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Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

colab.research.google.com

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Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#2

Post by hwayne »

I've seen a bunch of people share their AI art generators, so I figured I'd get in on the action and share mine. This is based on the notebooks written by AI artists like advadnoun and Katherine Crowson. The difference between those and this is:

- Friendlier UI/UX: I used colab forms and IPython widgets to make it easy to use if you don't know how to program. For example, instead of having people fiddle with sampling vs pooling methods, you can just select "default" or "cumin" flavors.

- Simplified inputs: I stripped out a lot of the power from "artist-oriented" notebooks to make it less scary to first timers. You can still edit the code directly to get the same power, but all that's hidden away.

- "Download all images" and "create a video" buttons for funsies.

People have also been posting commercial AI offerings, like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28070149. The differences with this are:

- Totally free. This is running off Google's free Colab offering. You just need a Google account.

- No wait times. Colab gives a separate GPU to each user, so there's no queueing or anything.

- A bit more power: if Colab assigns you a large instance (most people are getting large instances, unless you use it for a very long time), you can make images up to 700x700.

- Codes all available if you want to clone it, make your own version, or download it to run locally.

I shared this on Twitter last week and lots of nonprogrammers are able to use it, which tells me that it works pretty well at its intended goals. So far this is my favorite thing anybody's made with it (video, sound): https://twitter.com/PuPunPa/status/1423428815846481924

Also happy to answer any questions people have about AI art in general. I only fell down the rabbit hole last month, and it's a deep rabbit hole, so I can't promise much, but I really like talking about this stuff and sharing what I've learned. Enjoy!

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#3

Post by kyrra »

I was playing around with this with some friends and I have to say that anything involving animals of any kind in the generation leads to really weird results. I haven't tried other AI art programs, so I don't know of this is sort of expected, but definitely interesting.

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#5

Post by minimaxir »

hwayne wrote: post #2

I've seen a bunch of people share their AI art generators, so I figured I'd get in on the action and share mine. This is based on the notebooks written by AI artists like advadnoun and Katherine Crowson. The difference between those and this is: - Friendlier UI/UX: I used colab forms and IPython widgets to make it easy to use if you don't know how to program. For example, instead of having people fiddle with sampling…

> A bit more power: if Colab assigns you a large instance (most people are getting large instances, unless you use it for a very long time), you can make images up to 700x700.

Technically you just need a GPU with 16GB VRAM to create larger images, which is every GPU Colab can give except the K80 (which has 12GB VRAM, but still can do 600x600)

Your Notebook code appears to do to a VRAM check via nvidia-smi, not an instance size check.

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#6

Post by minimaxir »

See also my notebook (which was released after the OP's notebook and I was not aware of it until after I completed mine) from the same source which focuses on more streamlining and more deterministic output by using icon-based input/target images: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1wkF67ThUz37T2_oPIuS...

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#7

Post by hwayne »

kyrra wrote: post #3

I was playing around with this with some friends and I have to say that anything involving animals of any kind in the generation leads to really weird results. I haven't tried other AI art programs, so I don't know of this is sort of expected, but definitely interesting.

Same thing with trees. It definitely seems to struggle more with individual objects you'd expect to see in lots of photos. It's really good at locations, though.

(Some of that might also be what I hardcoded. Most notebooks give a lot more flexibility in the art you produced, I simplified things dramatically for accessibility purposes)

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#8

Post by hwayne »

minimaxir wrote: post #6

See also my notebook (which was released after the OP's notebook and I was not aware of it until after I completed mine) from the same source which focuses on more streamlining and more deterministic output by using icon-based input/target images: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1wkF67ThUz37T2_oPIuS...

I think we're in a "lightbulb" moment: the tech has gotten good and convenient enough that a lot of people are having the same ideas. I mean, heck, I don't know anything about AI or art and I was still able to make my notebook. There's also been a bunch of paid solutions submitted to HN, too, as people try to find ways to build products off this.

The great thing is that the space is big and crazy enough that even if a bunch of people independently make something, everything they make will be different in interesting ways. I'm just focusing on making it as simple as possible, to the point where I don't even have an option to have different width and height. I give it maybe a month before someone makes a Colab that blows both of ours out of the water.

(I should really start aggregating the notebooks, so people who enjoyed mine and want to try all the other cool ones can see them all in one place)

Re: Show HN: Free, Accessible AI Art Generator

#9

Post by Mizza »

minimaxir wrote: post #5
hwayne wrote: post #2

I've seen a bunch of people share their AI art generators, so I figured I'd get in on the action and share mine. This is based on the notebooks written by AI artists like advadnoun and Katherine Crowson. The difference between those and this is: - Friendlier UI/UX: I used colab forms and IPython widgets to make it easy to use if you don't know how to program. For example, instead of having people fiddle with sampling…

> A bit more power: if Colab assigns you a large instance (most people are getting large instances, unless you use it for a very long time), you can make images up to 700x700. Technically you just need a GPU with 16GB VRAM to create larger images, which is every GPU Colab can give except the K80 (which has 12GB VRAM, but still can do 600x600) Your Notebook code appears to do to a VRAM check via nvidia-smi, not an ins…

Does anybody know of the best practice for creating large images (ex 3840x2160) on a single GPU (ex a 2080/3080)? I played with stitching some years ago when all of this stuff was still in its infancy, but wasn't super thrilled with the results as I ended up with seams, now I'm wondering if a common practice has emerged as the techniques have evolved.
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