Midjourney Aviation Art. The Quest For Stunning Aviation Art and Images
Is Midjourney aviation art a thing yet? Most of my attempts at creating stunning visual aviatoin imagery this way have failed so far. The results from prompts that specify the aircraft type or use a common name like ‘Boeing Jumbo jet‘ are clearly recognised but fail to produce an accurate depiction of the aircraft. The results are so bad they hurt my eyes. They look deformed, as if several new aircraft have been cut up and welded together in the most haphazard way.
I confess I’m still a Midjourney newbie. I’ve had better luck with Open.ai’s DALL-E 3, which is now available to ChatGPT Plus users. From the outset this tool was able to produce an image that looked like a realistic depiction of a Cessna 172 on the apron of a conventional airfield. With Midjourney, my prompts produced an 747 two engines under one wing and one engine under another, and one with a deformed nosewheel, and another with just two engines. It was recognisably a 747 but the fuselage was the only accuracy.
For most other subjects, Midjourney AI is an amazing art generator tool that allows you to create stunning images and artwork using just text prompts. So, with the power of AI, you should also be able to generate breathtaking visuals of aircraft, pilots, airports, and more, as well. Whether you are an aviation enthusiast, artist, marketer, or designer, Midjourney opens up exciting new creative possibilities, but there’s a knack to it so it takes practice.
What Exactly is Midjourney AI?
Midjourney is an independent AI research lab focused on exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species. Developed by Anthropic, it uses a text-to-image AI model called DALL-E to generate completely original images and art from the text prompts you provide.
With just a few words or sentences, Midjourney can create photo-realistic and artistic interpretations of nearly any aviation concept you describe. All it takes is some creativity and experimentation with prompts.
How Does Midjourney AI Work?
Midjourney is built on top of a neural network called CLIP that has been trained on a massive dataset of text captions and their corresponding images. By entering a text prompt, the AI generates an image that closely matches the caption.
The key is learning how to craft detailed prompts with the keywords and descriptions that will unlock Midjourney’s creative potential. The AI attempts to create something novel that captures the essence of what you describe.
Why Midjourney Aviation Art Has Potential
For aviation enthusiasts, artists, marketers, and designers, Midjourney could be the perfect tool to bring your aviation ideas and passions to life visually. Here are some of the key reasons the AI might be ideal for aviation creatives, assuming you develop the correct prompts:
- Limitless possibilities – You can visualize any aircraft, pilot, airport, or aviation concept with realism or artistic flair. The scope is endless.
- Speed – Images generate rapidly, often in under a minute. You can quickly iterate on ideas.
- Completely original – The AI creates fully new images so you don’t have to worry about copyright issues.
- Stylization – Dial up the realism or make it more graphic, abstract, or stylized. Prompt for any art style.
- Cost effective – For unlimited personal use, access starts at just $10/month. Way cheaper than hiring designers.
Whether you want to create aviator portraits, aviation advertisements, plane sketches, or concept aircraft, Midjourney provides the means to produce stunning visual content that will impres anyone passionate about aviation.
Subjects For Aviation Art with Midjourney
To spark your creativity, here are some aviation related challenges for you. See if you can get Midjourney to create stunning aviation visuals of the following:
- Photorealistic aircraft portraits – Detailed plane headshots worthy of aviation museum exhibits.
- Retro pilot illustrations – Vintage drawn pilot portraits with leather jackets and scarves.
- Aircraft advertisements – Vivid plane images for aviation marketing materials and ads.
- Futuristic concept jets – Sleek new aircraft designs to envision the future of flight.
- Aviation landscapes – Planes soaring above stunning horizons and cloudscapes.
- Cockpit illustrations – Immersive first-person views from airplane cockpits.
- Whimsical cartoon planes – Cute animated aircraft characters for kids.
- Airport sketches – Terminal and runway illustrations that capture the bustle.
The possibilities are truly endless and you may find yourself thinking of many ideas that you want to bring to life.
Step-By-Step Guide to Using Midjourney
Ready to start creating your own aviation art and images (or any other subjects) with Midjourney? Here is a step-by-step guide to get started:
Sign Up for Midjourney
- Go to midjourney.com and click “Sign Up”
- Choose to sign up with your email or connect with your Discord account
- Confirm your email and set a password
Join the Midjourney Discord
- Midjourney is primarily operated through Discord. Once signed up, join the Midjourney Discord server.
More about Discord
Discord can be used directly in a web browser by going to discord.com and logging in or signing up for an account. This allows you to access Discord servers and chat channels without downloading anything.
The Discord desktop app provides some additional features and a more native application experience. The desktop app can be downloaded for Windows, Mac, Linux from the Discord website.
The desktop app offers features like:
- Voice chat and video calling
- Enhanced notifications and activity features
- Ability to share your screen
- Better system integration and hardware optimization
Subscribe to Midjourney
- Midjourney offers a free trial but then requires a paid subscription. Choose a subscription plan that fits your needs.
The basic subscription is about $12 per month at the moment. It gives you the ability to create about 200 images per month. That should be plenty for the first month, while you get the hang of it.
Generate Your First Image
- Go to the #newbies channel in Discord
- Type “/imagine” and tab once. The write a text prompt describing the image you want to generate
- For example: “/imagine a cute baby elephant playing with a beach ball on the beach”
- Midjourney will start generating 4 image variations based on your prompt
- Choose your favorite image by reacting with emojis
Tip: Other people are sharing the channel and their prompts generate images too, so your prompt may disappear upwards as the thread lengthens. Make a note of the timestamp on your prompt when you add it so that you can scroll back to it. Alternatively, use the search box (top right corner) and enter ‘mentions:’ followed by your user name. All your activity will appear in the results and you can click on any result return to that prompt.
Midjourney vs DALL-E 3 for Aviation Art
I used this exact same prompt in both Midjourney and DALL-E 3: “Cessna 172 parked in front of hangar, grass airfield, daylight, clear blue sky, hyper realistic –ar 4:3“
The results, as you can see vary. The best image is the one from DALL-E 3. All four images it produced were recognisably Cessna 172s, but the Midjourney collection contained three with missing undercarriages and other errors.
Genral Tips for Better Midjourney Prompts
tt’s all down to the prompts, so learning all the parameters available to you will help. In the meantime, just a few instructions are enough to get you started.
- Use descriptive adjectives and avoid ambiguous terms
- Specify details like the style, lighting, color palette, etc
- Review Midjourney prompt guidelines
- Join one of the many Facebook groups on this subject and experiment with prompts that others publish
And that’s it! Have fun exploring Midjourney and generating amazing AI art. Be creative with your prompts and don’t be afraid to try new styles or combinations of ideas.
Conclusion and Next Steps
As you can see, Midjourney AI is an incredibly powerful tool to create visionary aviation artwork, images, designs, and more.
The AI instantly generates completely original and high quality visuals based on your creative prompts. This allows aviation enthusiasts to bring concepts to life with ease.
To get started with Midjourney:
- Join the Discord channel and purchase a plan
- Craft detailed prompts using relevant aviation keywords
- Experiment and iterate to refine your results
- Upscale and enhance images for final polish
- Showcase and share your AI generated aviation art
Unleash your inner aviation artist or designer with Midjourney today. And let me know if you can produce an accurate depiction of a Vickers Vimy or a Shorts Sunderland.
