I Created a Midjourney COMIC BOOK: 'Treasures Beyond Gold'

Folder: 2023-04-08 – Midjourney Comic Book

🌐 Check out the full blog post:

–

📺 Recommended Related Videos & Playlists 📺

–

Since so many of you are clearly working on storytelling in some shape or form, I decided it was time to take the next step.

After diving deep into character design and trying to figure out how to make them more consistent, we now shift our focus toward storytelling.

And to do this, we're going to use a combination of ChatGPT, Midjourney, and various tools from the Affinity suite.

Please bear in mind that the primary objective of this video is NOT to produce the most consistent images. Instead, I want to show you a process that will help you flesh out your story and then apply the skills you've learned in Midjourney.

I'm mainly aiming for something that is as close as possible to a comic book or graphic novel, and I am willingly sacrificing some of the consistency in my characters.

So please keep your comments about consistency to yourselves (although I know some of you won't) and just focus on what you've learned from this video.

–

⏰ Timestamps ⏰
00:00 How to Create a Midjourney Comic Book
00:38 The Story
05:11 Scene Crafting
07:24 The Characters
09:27 The Art Style
12:54 The Panels
24:15 The Cover

–

#midjourney #midjourneyai #midjourneyart #aiart #chatgpt

[sakarkral]

So you tell your audience that character consistency is IRRELEVANT in this video, after 16 minutes? Thanks.

[marioruiz]

Christian, you are extremely generous with your information and resource links. Thank you.

[michaelsbeverly]

Looking for consistent characters?

Big fan of the channel, Christian. We've used your videos for training staff. I suspect a lot of people will get hung up on this even though you explained it a bunch of times...haha....

If you're new, go see the earlier videos on character building, we're doing this stuff professionally (I have a small staff doing character creations for video shorts) and this channel has been our go-to channel for midjourney stuff.

That said, the "I want a quick tip" verison can be summed up like this:

In the first step, don't use any background (I think Christian did this to make a point, but it's actually more work and can create other problems later). Creating this character on a plain background also has the added advantage that you can remove the background and use the character on a transparency layer to add to a scene (like the one he wanted 3 characters but knew that MJ couldn't do that correctly).

Next, once you have a character or character you like, save the URLs for that character (whether it's 2 or 15 URLs, just save the short links).

Then, instead of prompting like this: "An asian woman in her blah, blah, blah, blah" over and over, just prompt: A woman URL1 URL2 URL3 URL4 etc, (as many as you need) in SITUATION and SCENE ( in a boat on an Amazonian river or in an Asian jungle or fighting a snake or holding a map or entering a cave, whatever....) IN THE STYLE OF and then whatever you're using here to make the style you want (you can cut and paste this instruction over and over for a consistent style, whatever that is).

And there you go...

As a final note: You can make adjustments to the style and chaos while leaving the URLs and the SITUATION and SCENE and IN THE STYLE OF instructions identical and get much different results, so it's worth playing with those too (not just rerolling).

One other thing I've noticed, MJ does seem to make changes in style and look when you use a different aspect ratio. So, for example, sometimes I'll use --ar 2:1 even though I want a square panel because the look is better for that scene and I just trim off the sides, so don't forget that you don't have to make the aspect ratio in MJ the aspect ratio you need for a panel or page or scene, you can make it different to get the look you want and then cut it out in PS or GIMP or whatever to the right size. Sometimes this is less work than trying to force MJ to create a certain image in a certain aspect ratio. Imho.

Thanks again, Christian, you've been a monster-sized help to us.

[ngaming]

"just go learn to draw" 🤣 Glad someone finally said it!

[gwenasiagadsden]

omg !! i was just watching your seed video !!!! im sp excited that this was just posted !!

[llll]

The art of visual story telling is more than just pasting a bunch of random images together, comic artists jobs are safe, for now.

[jonrynearson]

Christian, you have given me a breath of fresh ideas and concepts that will enhance my journey in making good stories and images. I have been looking for an educator such as yourself, and I thank you!

[blake]

one thing that you could do is draw the pictures the way you want them in a bad/rough way but with all the right composition and upload them as references for midjourney to create around. would probably turn out really good

[molugusatyapriya]

Fantastic work on the comic book! I am thrilled to see how you employed Midjourney to evoke 'Treasures Beyond Gold' with distinctive imagery.

[criminaldesires]

Thank you for the lead. I've been trying to make consistent characters in v5 and the only thing that has got me 90-95% close is pasting the url of the target image and then following it with the descriptive prompt, only you have to maintain the identity names of the character/s you are generating.

[LuisEscobar]

I found your video interesting. The visuals look very impressive and look like comic art. I find that fascinating. However, I draw comics and I create storyboards professionally, there's more to comics than just "characters standing/sitting/looking" in an environment. There's acting, and pacing. There's....well...visual storytelling that needs to happen. A good test is if you can look through the visuals of a comic without the dialogue or the narration and still get the 80% of the story. Where were the puzzle solving shots? The moments of friendship? The visual collaboration? The emotional beats? The action moments? The danger moments? The resolution moments. All I saw where images of people in midshots mostly looking at the middle distance. I also didn't see an example of the final with dialogue balloons.

My point is, yes, it looks sorta comic like, but the tech still needs work OR the process needs FAR more time and energy to find those moments. The creators using the program, also needs an education in visual storytelling to know what is needed as well. Maybe draw crude sketches of the visuals needed and have the program flesh it out? That sort of thing. I'm not saying it may not be able to be done. But this isn't quite it.

[MrRich]

Great video! You inspired me to do my own comic book, and mine turned out amazing! Thanks so much!

[pedroantoniodacruzferreira]

Christian, , this is fantastic work! Whoever has tried to do this before (I certainly have spent tons of hours trying to get it right), knows that what you did here - despite using AI tools - still requires a lot of creative thinking, tweaking and LOTS of time! Kudos for sharing it with us. You helped me to get a few things right with the Graphic novel I am working on. Thanks for sharing!!!

[dmitryboldyrev]

How to generate 3 or more multiple consistent characters interacting with each other and use them in different scenes? And how to add people behind them??? It's impossible???

[captain]

Wow, I hadn't toyed around with comicbook style drawings. These look amazing!

[evolver]

Amazing lesson Christian. Thank you. Your generosity knows no bounds!

[richardglady]

This was the BEST video I have seen on AI! I love that you not only go step-by-step, but that you go slow enough to be understood/followed. I love that you are very explicit with your prompts. You have a new subscriber and I look forward to watching your videos.

[SmartMoneywithAI-]

Hey there! I just watched your video and I have to say, I'm blown away by your creativity and talent. It's amazing to see how you've used Midjourney to bring your comic book to life. The story and artwork are fantastic, and I can see this becoming a hit with readers. I appreciate you sharing your process and insights with us, it's very helpful for those of us who are looking to create our own comics or graphic novels. Thanks for sharing your amazing work with us and keep up the great work!

[duesenberger]

Very interesting! And I like the step-by-step-approach that You take! This is helpful.

[KimberlyGoh]

Wow, Christian - this video was GOLD!