Oct 22, 2023

Megabots of Rar Sat

Megabot by Wombo Dream
 In this blog post, I continue having fun with Wombo Dream as I try to use AI-generated images as illustrations for my science fiction stories. For the image to the right, I used this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of a giant alien robot above Meg Ryan, Meg Ryan is dressed Victoria's Secret style, big fluffy hair, long blond hair, Meg Ryan is twenty five years old, Meg Ryan is running through the desert, desert landscape and ominous clouds in the background" and a reference image that you can probably spot, below on this page (Rar Sat).

In addition to completing my exploration of the femtobots of the fictional exoplanet Dar Sai that I began in my previous blog post, I'm going to use the new "Horror v3" style for Wombo Dream to create a Halloween-themed image. The image shown to the right was generated by using the "Horror v3" style.

Figure 11. Mr. Wombo's bigger bot.
 Mega-Bots. In some cases, Mr. Wombo super-sized the femtobots, as for the image to the left. Our intrepid runner is apparently going to continue running right between the legs of this formidable bot.

I imagine that John Vance, Joan Vance and Sam Jacky are all alternative names used by the analogues of Jack Vance in other Realities of Deep Time such as the Asimov Reality.

Alien life on Dar Sai.

In the image shown to the right, Mr. Wombo seemed to be of two minds with respect to how much skin it is wise to expose to the burning desert sun on Dar Sai. Also, Mr. Wombo seems to have reached a compromise, making both figures, the "femtobot" and the woman, seem to be part biological and part plasticoid armor.

Cactus runners of Rar Sat.

 Two Runners. In my original image (Figure 8 of my previous blog post) I was quite explicit about having some dramatic red-rock buttes in the background, but in some of the images that were generated by Mr. Wombo that aspect of the scene was forgotten (see Figure 11). 

 Flying femtobots. In some images, such as the one to the left, Mr. Wombo seemingly transformed the red-rock buttes into the kind of plant life that Mr. Wombo wanted to depict in this desert setting. Mr. Wombo also tended to want more than one runner in this scene, and often included in the scene a running trail or road. Usually Mr. Wombo preferred that the femtobot be standing on the ground rather than floating in mid-air. Yes, I wanted a flying femtobot back in 2017 when I had originally crafted the scene.

Cyborgs of planet Ear Seh.

For the next two images that are discussed here (starting with the one that is shown to the right), the images were only slightly modified by me from the original AI-generated images. For the image to the right, I had Mr. Wombo zoom in and enhance the smaller figure running in the background and the face of the other woman who is close to the camera. 

Two bots in the background.

For the image to the left, I had Mr. Wombo zoom in and re-generate a higher quality image for her upper body than what was in the original image. The multi-tentacled alien creature to the right seems firmly rooted in the sands of the planet Ear Seh. 

For the image to the left, Mr. Wombo included a pair of walking bots in the distance... maybe they are guarding the road or providing advice to the tourists who dare to venture out into the desert of planet Rer Sat. Mybe the planets Rer Sat and Rar Sat are two exoplanets that orbit the same star, much like the twin worlds Dar Sai and Methel in Jack Vance's novel The Face.

Play time on planet Rar Sat.

  The planet Rar Sat. Usually, Mr. Wombo does not do well when allowing two living figures to start to over-lap in a scene (see this example). When I made my femtobot reference image (see Figure 8 in my previous blog post) I was careful to not have the femtobot touching the woman. 

In some some of the AI-generated images (for example, see Figure 9) Mr. Wombo respected this separation, but in others (such as Figure 10) it began to look like there was some physical contact between the human figure in the scene and the femtobot. 

Another playful alien.

 Femtobots reach out. The only alteration that I made to Mr. Wombo's original image (shown to the right) was to have Mr. Wombo re-generate her face at a higher resolution. After Mr. Wombo made this AI-generated image, I then "zoomed in" on the woman and the probing tentacles of the "femtobot" (see the image to the left).

 Bye bye bot, hello alien octopus. Mr. Wombo was in a biological mood, so I used this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of a very young Megan Fox holding an alien octopus with fractal complex tentacles, Megan Fox is twenty five years old, Megan Fox has very large eyes, Megan Fox is dressed Victoria's Secret style, long black hair, big fluffy hair, Megan Fox is very tall and slim, narrow waist, slim hips, skinny arms".

Figure 12. Femtobot fun.

 Baby face. The image shown to the right has a very strange "alien octopus" that was generated by Mr. Wombo. This "octopus" looks like some strange alien-human hybrid, but I like to imagine that Replicoids made from femtobot components can take on any desired physical form. The image to the right is actually a composite image. The two Purple spider-like creatures were generated in a separate image from the one with the baby faced octopus.

Also notice that if Mr. Wombo is generating a scene with sand, he is likely to put an ocean into the background of the image (see the section of this blog post, below, that is called "On exoplanet shores".

Alien sex toys.

Maybe the planet Rar Sat is a popular tourist destination where the native femtobots are programmed to entertain tourists, something like the planet depicted in the Star Trek episode "Shore Leave", but updated with modern concepts of nanotechnology.

 NSFW. For the image to the left, I manually added a bare breast to the original AI-generated image. The Wombo Dream image generating algorithm has been carefully programmed to block images of nipples. Scroll down to the end of this blog post to see some of the extremely rare AI-generated nipples that I was able to "trick" Mr. Wombo into generating (for example, Figure 13, below in this blog post). I also manually added that tickling tentacle that is going up between her legs.

Worms of planet Ftet Seeit.
 Sand worm movie poster. When I relaxed the extent to which Wombo Dream was to follow my reference image, Mr. Wombo went in some interesting directions. For the AI-generated image that is shown to the right, Mr. Wombo seemed to go all out to create a movie poster for a film about sand worms.

Don't ask me to explain...

 Figure 11 (above on this page) provides one example of a big bot that was generated by Mr. Wombo. The figure to the left has another type of big bot. This a composite image of a very tall bot and part of another image that I cut and pasted so as to insert a human figure between the legs of the big bot. 

 Lack of color. The original giant silver bot image had an empty stretch of road below the bot. Feeling the need for some color in this scene, I manually inserted another AI-generated image, a woman standing on some sort of alien creature with purple tentacles.

The four-arm cyborg, Jocra.
 Four arms are better than two. While Mr. Wombo was in his giant silver bot mode, he also generated the vary tall cyborg with four arms that is shown in the image to the right. For more about Mr. Wombo's tendency to create people with four arms, see this blog post.

Radial cyborg.
 Cyborgian Radialis. One of the stranger femtobots that was generated by Mr. Wombo is shown to the left. After Wombo Dream generated its first version of this cyborg, I used that image as a reference with this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of an alien cyborg with copper skin and a human face".

Fempobot of planet Dak Sai.
 More alien probes. In the image to the right, Mr. Wombo seemed to be trying to illustrate a mechanical sand worm that is taking a special interest in this young lady. The original AI-generated image had an intriguing gap in the cloth of her pants and so I went with that and inserted into the image a delicate tentacle that is reaching out to probe between her legs.

Desert welcome.

 Messenger arms of planet Dak Sai. The image to the left is unaltered from the raw image that was generated by Mr. Wombo. I was tempted to alter the book she is carrying so as to include a title (in English) such as "The Field Guide to Alien-Human Relations". 

In one of Jack Vance's stories (The Book of Dreams) he described an alien creature that has: "...a messenger arm sixty feet long... and then what happens, who knows? Devil a soul has come back to tell."

Alien adventures.
 She's into it. It is fun when images of book covers start showing up in the scenes that I am creating while I try to use image-generating software to help me make an imaginary book cover. Mr. Wombo did provide one particularly good view of a book about aliens (see the image to the right) that I could not resist enhancing by means of a manual edit of the original AI-generated book. For this image, I manually added the title of the book in red letters.

Alien house of play.
 The alien play house. For the image to the left, I did not alter the alien writing on the book cover. In Jack Vance's novel Araminta Station, he featured a strange island culture where the residents attracted interplanetary tourists to their PALACE OF HAPPY PLAY. Maybe "palace of happy play" is what is written on her book cover in an alien script. The image that is shown to the left is a composite. The alien toes down there in the shadows were in one AI-generated image while the arching alien dwellings were originally in another image. Also, I pasted the alien eyes onto the tentacle (upper left in the image); the eyes were from another AI-generated image.

Fresh from the sea.
 On exoplanet shores. The image that is shown to the right is one of the rare AI-generated images where Mr. Wombo actually tried to show the hand that is holding the alien creature. Mr. Wombo often has problems dealing with human anatomical structures such as the hand (see examples here).

Alien femtobot using a human facial form.

Jack Vance sometimes imagined alien creatures (even insects!) with strangely human faces. Mr. Wombo occasionally made some alien femtobot-inspired creatures with humanoid faces (see Figure 12, above). The image to the left is another such creature which I imagine can take on human form when meeting a human.

Old book cover image from 2015.
 More Aliens. Back in 2015 I made a book cover for the Aquarius Trilogy. That image used a green alien humanoid that I found on the internet. The Fomalhaut star system is mentioned by Jack Vance in his Demon Princes stories as a place in the galaxy where there are ancient alien ruins on the planets. I wanted to see if Mr. Wombo could make a better version of that green alien from the Fomalhaut system.

New cover by Mr. Wombo.
 Green Alien. The AI-generated image to the left by Mr. Wombo abandoned the idea of including in the scene a planet as seen from outer space, but I did not mind the shift to s dramatic stratovolcano in the background. I manually added in the ferns in the lower left corner in order to cover up some fern-like plants that were AI-generated by Mr. Wombo and over-printed with AI-generated gibberish text.

Alternate alien.
 Less Green. For the image to the right, Mr. Wombo did not provide quite as much green pigment in the alien's skin. Here, I left the AI-generated alien text at the top of this imaginary book cover and once again pasted some images of Earthly plants into the lower left corner in order to hide more of the AI-generated gibberish text.

Hi Tek alien equipment.
 Hi Tek Utility Belt. I liked the alien technology that Mr. Wombo generated for the image that is shown to the left. For these images I was using this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of Megan Fox in the role of a tall green humanoid alien seen in profile view, Megan Fox the alien has a head like an otter with a human face, Megan Fox the alien is holding a glowing laser nugget, dressed Victoria's Secret style, an fractal complex alien plant in front of Megan Fox, an ocean in the background".

Alien otter.
 SEXO chango. Since I mentioned "otter" in my text prompt, it was inevitable that Mr. Wombo added an alien otter-like creature to about 15% of the images that were generated. For the image to the right, the otter-like creature is not obviously green.

Green alien otter.
 I'm not a fan of the helmet. Mr. Wombo really likes helmets. In the image to the left, the alien otter was right in her face and was mostly green. About half of the AI-generated images failed to show a human face on the alien woman. In the image to the left, it looks like there are two arms hanging down in front of her... or maybe those are alien otter legs?

Red nanite cloud?
 Alien Nanotechnology. I liked the image that is shown to the right because Mr. Wombo seemed to turn the bright light into an alien atmosphere-sucking device. Alternatively, maybe the swirling red is meant to represent a swarm of nanites. In this case, all of the plants in the scene were generated by Mr. Wombo.

What's for lunch? An egg with eyes?
 Let's Eat. In some of these AI-generated images, the alien was holding an object close to her face. For the image shown to the left, I wonder if she is about to eat an alien delicacy... an egg-like creature with eyes.

Feeding nanites?
The image to the right might be a depiction of alien feeding nanites. This image illustrates a common problem; often Mr. Wombo would not make all of the alien's skin the same shade. But, who knows... maybe her skin is all pink and she simple wears a green exoskeleton.

An alien Halloween.

 Halloween Fun. In the image that is shown to the left, the alien food that she is eating was originally green. Mention green in the text prompt, and Mr. Wombo will most likely make most of the objects in the scene be green. I changed the food to a red color because I was thinking about Earthly candied apples, which were part of my childhood Halloweens. I had DALL-E generate the pumpkin with this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of an alien pumpkin".

No apple for you.
I used the image to the left as a reference with this text prompt, "high resolution book cover showing a woman with green skin eating a red candied apple, dressed Victoria's Secret style, a fractal complex alien jack-o-lantern with many teeth, jungle landscape in the background, tall and slim, slim hips, long green hair", and the Wombo Dream "Horror v3" style. It quickly became obvious that Mr. Wombo did not know what a candied apple is. Mr. Wombo turned her tongue into the stem of a pumpkin (see the image to the right). The image to the right is a composite image. Originally, Mr. Wombo generated a small blue object that I imagined might be a suitable reference for a "goblin with blue skin", so I zoomed in on that and had Mr. Wombo generate an actual goblin head which I then pasted back into the original image.

An alien holiday.
 Pumpkin spice. If Mr. Wombo wanted the green alien to be eating a pumpkin then I was willing go along with that. For the image that is shown to the left, I had Mr. Wombo generate, "an orange pumpkin monster with green arms and legs, very long vine-like arms and legs, the monster is seen in profile view". In my imagination, the green alien is generating the pumpkin monster from nanites that are similar to hair and clothing nanites.

Alien device.

 Beyond Halloween. For some renderings of this scene, Mr. Wombo had the alien holding an alien device. In the image to the right there are several objects there below her hand, 1) a gently-curved object, 2) the core linear object and 3) a strange hand-like object. Is there a fourth? I suppose we'd have to ask the author of this book, Liack Vange.

 Fomalbont. I manually added a pair of bare alien breasts to this image.

Ready for battle or
just staying warm?

 Laser Nuggets. In the image shown to the left, I can't stop myself from thinking that Mr. Wombo was equipping her for battle with a helmet and a blaster rifle.

Mr. Wombo generated many types of glowing objects for these scenes. I never tried to explain what a "laser nugget" might be, allowing Mr. Wombo to generate a wide range of variations on a theme.

Crystal sphere.
The glowing crystal globe in the image to the right was one of my favorites. For this image, I had Mr. Wombo refine the alien's face with this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of Meg Ryan as a green alien with a pretty face, Meg Ryan has pointed ears, Meg Ryan has green skin, very big eyes, huge eyes, giant alien eyes, Meg Ryan is dressed Victoria's Secret style, Meg Ryan is twenty five years old, wearing a fractal complex silver metal collar". After the image was generated, I converted what was a flaring silver collar and some hair at the back of the alien's neck into green shades.

Alien pet carrier.
The most amusing image for which Mr. Wombo tried to include an otter-like alien is shown to the left. I guess this is a Hi Tek alien pet carrier for people who travel with their pet otter.

Alien sculpture.
 Alien sculpture. I'm not sure what kinds of ruins Jack Vance imagined might be found on the planets of the Fomalhaut system. Maybe some were megalithic sculptures. The image to the right is a composite of three AI-generated images; 1) one image for her head, 2) another image for her lower body and 3) a third image for the "alien sculpture". Maybe that is an alien cat or similar beast that has been honored by the creation of a giant statue. For this image, I had to slightly repair the "J" in "Jack", otherwise Mr. Wombo got the name right.

Alien mega-structure.
 A Femathout. The image shown to the left is another composite. I combined two AI-generated images (one for the top and one for the bottom of the image) and again had to repair the "J" in "Jack". I like how Mr. Wombo shifted the light source into the distance. Also, there seems to be a tiny planet in the sky for this image, a token gesture by Mr. Wombo towards the original reference image.

Alien bot on the beach.
For the image that is shown to the right, Mr. Wombo included what looks like a robot on the beach in the background. I liked this image because of the two ray guns (or whatever they are). Once again this is a composite image, modified so as to provide a more biological face for the alien.

Sparkling alien.
Shown to the left is one more of these green aliens that was generated by Mr. Wombo and which I show here simply because I like the look of this scene. I like how Mr. Wombo seemed to make this alien sparkle. I can imagine that Mr. Wombo tried to show her right hand holding the glowing object. I wonder if that is some enormous mega-structure on the horizon in the background of this scene.

Human variant with big ears.
 Human Variants. Most of the "aliens" in the Exode Saga are actually human variants that are quite close in appearance to Earthlings. The image shown to the right has quite big ears that were generated by Mr. Wombo and skin that is just lightly tinged green. When I zoomed in on the alien and began making the AI-generated images less dependent on my reference images, Mr. Wombo seemed to shift the indoor scenes; I imagine those are red drapes in the background of this scene.

a green plastic alien
Many of the green aliens that Mr. Wombo generated looked like they were made out of plastic. Mr. Wombo liked the idea of putting what looks like an eye on the side of the head (see the image to the left).

Aliens of the Fomalhaut system.
 Aliens in Space. For the image that is shown to the right, Mr. Wombo suddenly seemed to remember that my original reference image was a depiction of an out-doors scene. I was amused by the planets and green stars in the image to the right. I prefer the aliens with hair, not the bald aliens.

Even a green planet!
 Jug handle ears. Some of Mr. Wombo's bald, plastic aliens were quite alien in appearance. For the image that is shown to the left, we even got what looks like a small green planet drifting through the sceen.

Highly decorated alien.
 Ferengi Rules of Decoration. For some of the AI-generated images, Mr. Wombo really went to an extreme with jewelry and decorations on the alien. In the image that is shown to the right, the intricacies of the decorations are impressive. Rather than put an eye on the side of the alien''s head, we get a large blue gem.

 First Contact - Telepathy Style. Rarely, Mr. Wombo tried to insert a human figure into some of these AI-generated images of aliens.

First Contact.

For the image shown to the left, there is an Earthling in the background. I'm not sure why Mr. Wombo decorated her with the white "crown" or tiara or whatever it is. Maybe that is a device for tuning in to the alien's telepathic communications. 

In the original version of this AI-generated image, the human figure's face was very blurry. I had Mr. Wombo zoom in on her and regenerate a less blurry image, otherwise this and the last four images (above) were not altered by me.

Blue alien.
The Wombo Dream "Retro Sci-Fi v2" style generated the blue alien that is shown to the right. Using the "Retro Sci-Fi v2" style, Mr. Wombo was more willing to sprinkle in planets and even a moon. Once again, Mr. Wombo show off his infatuation with helmets.

Anti-gravity clothing nanites.

 Bare breasts, no nipples. When making his green plastic aliens, Mr. Wombo did not seem to have his usual restraints in generating bare breasts, although he could never generate a green plastic nipple. Maybe the aliens of the Fomalhaut system long ago discovered how to put anti-gravity nanites into clothing. The image to the left is a composite. You can see that the green of her face and neck do not match the green shade of the rest of her body. The original face had a strange two-tone coloring with the jaw area seemingly its own chunk of a plastic construct, so I swapped in another, more biological head that Mr. Wombo had generated.

Hang on for dear...
 More alien creatures. When I allowed Mr. Wombo to explore nearby portions of the "alien octopus" image state space (Figure 12, above), he started making images such as the one shown to the right. This scene, with a purple alien creature clinging to her chest, seemed to confound the Wombo Dream NSFW filter and, as shown below, actually allowed Mr. Wombo to "mistakenly" generate some images of nipples.

Figure 13. Tug of war...
 The long, winding road from femtobots to nipples. As shown in the image to the left, the close proximity of an alien creature to her breasts seems to allow Mr. Wombo to generate what look like nipples, although the artificial intelligence may have simply been interpreting them as the decorative spots of an alien creature. Text prompt: "high resolution movie still of a very young Megan Fox holding an alien octopus with fractal complex tentacles, Megan Fox is twenty five years old, Megan Fox is covered by many tentacles, Megan Fox is dressed Victoria's Secret style, long black hair, big fluffy hair, Megan Fox is very tall and slim, narrow waist, slim hips, skinny arms".

Old green eyes.
Alien companions.
When I had Mr. Wombo zoom in on Figure 13 as a reference, the "Gloomy" style was able to generate images such as the ones that are shown to the right and to the left. What had looked like alien appendages on her breasts (in Figure 13) now look like colorful bands of clothing after zooming in. I suppose Mr. Wombo might have been imagining that these nipples are part of the alien octopus and so let them get past the Wombo Dream NSFW filter protocol.

Next: the search for a flying femtobot.

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