We've been hearing about metaverse and how its comming to town for a couple of years now. Every now and then an article pops out, in some of my news feeds. Up to this point I haven't really understood it. Whenever I've tried to some this self proclaimed metaverse technologies, it felt like a complete crap. I've tried the facebooks VRs. I've tried those personalised emojis. Honestly I was utterly disappointed. I mean sure, it has kept my attention, for a day or so, but after, I've just lost interest. There was simply nothing to do about it. It was lacking imagination.
A couple of months ago, I've tested DALL·E 2, it was fascinating, I've instantly seen the whole world of possibilities it opens up. However, it felt like some critical part of it was missing. It just didn't exactly feel production ready. I could see that if it could be improved it would be a world changing tool. But those improvements never came. In the end I just felt a little spark of my imagination.
A month forward and I've been starting to hear good things about some new AI image generation model. I've tested it, subscribed, played a little bit with it, and again, saw the potential of it, without the exact use coming to my mind. Sure, i was able to create beautiful art. However, to me, digital art is something more than what image generator can do. If I want to call something art it needs to have a story behind it, i need to be able to identify myself with it. That particular AI model was lacking that capabilities. I found it amusing, but still, something was missing.
It's funny how things turn out. The metaverse we've been hearing about for the past couple of years is here. It just has a different name, mine is called midjourney. However there are probably a couple of equally good metaverses out there, that I'm just not familiar with. The reason why i feel like midjourney is at the moment closest thing to a metaverse is one unique feature I've discovered today. It's image input.
You can basically upload image online, and prompt it to create different styles of yourself or that person. That feature is extremely powerful and potent. It unlocks your imagination to a whole different level. It allows you to put yourself in different settings. I've seen some random mediocre looking guy (5/10) prompting it to create photos for dating apps in which he looked like 9-10/10.
However, for me, it was something different. I love d&d, I am a huge fan of baldurs gate and similar games. I've been passionately playing wow since its release. I just love when I can create fantasy characters. And all those games allow me to do that. However with this feature it's a whole different game. Its that metaverese game i've been hearing about for the past 5 years. I am finally able to create fantasy characters based on my looks. I am able to do so for my friends and beloved ones too.
I have today uploaded my picture and 2-3 hours(20-40 prompts latter) was able to create my fantasy d&d thief/warlock character. It truly felt like metaverse coming to life.
Original pic
My character's picture:
If you want to see what amazing stuff other people have created check out this d&d episode which includes donald trump, samuel l. jackson, elon musk and a couple of others.
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