo made images like the one shown to the right.

dark crystal dress

I was intrigued by the crystalline dress shown to the left, but I really wanted was an image that depicted all of Tyhry's body as being composed of crystal, not only her clothing. I became curious about the ability of Mr. Wombo to make depictions of statues.

a Tyhry statue

Working with no reference image, I asked Mr. Wombo to generate "a statue made of translucent diamond, skin and hair made of sparkling diamonds, fractal complex physics research laboratory background". An example of the results generated by the "Buliojourney v2" style of WOMBO Dream is shown to the right.

Tyhry in the nanite lab

The WOMBO Dream "VFX v2" style preferred to generate "diamond statue" images like the one shown to the left in which the skin of the statue remained more life-like. The living Tyhry in the yellow blouse was generated separately by Mr. Wombo and added into the statue image.

also generated by the VFX "style"

Using the "VFX v2" style, Mr. Wombo also created the image shown to the right. Most of the time these images did not have the kind of "physics research laboratory" background that I was expecting, but the image to the right seemed fitting for a nanite laboratory.

Alastor Cluster museum

Using the "spectral style", Mr. Wombo created an interesting statue of an alien (see the image to the left) that I can imagine being in a museum of a planet in Alastor Cluster. When Tyhry and Marda reach Alastor Cluster, they try to obtain advanced nanotechnology from aliens. 

soft touch style alien

I also had Mr. Wombo try the "soft touch" style and that resulted in the "statue" with the long white dress that is shown in the image to the right. I modified the "statue" to make it look like an alien and I also added Tyhry and Marda from separate images that were also generated by Mr. Wombo.

"blues v2" style

I was quite impressed by the various images that Mr. Wombo could produce when using the "blues v2" style. For some reason, Mr. Wombo began producing "statues" with four arms such as the one shown to the left.

diamond statues

A series of these "statue" images is show in the animated GIF to the right. You can see that some of the "statues" had two heads and there was a large amount of variety in the backgrounds used by Mr. Wombo.

Tyhry by the window

 Transparent. I wanted to experiment with transparent objects so I asked Mr. Wombo for an image of Tyhry, "leaning against a transparent window, laser physics laboratory, a fractal complex network of laser beams in the background".

Figure 3. radiating nanites behind glass

I changed the text prompt to: "going behind a transparent window, laser physics laboratory, a fractal complex network of laser beams in the background" (see the image to the right).

Figure 4. dangerous nanites

I had Mr. Wombo make a slightly altered version of Figure 3. In Figure 4, there is a warning sign in the nanite laboratory.

leaning on the glass?

 More Glass. Using the VFX style, Mr. Wombo crafted another image that had Tyhry "leaning against the glass" (see the image to the right). Using that as a reference image, the WOMBO Dream software was able to sometimes "inpaint" and extrapolate the part of Tyhry's body that was behind the glass.

behind foggy glass

One such image is shown to the left. Mr. Wombo knows how to alter objects so as to make them transparent and also knows how to put other objects behind a sheet of glass, but he is averse to putting Tyhry completely behind a window.

Fig 4. Crystalline replicoid copy

 Figure 4 shows a transparent replicoid copy of Tyhry. The nanite network background was generated in a separate image. This "full body transparency" was only achieved with Photoshop. 😕

Figure 5. Making a replicoid.

Mr. Wombo also made some versions of this scene in which the replicoid's body was just beginning to form (see Figure 5). When Tyhry learns how to start to use advanced nanotechnology from Alastor Cluster to make replicoids, that is probably going to force Manny to put some restrictions on Tyhry's nanite research.

ghostly replicoid

The image to the right shows Tyhry with her replicoid at an early stage of assembly. This image was generated by having Mister Wombo first create a transparent glass panel. Eventually, the Stable Diffusion algorithm inserted a face into the random pattern of the transparent glass surface.

Tyhry and the "glass pane"

 Tyhry in the Nanite Laboratory. The original "glass pane" is shown to the left. I can imagine that these are clothing nanites, but eventually Tyhry is able to craft her nanites into a replicoid.

Figure 6. Asterothrope replicoid.

 Asterothropes. One of the "crystal statue" images made by Mr. Wombo turned into an illustration of an Asterothrope replicoid experiment. I gave Mr. Wombo Figure 6 as a reference image and this text prompt: "science fiction movie poster, the film is called "The Asterothrope Replicoid Experiments", Asterothropes are a human variant with four mammary glands".

Figure 7. Asterothropes?

The resulting image of Astrothropes that was produced by Mr. Wombo is shown in Figure 7. Any time that Mr. Wombo is told "science fiction movie" he wants to insert a battle helmet.

Figure 8. Asterothropes Flora style

Using the "Flora v2" style, Mr. Wombo even managed to make some images of human variants that had more than two breasts (see Figure 8). I guess Mr. Wombo decided that if four breasts were good, why not try 5 or 6? Sometimes Flora wanted to substitute planets for the Asterothrope breasts.

Figure 9. a crystalline woman

 Back to the World of Crystalline People. I gave Mr. Wombo this text prompt: "a painting of a human being who looks like a mineralized crystal, the person is made of transparent crystals like diamonds, emeralds and rubies" and got the image shown in Figure 9.

Figure 10. Tyhry is a gem.

Using the "VFX v2" style, Mr. Wombo was able to make some versions of Tyhry that hinted at the idea of her being composed of crystal (see Figure 10). To produce Figure 10, I began with Figure 9 as the reference image and my text prompt was: "see-through woman, transparent gemstone, skin and hair is made of transparent crystals like diamonds and rubies, her head is a crystal, fractal complex sparkling background".

Figure 11. crystalline hair

It was easier for Mr. Wombo to make crystalline hair than crystalline facial skin. I specified: "see-through woman, transparent gemstone, skin and hair is made of transparent crystals like diamonds and rubies, her head is a crystal, fractal complex sparkling background". The resulting image is shown to the left in Figure 11.

Figure 12. pink face gem

When I specified that just the "skin is made of transparent crystals like diamonds and rubies" Mr. Wombo would only go as far as what is shown in Figure 12. Mr. Wombo will cover most of the hair and neck with crystals, but not her face.

Figure 13. transparent human

I asked for "a transparent sculpture of a human being that was carved from transparent crystals like diamonds, emeralds and rubies, fractal complex gemstone background" and got the image shown in Figure 13. However, it was still very difficult to get Mr. Wombo to make a more transparent face.

Figure 14. Tyhry in a bottle

I don't know why Mr. Wombo thought it makes sense to put this sculpture inside a glass container. Mr. Wombo wanted to make wax figures and put them under glass (see Figure 14).

crystalline hair and clothing

Using "a transparent sculpture of a woman that was carved from transparent crystals like diamonds and emeralds and rubies, transparent head, transparent skin, see-through face, gemstone background" with no reference image, I got nice crystalline hair, but a fleshy face (see the image to the left).

Figure 15. Tyhry crystallized

Using, Figure 13 as a reference image combined with the text prompt: "a transparent sculpture of a woman that was carved from transparent crystals like diamonds and emeralds and rubies, transparent head, transparent skin, see-through face, gemstone background", I could not get a more transparent face than what is shown in Figure 15. 

stacked

As usual, eventually it just makes sense to abandon the effort involved in twisting Mr. Wonbo's arm, throw up your hands and take the task to Photoshop. Mr. Wombo did his usual trick of trying to have two heads stacked one on top of the other (see the image to the left). 

reversal

The image to the right might be Tyhry and Marda both crystalized and usable as a paper weight. I was impressed that Mr. Wombo was able to spontaneously reverse the direction that the "sculpture" is facing.

left and right

And Mr. Wombo could mix it up, having Tyhry looking in one direction while Marda faces the other way (see the image to the left) or have them both look into the camera (below).

stack the heads

bottled torso

Two heads are better... 

The "spectral" style was used by Mr. Wombo to make the ultimate compact "head in a bottle image. This image really does look like a human head was sealed up inside glass, which might be a Sci Fi concept, but.... eew. (see Figure 15)

Figure 15. bottled head

The image to the left was for the extreme case of only showing the head. Originally, I was imagining that it might be possible to create an entire transparent replicoid from head to foot, bu Mr. Wombo prefers to avoid hands and feet.

The image to the right is an interesting attempt by Mr. Wombo to bottle Springtime.

nanite spacesuit

In the image to the left, Tyhry is using her nanite-generated spacesuit.

Flora v2 style

The image to the right shows Flora's environmental suit.

It was quite an adventure to collaborate with Mr. Wombo on creating images to illustrate a transparent replicoid. I learned some tricks for getting transparent human figures, but there is a real problem in this artificial intelligence that causes it to resist making human faces transparent.

nanite rejuvenation treatment

hair nanite experiment

Maybe the image to the left illustrates the use of nanites for a rejuvenation procedure.

I'll call the image to the right an experiment by Tyhry using her early hair nanites.

I put one more of these crystalline experiment images online at DeviantArt and you can see it there at the full size that is routinely generated by the free version of WOMBO Dream (960 x 1568 pixels).

Next: Reflecting on my AI collaborators.

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