Constructivist City no.2 (Generative AI Experiments)
Created //
TL;DR // Let's continue using Generative AI tools to create futuristic city streetscapes. This is attempt number two to get to something like constructivism.
Generative AI Prompt Variations
This is a continuation of what we tried in Constructivist City no.1. Let's use these new AI tools to explore some ideas and maybe generate something interesting in the process.
Prompt 1
1920s constructivist ink line and watercolor, with detailed black ink line work. high-tech future cityscape. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
I'm a sucker for the watercolour look so it's a bit of a crutch I use when starting out. The watercolor plus ink line work is something I'm used to seeing and using in architectural sketches. It's a good way to get a feel for the structure, without getting bogged down in details.
This is a good start, but it makes me think I want to change directions already and explore art deco rather than constructivism.
Prompt 2
1920s constructivist art deco ink line and watercolor, with detailed black ink line work. high-tech future cityscape. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
I'm not a fan of most of these. The second stands out mostly because of how flat it is. What's bothering me here isn't the content as much as the style. Let's try to get something different.
Prompt 3
1920s art deco ink line and watercolor, realistic photo with detailed black ink line work. high-tech future cityscape. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
Well, well, well... at first I was thinking that I'm getting archival photos of New York City or very well rendered etchings like those of Piranesi.
These are great, although they just appear too similar to Manhattan.
Prompt 4
1920s art deco ink realistic high-contrast photo with detailed black ink line work. high-tech future cityscape. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
Well now we've gone into something highly stylized. Very curious why every image is similar except for the fifth image, where we're inside some Escher-like colonnade overlooking the city.
Nice, but not what I was hoping for.
Prompt 5
1920s art deco ink realistic high-contrast photo. high-tech future cityscape. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
This is another major style change. It immediately feels like cover art for a sci-fi novel. That's partially due to the colour palette, but also the fact that on a few there's a very large planet (!) in the background.
Let's see if we can get closer to the ground and get a different perspective.
Prompt 6
1920s art deco realistic photo. high-tech future cityscape from street level. add soft shading. use only straight lines. no arcs or curves.
Well, we got a little closer to the ground but not what I expected. But also, we've changed from sunrise to sunset. How'd that happen?
Selected images
Here are a few that stood out for me:
Prompt 1 // Image 2
Why? This is the one that caused me to veer off target yet again. Forget constructivism. After seeing the first batch of images I'm going to redirect towards art deco.
There are always some oddities with the content of the generated images. In this case, there are 5 or 6 lanes of streetcar traffic.
Prompt 2 // Image 2
Why? This image is so different from most of the others. Rather than a view of a street with converging perspectival lines, this is a flattened image as if taken through a long camera zoom lens. It's a little odd that only one or two buildings are in focus.
I'm probably just appreciating the fact that this one is different than most of the rest.
Let's try moving beyond illustration and see if we can get to something less like a sketch.
Prompt 3 // Image 3
Why? Well, it's not photorealism, but this one has strength. It's a crisp solid image with great contrast. I don't know how "art deco" it is, but that's ok.
We were going for realism, so we're going to remove parts of the prompt that may have been getting us towards this pen and ink style.
Prompt 4 // Image 2
Why? Well, now we're even more high-contrast and like an illustration. It's highly stylized. But let's try again to get rid of parts of the prompt that are pushing this towards pen and ink.
Prompt 5 // Image 2
Why? It's happy, it's sci-fi, it's retro art deco. Well done Dall-E.
It reminds me of Trantor from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Or, at least a more positive and happy version of it.
I'd still like it to be more photo-realism than illustration, but I'm not sure how to get there.
Prompt 6 // Image 4
Why? Strangely, adding "from street level" to the prompt also made it change from sunrise to sunset. For this particular image, that extremely tall and thin tower in the distance is an unexpected treat.
// ka
