Zero Two AI Art Deep Dive

The End Result of this Zero Two Journey

Hey there. If you've been following me on my socials, you probably noticed that I've been posting a lot of AI generated art recently. I've been pretty hooked on it and I'm pretty sure it's because my creativity and ingenuity (more on that later) are exercised on each session. For my art sessions, I am using Stable Diffusion to generate art. As a quick overview, Stable Diffusion is an open source AI program that will turn text to images. So if you write in, "girl walking through a flower field" in the prompt, the program will churn out an image of a girl walking though a flower field. BUT... because this is AI, the image will be very basic. The more details you add into the prompt, the more likely you'll get the image you want. I'm relatively new to this but I am amazed at how you tweak the text to morph the image until you get what you're looking for. So now that I've been doing this for the better part of 2 weeks, I've gotten pretty good at getting images that come pretty close to what I envision. Well... at least I think I so. lol Anyways, I won't bore you with the technical details of how I created the art in this post but I will give you the basics of what I did and why I did it. I'll provide you with what I added, removed, emphasized, and de-emphasized in the prompt to change up the image. So without any further delay, let's take a look at the journey and deep dive into the AI generated images that I went through to create this amazing image of Zero Two.

I was going for an image of Zero Two standing outside under a starry sky and full moon. After entering my prompts to set the art style, lighting, background, etc, etc.., these were the first two images I got. The first image Stable Diffusion churned out is of an attractive, pink, short haired anime girl with purple eyes.. not Zero Two... kinda, maybe, almost Zero Two, I guess... so I added the prompt, "white headband with 2 red horns," and, "long pink hair." The second image came SURPRISINGLY close to looking like Zero Two. It usually takes more than a few tries to get anywhere close to the character I'm shooting for so I was quite surprised here. Too bad that the image did not include the moon and the eyes are the wrong color. Eyes should be green. I added, "green eyes," to the prompt and get this.

The 3rd image has the right setting. The moon... starry sky... but Zero doesn't have her iconic plug suit on. So I added, "red plug suit," into the prompt and then AI did what AI tends to do... whatever it wants! I guess it didn't like that I wanted to change the outfit because the image generated looks like Zero Two is naked! lol Not only that, it reverted back to blue eyes... ugh. I went into the prompt and emphasized, "red plug suit," and, "green eyes." 

This one looks good. This one looks real good. Looks close enough to Zero Two but I am missing the red suit. I'm also noticing that the lighting looks a little off. Too bright, I guess. Added, "dark intense shadows," to the prompt and got next image. I guess AI decided to create shadows by increasing the bust size because Zero Two's chest size just tripled in size! Not what I'm looking for here but... I do like this profile look and lighting, though. But I need something in the background. Something to fit in with Zero Two's color scheme. In hopes of keeping this style, I added, "medium breasts," and, "red and pink electricity" to the prompt.

Ooooo... I really like this one... but that bust size!!! It's still too big for Zero Two. That chest size is really throwing off her proportions, but I am LOVING the lighting and the lightning effect. Good move there. And those eyes! Love that glow! Giving off this omnipotent vibe. But let's take care of that bust size and try again. I emphasized, "medium breasts," in the prompt and got a way better image. This one is near perfect. Bust is a little too big for Zero Two, but it's in line for a young woman, AND this is fan art so bust size passes. And those eyes... just love the way the color pops in those eyes. Let's emphasize, "green eyes," and see if we can get a better image.

Another pretty image... but AI made some changes that I don't want. The green eyes are emphasized alright, but in an effort to emphasize the eyes, the image is more of a portrait and I miss out on the red suit. AND... the hair color changed from pink to blonde. Not only that, but her hair is short. But is that a halo? I like that... Let's add, "halo" and emphasize, "long pink hair," in the prompt and we get... a blonde long haired Zero Two. Oof... No halo either. Let's emphasize, "halo," and try again.

This one is better, no halo though, but no biggie. Love this pose, love the lighting, but the hair color is still off. It looks like the hair is blonde/platinum and it should be a shade of pink. I know lighting plays a part in hair color but this just doesn't look right to me. Maybe it's the lighting... maybe the dark shadows prompt I added earlier is messing with the color, but I really like the style though... soooo let's de-emphasize, "dark intense shadows," and got this damn near perfect image of Zero Two. The lighting is still too bright, though, and I changed my mind on the halo thing. I removed, "halo," and added, "cinematic lighting," to the prompt.

Now we're talking. That cinematic lighting really changed things up and gave me the hair color I am looking for... but what is going on with her hand??? It looks a little wonky and it looks like one of the fingers is missing a chunk out of it. This is the first image generated with a hand in it but AI didn't do it justice. And I would really like to see more red than white in her plug suit. Love the pose of this image too, so I'm not making any changes to the prompt and regenerated an image... and got this beauty. Again, pretty close to what I'm looking for but I strayed away from my initial concept. Zero Two under a starry sky and moon. I emphasized, "moon," and, "starry sky," and...

Perfect! This is what I was looking for. The moon is there, the starry sky is there, the lighting is perfect. The pink hair on top with the warm glow of the setting sun reflecting off the bottom half of her hair is a very, VERY nice touch. Hands have the correct amount of fingers and look good, head band on point, and the eyes have a soft glow. This is the one. I'm happy with this image of Zero Two and it looks like Zero Two is happy too, because she's got a great, big smile on her face! 

Thank you for coming on this Zero Two AI Art Deep Dive journey with me. It's not as easy as many people think it is to create great AI generated images. I made mention in the first paragraph how ingenuity comes into play when creating AI art. Being able to adjust images using text can be pretty difficult so you need to come up with text prompts like, "cinematic lighting," or "dark intense shadows," to get the image you are looking for. 

I hope I was able to shed a little light into the process of creating AI art using Stable Diffusion and hope you all come back for the next AI Art Deep Dive! But before you go, I just wanted to give you heads up that I will posting these images on my social media soon.. so keep an eye out for that. Also, let me know what you think of the process of creating AI images. Easy peasy lemon squeezy or is it rough, tough, citrus stuff. Are you for AI images or against AI images? Let's hear it in the comments, friends. Later!