10 suggestions for using the free Craiyon AI image creator (formerly Dall-E Mini)

I’ve been accumulating AI-powered image generation tools for the past year, and over the past few weeks, Craiyon has emerged as my preferred option (formerly Dall-E Mini).

There are no restrictions on how many images you can create, and it is free.

It’s true that Dall-E 2, a fully photo-realistic and astoundingly impressive system from OpenAI, is far superior, but Dall-E 2 is in closed beta and unavailable to you. You can join the waitlist, but a million people are reportedly already on it.

Craiyon it is then.

At the moment, Craiyon does a poor job with faces, and the images are quite small. The business claims that both of those things are being improved. Personally, I anticipate seeing significant advancements soon given how quickly AI is developing.

If so, will artists be replaced? I don’t believe so, no. Obtaining images you like requires a lot of time. You can experiment with the system if you have the time. Hire an artist if you don’t have the time. I believe this could be an excellent tool for artists because it would allow them to quickly generate many ideas, choose the best ones, present them to their clients, and then turn those ideas into book covers or other projects for which they had been hired.

Once once more artists are able to utilize Dall-E 2, I do anticipate pricing for generic-style book covers to drop rapidly. Craiyon isn’t nearly competent enough—yet—to perform at a professional level.

But Craiyon is simple to use, entertaining to experiment with, and suitable for blog post graphics. And a little bit extra if you’re smart about it.

1. CONTINUE TO TRY THE SAME PROMPT

Craiyon is unrestricted and free. You may try it again and again until you find anything that works since it offers you nine choices for each query. Yes, each run takes around a minute, so prepare something else you can do in the meantime.

While watching TV, I like playing with it.

Imagine that I need an image of a spacecraft since I’m writing a space opera. It will produce fresh images for you when you click the orange pencil button to the right of the prompt box.

You may see the full-sized picture by clicking on one of the smaller squares. Full-sized, low-quality picture, although they claim to be working on it.

2. IMPROVE LOCATION OR ACTION

It’s not necessary for the prompt to be one word. To get closer to your goal, you may add to it.

The prompts “spaceship above planet,” “spaceship in space,” and “spaceship laser war” have all been attempted here.

3. ADD DESCRIPTIONS OF ART STYLE

You may include in your suggestion phrases like “in the manner of Pablo Picasso,” “watercolor,” “studio photography,” “scientific illustration,” “movie poster,” “cybernetic,” “plastic toy,” or “epic fantasy book cover.” Almost any kind of art you can imagine.

You may use the name of any well-known photographer or artist. If it’s well-known enough, you ought to receive some intriguing outcomes.

You may also provide descriptions of the materials, such as “fabric,” “felt,” “jewelry,” “diamond,” “balloon,” or “ice sculpture.” The felt spacecraft were awesome! Try “origami” or “paper mache.”

Additionally, you may include artistic movements like “pointillism,” “expressionism,” “cubism,” “digital art,” “steampunk art,” “line art,” “pencil drawing,” “spray-painted into a wall,” “pixel art,” and “stock photography.” To get some inspiration, look about art styles on Wikipedia. Though it may not be familiar with all of them, Craiyon will identify the most well-known ones.

To increase the quality, including descriptors like “award-winning art,” “trending on ArtStation,” “photorealistic,” “Unreal Engine,” “detailed,” “nature photography,” and “National Geographic.”

4. ADD DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COMPOSITION

The majority of the photos we received were close-ups. But you may experiment with camera positions and composition guidelines to acquire various perspectives.

You may request a “aerial view,” “long shot,” “portrait,” “wide-angle,” “fish-eye,” “macro,” or “bokeh” in addition to other options.

Additionally, you may provide geographical details like “in a field,” “on a rooftop,” or “in a tunnel.”

5. ADD DESCRIPTIONS OF MOOD

Add some descriptors, such as “dark,” “colorful,” “futuristic,” “vintage,” “abstract,” “soothing,” “foggy,” “early dawn,” or “childish.”

6.Add “looks like” or “in the shape of”

Any item or form description is acceptable here. A spacecraft that resembles a banana? of course!

7. JOIN MANY OBJECTS TOGETHER

Use the words “inside of,” “next to,” and “above” to connect the worlds. like “commando inside of a spacecraft” or “cat inside of a spaceship,” for example.

8. REQUEST SCREENSHIPS

Do you like the television series “Rick and Morty” and want a product in such vein? Change your Craigon prompt to read “screenshot from Rick and Morty.”

Any well-known animated cartoon, live-action film, or video game may be used in this context.

Remember that I’m attempting to make these prompts straightforward so you can understand how each one affects the situation on its own. But I would add some of the other variables I previously indicated if I wanted to work with one of these photographs further.

9. EDIT THE IMAGES USING DIFFERENT TOOLS

Canva is my go-to suggestion for those who are new to digital image editing and I prefer to use it for team projects.

Your Craiyon photographs may be effortlessly uploaded to Canva and used in your projects. You may use Craiyon photos, for instance, as part of website or social media graphics, for advertisements, or even for book covers.

Simply choose “Custom Size” in Canva to create a book cover; the ideal ebook cover dimensions are 1,600 pixels wide by 2,400 pixels height. Next, choose “Templates” from the menu on the far left and do a “sci-fi book cover” search. Replace their picture and wording with your own after choosing one you like.

Here are four book covers created using AI-generated artwork from Craiyon and Canva’s standard science fiction book cover designs.

Although I wouldn’t use any of these covers for a published book, I wouldn’t have an issue using them as interim covers for unfinished works or covers for free or inexpensive short tales since they just took me a short while to create.

Since AI art cannot be protected by copyright, the very picture you are using may theoretically be stolen by someone else. However, the merged cover is a unique composition that belongs to you. In accordance with Craiyon’s terms of service, you are permitted to use these pictures without charge if your annual income, including from commercial endeavors, is less than $1 million. However, you’ll have to pay if you utilize the photographs to make NFTs or if your yearly income exceeds $1 million. Since AI art cannot be protected by copyright, it is unclear how Craiyon can enforce this.

However, I don’t make a million dollars a year, so I believe that I am secure.

10. MORE SUPPORT

Check out the Dall-E 2 user resources for further inspiration.

The prompts that function in that system often also operate in Craiyon.