Beyond the Prompt: New Ways to Think About AI Image Creation

While some creative projects begin with careful planning of a concept, many other projects start with a single element like a color, location, visual example, or simply "what if?" The value of being able to explore your starting point is equivalent in importance to completing the final product.

Platforms utilizing AI to enable creatives now offer ways to experiment and explore different visual paths so that creators can attempt and test out their ideas prior to determining a path. Included in the broader range of generated content via AI are services that include generating adult imagery (such as AI porn) and generating other forms of illustration, animation, design, video, and digital story.

Begin With a Creative Constraint

By establishing some limits on your ideas, you may be able to experiment more effectively with them.

In addition to limiting yourself to a specific time, place, mood, composition, and/or palette, creators are given the ability to create within their own boundaries (or constraints).

These constraints will give you a "container" for creating while at the same time giving you room to explore new ways of combining what you have discovered.

Design Around the Focal Point

Every photograph has points of interest (or focus) which draw the viewer's eye.

Photographers may choose what they wish to be their point of interest. Once this point of interest is identified, photographers can arrange all other elements in the image so as to help draw the viewer to it instead of being drawn away from it.

Explore Negative Space

Negative space can create good Design.

The use of empty or blank areas (negative) in a Composition can be used as part of Design elements; they can draw attention to the subject matter, create Balance and Scale.

By changing the amount of negative space surrounding your Image's subject matter, you can dramatically change how your target audience interprets your compositions.

Use Texture to Add Character

Textures in environments give users an idea of how it feels.

Each texture has many different characteristics that provide visual representations of what something is (such as smooth, rough, shiny, natural, etc.), including the way the background is textured.

The use of textures by designers to create the environment can also be used to convey character within the scene without requiring a lot of detail about the subjects.

Build Around Color Relationships

As opposed to creating individual colors, designers may want to think about how each color interacts with other colors in their overall palette.

Colors that are complementary will typically create more of a contrasting look, whereas similar hues or tints will generally provide a more cohesive look.

Make Scale Part of the Story

Size can convey importance and context.

If a subject is in an expansive (or "large") space, it will likely look distant/alone. If the subject is placed in a confined ("tightly framed" or small) area, then it is more likely to be viewed as significant.

Another method to express concepts without having to change your original idea is to use varying size.

Create Visual Transitions

Projects containing multiple images can benefit from gradual changes.

A color palette can shift from one scene to another. Lighting can become progressively different. Environments can evolve while retaining recognizable elements.

These transitions can make separate creations feel connected rather than completely independent.

Explore Alternative Compositions

Rarely is there just one arrangement that best conveys what you want to convey in a scene.

You can test and try out different arrangements of elements such as center, asymmetry, layering, and/or environmental framing to find out which composition will effectively communicate your intended message.

Specialized AI Is Expanding

The diversity of AI-generated content has increased dramatically, and there are now multiple platforms that cater to a wide range of creative types and target audiences.

AI Porn is an example of another highly specialized type of fictional AI-generated content. Other platforms have a focus on illustration, character design, animation, video, and digital storytelling.

The increasing variety will allow creators to work within many different project-specific workflows.

Treat Visuals as Building Blocks

Rather than having to develop every single new generation of individuals individually.

Each background could be a reference point to start with for other scenes; each character design could be inspiration for all of one group or collection, and each composition could be a model to use when creating your next experiments.

Viewing your visual elements as reusable building blocks can also aid in making larger projects easier to create.

The Same Concept Can Be Viewed in Different Moods

You can explore an idea in different moods using different types of light (natural and artificial) as well as weather, color, composition, environment, etc., to present the same subject with a totally new look.

Then you can decide which type of mood is most suitable for the concept you have developed.

Use Comparisons to Make Better Decisions

Alternatives become more beneficial when creators compare them intentionally.

Creators will be able to compare differences in composition, Clarity, Atmosphere, Visual Balance, and Overall Presentation within interpretations.

By doing so, rather than simply selecting the latest version, creators can determine what specific elements make each interpretation better suited for their project.

Preserve Creative References

There is great value in creative work even if it will not be used right away.

Artists may want to keep interesting reference materials that have good backgrounds, colors,s or textures to create new ideas. In the long run, the artist's collection of reference materials becomes an inspirational base for his/her next project.

Let the Concept Expand

An initial concept or design for an image can be developed into many other creative ideas.

A location in reality can give birth to a fictional place; a repeating visual element could develop into a theme that is repeated throughout your body of work; a scene that was once composed from scratch could easily become part of a continuing sequence of images.

Through AI, you will have assistance to experiment with different ways in which your original thought process develops.

Avoid Overdesigning

The addition of elements in a graphic does not necessarily equate to interest in the graphic.

Creators have the ability to experiment by eliminating unnecessary details so that the most prominent visual aspects are noticed.

At times, less complex compositions will present the viewer with a clearer idea than ones containing multiple competing elements.

Human Direction Remains Essential

Although AI generates ideas rapidly, it is still up to the Creator to define how each of these ideas will take shape.

In other words, the Creator defines what images in a story will support their project; which image-making options they want to pursue for experimentation; and which aspects they need to remove or refine.

AI makes the playground bigger; however, it is still the Creator who decides where the Project ends up.

Final Thoughts

Using AI in creating content allows for experimentation and discovery on how to create visuals, rather than the creation of entire images.

The use of the individual tools (size, focal points, transition, negative spaces, color relationships, textures), or the combination of these tools, provides the opportunity to experiment individually with each tool and all at once until you have developed a personal visual style that will guide and direct both what you want to do and the unexpected creative developments that may occur along the way.