One of the most evocative platforms for AI art, Midjourney, is now open for everyone in beta mode.
This is the second time that the platform is open to everyone in beta version. On July 18, the platform opened for 24 hours. In an email sent to Midjourney beta testers on Tuesday, however, founder David Holz wrote that “the Midjourney beta is now open to everyone.”
Midjourney is one of the most interesting entrants into the small but growing field of AI art, which takes user-generated queries, runs them through an AI algorithm, and lets the algorithm extract of its source images and apply various artistic techniques to the resulting image. . Midjourney’s images are somewhat similar in quality to those produced by Latitude’s Voyage, although Latitude charges $14.99 for 20 image credits as part of its paid plan.
For now, beta users will receive around 25 free images as part of the Midjourney beta. After that, you’ll need to pay either $10/month for 200 images per month, or a standard subscription of $30 per month for unlimited usage. Midjourney will allow corporate use of images generated for a special corporate membership. Otherwise, the images belong to you.
There’s just one catch with Midjourney: the prompts and resulting images are generated via Discord, the social networking/chatting app. To be part of Midjourney, you will need a free Discord subscription. (PCWorld’s Beginner’s Guide to Discord can help you get started if you’re new to the service.) The following link will sign you up for the Midjourney service: discord.gg/midjourney.
Although Midjourney provides a user manual, it comes down to this. In Discord, you’ll need to join one of the rapidly growing “#newbies” channels – it doesn’t matter which one. Once inside the channel, just type “/imagine” then the text prompt. Remember that even if an AI generates the output, it’s up to you to guide the style. It’s worth scrolling through the different “beginner” channels to see which prompts generate which responses and which styles you can apply.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Some results will surprise you; others will disappoint. There is a bit of luck in all of this. I wasn’t as impressed with my “a kraken appears under San Francisco Bay”, but the resulting image of “a castle on an asteroid floating in space” at the top of this story is quite impressive.
Each time you enter a request, you will receive an almost immediate result, in a matrix of four images which are all variations of the theme. Under each image, you will also see several buttons. Each button has a meaning: the “U” buttons scale a particular image, for 1 to 4; the “V” buttons ask the AI to provide a variation of the theme on the particular image. The circular arrow is a “redo” for the entire painting. Be careful! Just press each button to generate the order and charge you image credit in return.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Don’t be discouraged by the volume of requests either. Due to the nature of Discord, you will quickly see your query and results drift off the page. To resolve this issue, click the Inbox item in the upper right corner. (It actually looks like an RJ45 ethernet port on a computer.) This will open a list of relevant messages from the Midjourney bot. Click the “jump” button to jump to the actual post in Discord, where you can interact with the image.
Mark Hachman / IDG
You can also find your own image gallery by simply visiting your “home page” in Midjourney. You can click on the small “ellipsis” menu next to the image to “open [it] in Discord. This will open Discord and allow you to apply the above changes.
How to Get More Midjourney Picture Credits for Free
By default, all prompts you generate are “quick” or immediate. You box get more image credits, “for free”, by switching to the “/relax” command. This places your request in a queue, rather than processing it immediately. It’s unclear how long this extra wait time actually lasts, but Midjourney won’t charge you credit for using it.
Unfortunately, this flaw only works as a subscriber. On the other hand, if you end up signing up for the $10/month plan and get hooked, but can’t justify spending $30 a month on cool images, you can try this option!
