NICOLA GINZLER

Senior Graphic Designer
On left: 2x2 images of a fox-bird hybrid, about 80% rendered; on right: 2x2 images of black-tailed jackrabbit, about 40% rendered

Phasing-in Fauna Font Friday

The images below are from Midjourney AI image generation software. Midjourney shows blurry intermediate images as the final art is being created. I’ve been capturing these as screenshots and using them as art in their own right. I’ve recently discovered that users can specifically tell the bot to stop at XX percent rendered by using the command “- -stop XX” at the end of the prompt line. But if you want a sequence of the same image going from blurry to sharp, stick with the screenshots method.

How this all started

The images were used in sticker designs submitted to the Burning Man organization for possible distribution to all 2023 participants. Visit my blog post Design Submissions for Burning Man 2023 Stickers to see more about the sticker designs. Visit my blog post Firefly Fox-bird Friday to see Midjourney images compared to images created by Adobe Firefly software.

Fox-bird, blurred

The prompts for the fox-bird included “photorealistic black rock desert Nevada with dry cracked ground, there is one fox vulpes macrotis looking at the viewer, 4 legs [varying success with this], brilliant bright blue outstretched feathers 2 wings jutting from its shoulders fox with wings”

AI image generation software prompts: photorealistic black rock desert Nevada with dry cracked ground, there is one fox vulpes macrotis looking at the viewer, 4 legs, brilliant bright blue outstretched feather 2 wings jutting from its shoulder

Midjourney “Animals of the Black Rock Desert” images, about 40% rendered. Click on image to enlarge.

AI image generation software prompts: photorealistic black rock desert Nevada with dry cracked ground, there is one fox vulpes macrotis looking at the viewer, 4 legs, brilliant bright blue outstretched feather 2 wings jutting from its shoulder

Midjourney fox-bird images 1-4, about 80% rendered. Click on image to enlarge.

AI image generation software prompts: photorealistic black rock desert Nevada with dry cracked ground, there is one fox vulpes macrotis looking at the viewer, 4 legs, brilliant bright blue outstretched feather 2 wings jutting from its shoulder

Midjourney fox-bird images 1-4, fully rendered. Click on image to enlarge.

Animals of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert

Here’s the final image I put together, with each animal’s image about 40% rendered. Scroll down to see the 2×2-image renders for each. The prompts for each animal included “animals of the Black Rock Desert, Nevada,” “looking at viewer” (varying success with this), the Latin name, the common name and other prompts concerning light and composition. After I brought the images together into Adobe Photoshop, I adjusted the colors and tones and made other changes. I composed the final artwork in Adobe Illustrator. The typeface is Abigail from Adobe Fonts, with the Latin names in Atkinson Hyperlegible from the Braille Institute.

The design is divided into 2x2 rectangles, with a horizontal bar taken out in the middle. Each rectangle has a soft, blurred image of an animal. L to R and top to bottom: a chukar bird (Alectoris chukar); a kit fox (Vulpes macrotis); a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and a mountain lion (Puma concolor). The black band across the middle says, in white type: "BURNING MAN 2023: "ANIMALIA" [line break] Animals of the Black Rock Desert

Midjourney “Animals of the Black Rock Desert” images, about 40% rendered. Click on image to enlarge.

2x2 square images of a chukar partridge in its natural desert habitat. These images, intermediate stages in the rendering of the final images, are blurred and look somewhat like watercolors.

A chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) in its natural desert habitat. Note that the birds look different from one another and also different from what a chukar actually looks like. I picked the most interesting one, although the image in the top left probably looks more like the actual bird. Click on image to enlarge.

2x2 square images of a kit fox in its natural desert habitat. These images, intermediate stages in the rendering of the final images, are blurred and look somewhat like watercolors.

A kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) in its natural desert habitat. I picked the one that’s looking directly at the viewer. Click on image to enlarge.

2x2 square images of a black-tailed jackrabbit in its natural desert habitat. These images, intermediate stages in the rendering of the final images, are blurred and look somewhat like watercolors.

A black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) in its natural desert habitat. Again, I picked the one with the most interesting color and composition. Click on image to enlarge.

2x2 square images of a mountain lion in its natural desert habitat. These images, intermediate stages in the rendering of the final images, are blurred and look somewhat like watercolors.

A mountain lion (Puma concolor) in its natural desert habitat. I picked the one closest in looks to the actual cat. Click on image to enlarge.

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