Running Our Miniature Photos Thru AI (no need to pay, can stay free)

[N1SB]

Brothers et Sororitas, you already know I'm a heretech, though I'm nowhere near the level of Arkhan Land (who had installed xenos bionics ran by an Abominable Intelligence on a Blood Angel, while said Loyalist Marine was like, "there's no heresy here, right?  no xenos tech, no AI?")  But try running your actual minis...that is your art, through an AI:

 

 

Or don't, like I understand it if you don't want to taint your works.  This was with Windows 11 Copilot, so I just right-clicked my mini in my Photo folder, chose Copilot in the drop-down menu, asked it to change the background to something "grimdark" (it knew what I meant), did not even make any adjustments with it.

 

My pitch to you - you already did the hard part, the modeling (converting in my case), the painting, even the photo taking.  This is an easy and fun step, just to try.

 

EDIT - I'm doing all this for free, my friends bought lifetime subscriptions to support devs, but I was gonna wait at least for the technology to mature.

Edited Sunday at 12:55 PM by N1SB

[Grotsmasha]

I hadn't considered this, I'll give a couple of mine a go tonight

[LameBeard]

Funny that it fixed the big neck plate that is my pet peeve about Primaris marine design. In fact it toned down all the Primaris aspects so maybe there’s more first-born in the training set.

 

Anyway, please report yourself to your local reclusiarch for compulsory reeducation for this heresy.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

10 hours ago, N1SB said:

Brothers et Sororitas, you already know I'm a heretech, though I'm nowhere near the level of Arkhan Land (who had installed xenos bionics ran by an Abominable Intelligence on a Blood Angel, while said Loyalist Marine was like, "there's no heresy here, right?  no xenos tech, no AI?")  But try running your actual minis...that is your art, through an AI:

 

 

Or don't, like I understand it if you don't want to taint your works.  This was with Windows 11 Copilot, so I just right-clicked my mini in my Photo folder, chose Copilot in the drop-down menu, asked it to change the background to something "grimdark" (it knew what I meant), did not even make any adjustments with it.

 

My pitch to you - you already did the hard part, the modeling (converting in my case), the painting, even the photo taking.  This is an easy and fun step, just to try.

Wait a minute...You can upload your pics to an AI image generator and then task it to put proper background into your picture to eradicate the surrounding area beyond your tabletop gaming table?

 

Edit:

I looked it up and  it´s more complicated then that. You need to enable the Windows Copilot on your computer. It´s an AI tool and not part of any online AI pic generator.

Edited July 6 by Deus_Ex_Machina

[N1SB]

36 minutes ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

Wait a minute...You can upload your pics to an AI image generator and then task it to put proper background into your picture to eradicate the surrounding area beyond your tabletop gaming table?

 

So I used to use Powerpoint to remove the background, then have this transparent image to overlay on some ruins, but it always looked green screen-y.

 

In this case, and I opened up the actual prompt I had used, I had literally said, "replace the background with some grimdark ruins please?"

[Trokair]

11 hours ago, N1SB said:

 

Not sure why, but the fact that it kept the base when artifying the starting picture made me chuckler, this guy comes whith his own tactical rock. 

 

[LameBeard]

2 hours ago, N1SB said:

In this case, and I opened up the actual prompt I had used, I had literally said, "replace the background with some grimdark ruins please?"

So your prompt didn’t even ask for the foreground to be touched up at all. Which means the co-pilot devs have put somewhere in the default prompt: “clean up any Primaris design cues and weather that sucker into any grim dark background”. Seems specific, but fair enough…

[crimsondave]

Nothing impressive but it took like 30 seconds.  Cool concept.  Not sure why I never thought of it.  ChatGPT:

Spoiler

 

[Ace Debonair]

Oh boy, that's pretty cool, although definitely heresy.

 

I had a picture of my first ever Space Marine and my most recent (circa 2023), which I ran through the unholy machine, using the same prompt as our honoured brother N1SB:

 

First the White Hawks as they exist in actuality;

 

and then the White Hawks as interpreted by The Machinations of Tech Heresy:



 

 

I'm saddened it got rid of the quartered-style kneepad, amused by the added trim on the dragonskin pauldron and somewhat pleased by how it's reasoned the outer armour on my old marine's legs must be like the ones on the MK X armour.

 

It has a lot of trouble with any of my marines where I'd used a converted Chaos Warrior helmet instead of the standard Mk VII / MK X, giving them instead a thinner version of the standard helmet (still cool, but I don't want to flood the thread with examples)

 

Mostly though I'm laughing at how it's kept all the dust on venerable brother first-ever-marine's base.   (He's been cleaned up since, don't fret!) 

 

[LameBeard]

46 minutes ago, Ace Debonair said:

Oh boy, that's pretty cool, although definitely heresy.

 

I had a picture of my first ever Space Marine and my most recent (circa 2023), which I ran through the unholy machine, using the same prompt as our honoured brother N1SB:

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

First the White Hawks as they exist in actuality;

 

and then the White Hawks as interpreted by The Machinations of Tech Heresy:



 
 

 

 

 

I'm saddened it got rid of the quartered-style kneepad, amused by the added trim on the dragonskin pauldron and somewhat pleased by how it's reasoned the outer armour on my old marine's legs must be like the ones on the MK X armour.

 

It has a lot of trouble with any of my marines where I'd used a converted Chaos Warrior helmet instead of the standard Mk VII / MK X, giving them instead a thinner version of the standard helmet (still cool, but I don't want to flood the thread with examples)

 

Mostly though I'm laughing at how it's kept all the dust on venerable brother first-ever-marine's base.   (He's been cleaned up since, don't fret!) 

 

Interesting that it also twisted the head and changed the magazine on your Primaris fellow. Bringing him into line with his older brother?

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Copilot does nothing for me in regards to altering pics. When I used Ask Copilot it admitted that I would need the monthly subscription service called Copilot Pro to work with pics.

[Shinespider]

Interesting.

 

 

became

 

 

Not a huge fan of primaris, it seems, going by the helmet. Surprisingly good detail in most other places. 

[Ace Debonair]

3 hours ago, LameBeard said:

Interesting that it also twisted the head and changed the magazine on your Primaris fellow. Bringing him into line with his older brother?

 

It's also applied parts of the Agrax Earthshade wash from the newer model to the older model (especially around the wrists and hands); definitely unifying them a bit more.

 

All in all, it's not a bad result, but as Shinespider pointed out, the Unforgivable Tech Heresy AI sure does have a strong preference towards older official helmets. 

[sitnam]

I asked ChatGPT to make an image of a conversion i recently made:

 

Spoiler

 

There is some obvious inconsistencies, but its not a bad way to get some illustrations for homebrew armies I guess.

[N1SB]

6 hours ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

Copilot does nothing for me in regards to altering pics. When I used Ask Copilot it admitted that I would need the monthly subscription service called Copilot Pro to work with pics.

 

Brother...I have no idea what's going on, because I certainly didn't pay.  But it's ok!  Lots of options and it's a case where technology is moving so fast, you don't have to stick to 1 particular vendor.  For example, I know for a fact that Copilot couldn't recognise or alter text on an image about 1 month ago (because I tried, it invented its own hieroglyphs), it could now but still makes mistakes, and in another month it'll likely improve the grammar on like a billboard image without prompting.

 

But thx for letting me know, but no need to pay.  I have a friend whose company did (part of what Microsoft calls Volume Licensing or Enterprise Agreement), and it's not an improvement, it does the same things the free version does (but now they have full rights to whatever the AI makes, for legal/compliace/etc., so it's not money wasted).  I also had Copilot outright lie to me once; I asked it to draw a politically sensitive area in the Middle East and it told me it can't do that, then I asked it to draw Hong Kong and it's like "let me get my canvas ready for your masterpiece" and it drew a landscape where I could see my flat.

 

7 hours ago, Ace Debonair said:

I'm saddened it got rid of the quartered-style kneepad, amused by the added trim on the dragonskin pauldron and somewhat pleased by how it's reasoned the outer armour on my old marine's legs must be like the ones on the MK X armour.

 

Brother Ace...it does that to me, too!  And then I try to correct it in a prompt, and it screws it up even more, then after 3 prompts it gives me cursed images.

 

And I, too, am noticing the same trend you do, Brothers et Sororitas...it does default to Mark VII Aquila Armour, precisely because I think it learns from all those pre-8th images and Dawn of War and Space Marine I or whatever.  I think it's in the category of problems AI has, like drawing left-handed people writing or any clock that doesn't read 10 past 10 (because so many watch ads that AI learn from use that time).

 

TL;DR key takeaway - no need to pay unless you want to support that particular vendor's AI development, AI tech is changing fast, what was impossible last month is done badly this month, and will vastly improve by next month.  I am getting some cool stuff out of it even for free, though.

Edited July 8 by N1SB

[Antarius]

I don’t want to be a debbie downer and I sorta get the fascination, but I can’t help thinking that pictures of the actual minis look better in all the examples.
 

I mean, AI might add background, but it messes up the minis themselves in all sorts of ways so it doesn’t really work as a way to add cool backgrounds to your mini pics and it doesn’t really work for turning your minis into “illustrations” either, as it very obviously keeps the bases and other telltale signs of these being distorted minis.

Edited July 8 by Antarius

[Ace Debonair]

I mean, I 100% agree. 

It's no substitute for a properly painted mini. (Or even a badly painted 20+ year old model, to be honest)

But it's fun* for me to see my marines, or at least approximations thereof, with what looks like a proper Warhammer 40k background, like you'd get in a White Dwarf magazine or other official publication. 

 

But yes, it's just a novelty - Though I could see it having some application for trialling different colour schemes on an unpainted model, perhaps.

 

 

 

*Ace's definition and use of "fun" here is malleable and subject to change, fun not guaranteed for all readers, terms and conditions apply, etc etc 

[Cpt.Danjou]

I don't know if I really like it, but it is a fun toy to play around with it, nothing I will use that much in the future.

 

Spoiler

 Made with Chatgpt

[N1SB]

6 hours ago, Antarius said:

I don’t want to be a debbie downer and I sorta get the fascination, but I can’t help thinking that pictures of the actual minis look better in all the examples.
 

I mean, AI might add background, but it messes up the minis themselves in all sorts of ways so it doesn’t really work as a way to add cool backgrounds to your mini pics and it doesn’t really work for turning your minis into “illustrations” either, as it very obviously keeps the bases and other telltale signs of these being distorted minis.

 

Brother Antarius...that's not a downer at all.  If anything, I'd be upset if you thought the AI art was better than my hard-painted minis!

 

But did you know Brother Tyler actual lead us on this Special Project (like a Legio Imprint) involving Rogue Traders?  It successfully published Kill Team rules for Rogue Traders before the official one (vs. Gellerpox Nurgle guys), but there was stuff left on the cutting room floor, like I took our Brothers' conversions of Rogue Traders and Xenos into this tense negotiation scene:

 

 

It's a neat idea, it's that classic Warhammer thing of all these figures standing around a conference table, but I know it's not good.  I just fed it to my AI tool:

 

 

STILL NOT there...but it's getting closer and closer.  Give another month and I'll have another go and see how much further I can go.

 

But it was Brother Ace's contribution that gave me a bit of an epiphany...

 

 

+++ Imagine an Index Astartes Article with such art +++

 

AI imposes all sorts of stuff to try to meld an impression of an image together, but it's surprisingly close with colours, even on a 1st attempt.

 

Imagine your Index Astartes using a combination of your miniatures' pics AND these images.  It would be pretty White Dwarf-y.

 

And it'd be mainly of your miniatures interacting with each other.  Like they're not posing for battle, like talking on your cruiser's bridge.

 

 

+++ Imagine your 30k characters in the style of the Black Books +++

 

You're probably working on your 30k armies for the new edition.  Imagine your HQ with his own Remembrancer sketch, like in the FW books.

 

And you know how in the corners they got those little battle scenes, usually like a bunch of Mk III armour guys in some ruins?

 

 

+++ I just realised I chose a poor title for this thread +++

 

I honestly did merely suggest we try running our mini photos through AI.  That was indeed my thought.

 

But now that I see this...I'm reminded 1st ed 40k: Rogue Trader, it was like an RPG book.  Renegade Marines at a bar.

 

Yeah, this isn't an end in itself, nor a replacement for minis.  It's possibilities for something else I don't even know yet.

[DemonGSides]

The models around the screen look infinitely cooler than the AI Slop Art that the algorithm turn all AI Art things into.  At least they've seemed to have figured out how to make hands correctly.

 

The novelty is there, but it all looks samey.  The guns almost all look universally terrible as well; the word bearer livery example that was provided above is a legitimate techno-heresy and not in the fun Chaos way; the two white marines above both have guns that have become lumps.  The ChatGPT ones are all just "Dark green background, apply cartoon filter to picture."

 

If you want cool art of your homebrew, pay someone $20 on the internet to draw something for you.  Infinitely more satisfying result and you're not tacitly contributing to the downfall of society, you're helping someone eat breakfast.

Edited July 8 by DemonGSides

[sbarnby71]

Well Copilot did a cracking job with my mini when I asked for GrimDark! 

[N1SB]

At the start of 8th, the 1st Armies on Parade, I submitted an army lead by Patient Zero, a lone Guardsman unwittingly infecting others with Nurgle's Rot:

 

 

Copilot made this and thus I saved 20 bucks for future miniatures (the guns really are a bit off, aren't they):

 

[Knightsword]

Well this is fun. It did my Chapter Master pretty well aside from the extremely grizzled/scarred face 

 

 

 

And Dreadnoughts kinda work.

 

 

 

[Osteoclast]

It does not like Primaris. I tried throwing it in with some battle pics I've grabbed, kinda eh on them. 

Imgur album link

 

Judiciar wound up looking cool as heck though.

[TheMawr]

so I got curious what it does with my ( still ontopic for the forum ) quick draft

 

 

 

 

.. Im really out of a job soon arent I ? XD