Wombo Clones

Figure 1. The Demon Clones

 Back in 2017 I made a cover illustration for an imaginary book called "The Demon Clones" (see the image to the right). In this scene, imagine a storage facility for human embryos. When another clone is needed, the waiting embryos can be taken out of storage and allowed to complete development. I frequently have clones in my science fiction stories, including the Mosy Saga.

Since that book cover image has long been one of my favorites, I tried using it as a reference image for the Wombo Dream image-generating software. I started with this text prompt: "high resolution movie still of Alexina Lorna Graham in the film “The Demon Clones”, dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, narrow hips, long red hair, big hair, Alexina Lorna Graham standing beside an array of futuristic sparkling glass cloned embryo gestation containers, Alexina Lorna Graham is holding a laser magnetic resonance probe".

Two cloned soldiers?

 Wombo, we have a problem. It immediately became apparent that for some of the Wombo Dream styles such as "Dreamland v2", Mr. Wombo had a strong temptation to include Star Wars style clone troopers in the image (see the image to the left). This image is actually a manually contrived composite in which I altered the face masks of the two "clone troopers". This illustrates one of the constant annoyances of working with Mr. Wombo; the software is going to endlessly recreate copies of whatever images are in its training set, regardless of what users actually ask for.

In the cloning laboratory.

I changed my text prompt to: "high resolution movie still of Alexina Lorna Graham examining glass containers, dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, narrow hips, long red hair, big hair, Alexina Lorna Graham standing beside an array of futuristic sparkling glass cloned embryo gestation containers, Alexina Lorna Graham is holding a laser magnetic resonance probe". Now Mr. Wombo was able to use the "Dreamland v2" style to produce images such as the one that is shown to the right. This is also a composite of two images which I constructed in order to hide a third hand that Mr. Wombo had inserted into this scene.

Figure 2. Composite of images
that were generated by
DALL-E and Wombo Dream

 Team Work. The image shown to the left is a manually crafted composite image. The embryo image originated from DALL-E. Initially, when I asked DALL-E to generate an image of a five month human embryo, the software refused, claiming that such an image would violate their content policy. 

Mr Wombo's embryo.

 Embryos. I made my text prompt more detailed: "high resolution medical embryology textbook image of a six months of gestation human embryo" and that was accepted.

 Grasping at straws. The image to the right shows what Mr. Wombo created for that text prompt. I've seen no evidence that Wombo Dream can make an image of a human embryo. Maybe the cuddly toy that the baby is holding is actually modeled on an alien embryo.

An embryo by DALL-E.

 And the winner is: DALL-E. The image of an embryo that is shown to the left was generated by DALL-E. I wonder what the floating red blobs are in this image?

"Embryos" by Mr. Wombo.

I pasted four copies of that embryo into a reference image (see Figure 2, above) and provided that to Mr. Wombo, but he only made images such as the one shown to the right. In many of the images that were generated from this reference image (Figure 2), Mr. Wombo preferred to give her an extra finger and usually forgot about trying to include a thumb.

In the laboratory.

 Where is the glass?
Mr. Wombo was quite confused by this scene (Figure 1) and only rarely created any glass embryo containers like the ones in Figure 1. Mr. Wombo typically created images such as the one that is shown to the left while using the image in Figure 1 as a reference.

Figure 3. Compare to Figure 1.

Shown to the right is a new manually-assembled cover image for The Demon Clones. This book cover was assembled from the image that is shown in Figure 2, above. When I compare Figure 1 (above) to the image shown to the right, I'm not very pleased with my attempt to use AI-generated images to improve on the original.

Mr. Wombo's alien embryos.

 Alien Embryos. I tried zooming in and tested if that might help Mr. Wombo generate a human embryo. Maybe Mr. Wombo is generating alien embryos (see the image to the left).

Cover by Mr. Wombo.

The image to the right shows the best that Mr. Wombo could do using Figure 3 as a reference image and this text prompt: "Book cover for "Clones", Alexina Lorna Graham is near glass containers, skinny legs, dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, narrow hips, long red hair, big hair, Alexina Lorna Graham standing beside an array of futuristic sparkling glass cloned embryo gestation containers, Alexina Lorna Graham is reaching to hold an embryo".

adult clones

 Bad Fingers. Much more common were images such as the one shown to the left which has no embryos, only adult figures that are presumably Mr. Wombo's idea of clones. I made no effort to fix the fingers in these cover images by Mr. Wombo.

Cloned heads?

One of the stranger images that Mr. Wombo produced while using Figure 3 as a reference image is shown to the right. This image also illustrates how Mr. Wombo often tried to provide her with three arms.

more floating heads

 Head Collection.
Another similar cover image is shown to the left. Both of these "floating head" images were generated by Mr. Wombo using the "Nightly v2" style. In this case, one of her arms was seeming transformed into glass balls.

LMR probe

 LMR Probe. While I was asking Mr. Wombo to show her holding "a laser magnetic resonance probe", some of the AI-generated images had her holding interesting objects (see the image to the right). 

cute little clones

Another popular way for Mr. Wombo to generate "clones" was to turn this research laboratory setting into some kind of toy store (see the image to the left).

The Replicoid workshop?

Some of the images generated by Mr. Wombo that had "dolls" or miniature clones started me thinking about Replicoids (see the image to the right). I'm not sure what Mr. Wombo had in mind for the two small figures on the shelf... is one a robot?

Hair Nanite Bottle.

 Big Hair. I relaxed the stringency with which Mr. Wombo had to follow my reference image and started getting images such as the ones shown to the right and to the left. I was asking for long hair, and Mr. Wombo was into that. For the image to the left, maybe this is a hair nanite experiment. I like to think that she is holding a nanite containment bottle.

Clone tanks?

 Something Completely Different. Then, suddenly, Mr. Wombo completely abandoned efforts to adhere to the basic design of Figure 1 and produced the image to the right.

Chemistry laboratory.

 The right chemistry. From that point on, Mr. Wombo did generate a few images such as the one to the left in which she is seemingly continuing her work in the laboratory, but most of the images reverted to Mr. Wombo's default of just having cute women standing around looking cute.

Two belly-buttons.

 Dressed for success. In the image to the right, Mr. Wombo continued to let the red spread across the laboratory walls and seemingly the software had trouble keeping track of where her hair ended. I was impressed by her glowing clothing, so maybe there are both hair and clothing nanites at work here. Also, I was impressed by her ribs and the two belly-buttons.

Scotty: "Its Green."

 Postage stamps. I was also impressed by Mr. Wombo's efforts to make versions of this scene in which she was wearing as little as possible. In the image to the left, maybe the glowing green tag is her laboratory ID badge and security pass.

The pill supply closet.

 Pill Supply. Maybe any cloning research laboratory needs a good supply of brightly colored pills. Mr. Wombo went on a kick of creating pill bottles (see the image to the right). Maybe there is a specific nanite-pill for each of her hair styles?

Pill dispensers.

 Cold Room. The image to the left shows another variant scene in which Mr. Wombo could explore his infatuation with pills. I'm not sure how Mr. Wombo decides to suddenly switch the amount of clothing that is provided for these scenes. Maybe our red-haired cloning researcher had to step into a cold room where some of the pills are stored at low temperature.

Leather shortage.

 Dressing down. I believe that the image to the right shows Mr. Wombo's least-dressed lab worker. I suppose she could be wearing flesh-colored pants, but that's not what I want to believe.

Figure 4. Clones on ice.

 Snow. While being forced by me to keep trying to generate images of embryos inside glass containers, Mr. Wombo seemed to be trying to generate every possible type of glass container for which there was an image in its training set. In the image to the left, we finally got a snow-globe. This image was generated by the Wombo Dream "Retro Sci-Fi v2" style.

The image in Figure 4 is quite far from what I set out to have Mr. Wombo generate. But, what do I know? Maybe clone embryos are kept frozen until they are ready to be used. Look closely, does that look like an embryo in the snow-globe?

Figure 5. clones of Jheral Tinzy

  Notes on the Psychology of Jheral Tinzy. In 2017 I also created the composite image that is shown to the right, which is another imaginary book cover. Jheral was cloned by Demon Prince Viole Falushe (see Jack Vance's novel The Palace of Love).

Mr. Wombo likes heels.

The image shown to the left was generated by Mr. Wombo using silhouette as a reference image and the following text prompt: "high resolution book cover showing Megan Fox, Megan Fox has skinny arms and legs, Megan Fox is dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, narrow hips, long black hair, in the background sky there is a male figure silhouetted on the Moon". This image illustrates the kinds of "errors" that Mr. Wombo is susceptible to such as turning the book into a second moon.

Figure 6. New cover by Wombo.

 Recursion. I modified the text prompt to include mention of the futuristic house that is in the background and the recursive presence of a book cover embedded inside this book cover; "high resolution book cover showing Megan Fox outside a futuristic dwelling, Megan Fox has skinny arms and legs, Megan Fox is dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, narrow hips, long black hair, in the background sky there is a male figure silhouetted on the Moon, on this book cover is the image of another book". I also manually inserted the book title and three clones of Jheral Tinzy into the background of the image that Mr. Wombo generated. Initially, Mr. Wombo had placed a human figure in the lower left part of the image and I went with it, adding what I imagine to be additional clones of Jheral Tinzy.

Something is missing.

 Three clones. I zoomed in on the lower left part of Figure 6 and had Mr. Wombo create a new scene featuring three clones. Mr. Wombo started making some images such as the one shown to the left. I really dislike how Mr. Wombo makes human figures that look like statues... standing there doing nothing. Text prompt: "high resolution science fiction movie still showing triplets using laboratory instruments, three clones of Megan Fox inside a futuristic laboratory, the triplets have skinny arms and legs, the triplets are dressed Victoria's Secret style, tall and slim, slim hips, long black hair, fractal complex biology laboratory equipment, sparkling laser light".

Figure 7. Clones:
the next generation.

In The Palace of Love, Jack Vance had two generations of Jherals, the original and her clones. I wanted to try including some young clones in this scene... the next generation. I imagine that the image to the right depicts three older clones who are helping to raise a new generation of clones. Two baby clones are on the tables, wrapped in green blankets for this medical check-up. I wish there was some diversity in the clothing that the three older Jheral clones are wearing in this scene, but Mr. Wombo had other ideas, dressing them all in the same clothing.

Mr. Wombo's clone heads.

 In the cloning laboratory. When used Figure 7 as a reference image, Mr. Wombo began making images in which there were heads attached to Hi Tek™ equipment. Also, Mr. Wombo tossed in a clone child walking through this laboratory scene.

Mr. Wombo's lack of skill at generating images of reclining human figures led to a rather bizarre scene that I never would have imagined on my own (the image to the left).

Figure 8. What is a femtobot?

 2016 Cover. One of my favorite imaginary science fiction book covers from 2017 is shown to the right (Figure 8). How can you visually depict something like a femtobot that is too small to see? For my cover image, I gave up on trying to depict a tiny femtobot and made a large, mysterious device with tentacle-like appendages.

Mr. Wombo's cover.

One of the images generated Mr. Wombo for this scene is shown to the left. This is a composite with pieces from several AI-generated images, but illustrates how many Wombo Dream styles such as "Dreamland v2" were unable to provide the running woman with a visible right arm as it was shown in the reference image (Figure 8). This image also shows that Mr. Wombo can "read" large print in a reference image and do a fairly good job of copying text, but not if the font size is too small. I was intrigued by the idea of putting a tiny woman inside the femtobot (an innovation by Mr. Wombo that I would not have thought of), which gets us thinking about the size scale of femtobots.

Figure 9. Sand-worms and cyborgs.

The image to the right shows that Mr. Wombo sometimes wanted to generate images of sand-worms and cyborgs. Text prompt: "high resolution book cover showing a cute fitness model running in the desert, dressed Victoria's Secret style, a fractal complex robotic device with many tentacles, desert landscape in the background, tall and slim, slim hips, long hair". The only modification I made to the image shown to the right was to improve the appearance of her head.

Eye protection.

Mr. Wombo also seems to prefer that runners in a desert be wearing sunglasses. I'm not sure that Mr. Wombo was concerned with trying to provide conventional running clothes for the ladies in this scene.

Run the other way.

In some cases (as shown in the image to the right), Mr. Wombo entirely flipped the scene and generated images in which the runner was running in the opposite direction from what was in the reference image (Figure 8).

Desert robes and fog.

Sometimes Mr. Wombo seemed to want to maximize the exposure of skin, but for other images it was the opposite. In the image to the left, Mr. Wombo was into some sort of desert robe, which I think Jack Vance would have approved of for his desert dwellers of the planet Dar Sai. Unfortunately, sometimes Mr. Wombo just went into a fog and could not be bothered to generate images of desert plants.

A shade of Dar Sai?

In Jack Vance's novel The Face, he depicted desert communities on Dar Sai where the people lived in communities called "shades". I can almost imagine that Mr. Wombo decided to depict a shade of Dar Sai in the image to the right. This image, along with Figure 9, both hint at Mr. Wombo's penchant for converting human figures into cyborgs anytime that robots are mentioned.

Mechanical running legs.

 Cyborgs of Dar Sai. The image to the left shows an example of where Mr. Wombo decided that for runs across the desert there might be an advantage to having mechanical legs. The image to the left is shown unaltered from  how it was generated by Mr. Wombo. I like the "O" that was seemingly transformed into a planet and the second femtobot and human figure in the distance.

Figure 10. Grab hold.

In some cases, Mr. Wombo generated images for this scene in which the femtobot seemed to be reaching out to grab the running woman. For the image shown to the right, the only adjustment I made was to re-generate a better face for the woman. In this image, Mr. Wombo included enough detail so that we can see that she is in an area with sand, not ground fog.

In my next blog post, I show some more of the variants on this femtobot scene that were generated by the Wombo Dream software, including some very large robotic devices, some cyborgs and some alien creatures that look like human-alien hybrids. 

Reference. Endosymbionts in Time.

 One More Oldie. However, for the rest of this blog post, I'm going to switch away from the planet Dar Dai and use Mr. Wombo to make some new versions of the old illustration that is shown to the left (see this 2015 blog post). I was never happy with this depiction of a humanoid with large eyes. Can Mr. Wombo do any better?

Crystal Dream by Mr. Wombo.

 Yean Ferle. The image shown to the right illustrates the fact that Mr. Wombo is very set in his ways when it comes to making human faces. When provided with my big-eyed reference image, Mr. Wombo failed to take the hint. Text prompt: "high resolution movie still of Meg Ryan holding gems in her small hands, Meg Ryan is very tall and slim, narrow waist, slim hips, skinny arms, Meg Ryan is dressed Victoria's Secret style, big fluffy hair, long red hair, Megan Fox is twenty five years old, Meg Ryan is holding two fractal complex sparkling crystals, NASA star-field in the background".

Mr. Wombo wants shoulder fur.

 Mr. Wombo likes fur. The image shown to the left also had small eyes, but illustrates the fact that Mr. Wombo could sometimes create an image in which she had a bare belly, as in the reference image (above). Don't ask me to explain the white fur on her shoulders.

Endosymbionts of M. Geet Sere.

 The Endosymbionts of Mescat. By using this text prompt, "high resolution movie still of Meg Ryan as a humanoid alien in the film "Pointy Teeth", Meg Ryan has pointed teeth, Meg Ryan has long white teeth, very big eyes, huge eyes, giant eyes, Meg Ryan is dressed Victoria's Secret style, big fluffy hair, long blond hair, Meg Ryan is twenty five years old", I was able to convince Mr. Wombo to make larger eyes. I could not get the pointy teeth in an AI-generated image so I had to manually insert them into the image that is shown to the right.

Mr. Wombo's humanoid aliens.

 Endosymbiont Surprise. When I turned Mr. Wombo loose with this scene I got surprising images such as the one that is shown to the left. More of these "endosymbiont variants" are shown at the bottom of this blog post.

For the image to the left, I manually inserted the text. For one of the images shown below, Mr. Wombo tried to insert a title on the book cover, but for most such images he did not bother with that.

In the original reference image, she was holding crystals. For the images below where she is holding heads, I manually inserted them after collecting them from other images that were made with the same text prompt and reference image.

Next: Megabots of Rar Sat.

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