AI Landscape painting tools are a powerful artificial intelligence that allows you to create beautiful landscapes with the click of a button. With Nvidia's GauGAN tool - and many other landscape generation tools - you can easily add an extra layer of creativity to your art practice. In this blog post, we will show you how to use AI Landscape generators to create stunning works of art.
What is AI art?
AI art is a new form of art that is created with the help of computers. AI art can take many different forms, but it typically involves using algorithms to generate or manipulate images. Some AI artists use neural networks to create realistic images, while others may use generative adversarial networks to create abstract or surrealistic images. GAN style algorithms lead to text-to-art generation, which is great for artists with good vocabulary (read more here).
Many AI artists also experiment with Generative Design, which is a method of using algorithms to generate hundreds or even thousands of potential designs, and then selecting the best design based on certain criteria. AI art is still a relatively new field, and there are no clear rules or guidelines for what qualifies as art. As a result, AI artists are often pushing the boundaries of what is possible, and their work is constantly evolving.
It's such a cool field, and I'm so happy to be a part of the next generation of art. Although I believe we are years away from "stunning landscapes" - I do think there's a lot to gain from the iterative process of designing AI outputs.
What are generative adversarial networks?
Ok, so there are a lot of art generation techniques out there, but the most common AI model is the GAN, which basically creates a checking/revision loop. A single GAN framework checks a generative sketch against what it knows to be "true" about something.
For example, if you ask for a drawing of an ocean, the computer will give itself positive feedback when the algorithm delivers deep blue of ocean with waves. It will give itself negative feedback if the ocean has eyes. In this way, GAN algorithms can create semi-lifelike images.
Nvidia's free tool is a GAN called GauGAN. The AI playground is completely free to explore, so I recommend that you explore their tutorial and then poke around in the tool to see if you can make your artist's vision come to life.
Can I only do text to image generation?
No, you can turn sketches or imported images into masterpieces on the Nvidia canvas. It's the most advanced no-code tool that I know of for experimenting with deep learning. The fact that Nvidia research makes the resources of these powerful supercomputers available to the average person is really cool. Like, seriously cool.
Is all GAN generation free?
No. Nvidia's tool is free, but there are many other GAN art generators out there that take different inputs, from a single word to a series of drawings, and makes a painting from them. In 2022, you can try out:
- Nvidia's GauGAN
- Playform (freemium)
- HotPot (freemium)
- Text2Art (freemium)
- Midjourney (freemium)
The freemium models may only let you run a single model, or give you a very low resolution image. They will entice you to subscribe or purchase credits in order to make revisions to your scene, change up your style, or incorporate a drawing into your landscape scene.
Can I expect higher quality or photorealistic art out of these tools?
If you're willing to pay, you can expect to be able to upscale the outputs of these demo tools. If you have access, you can also use Adobe Photoshop to upscale an AI painting that you've made, or make other improvements to the PSD file. It really just depends on how savvy you are with technology.
What other AI landscape images can I make?
If you know how to code, the sky is going to be your limit with image generation. And the amount of computing power you have. Deep learning takes a lot of resources, so your landscape images are really going to depend on what kind of model you build and what kind of inputs you have.
Nvidia GauGAN review
This tool is really complex. That's not a bad thing, but if you're just trying to play around with an image, it gets real technical, real quick. Nvidia is the only one of these that offers semantic segmentation and an editable segmentation map. If you're into a learning curve, this will be a great tool. If you're just looking for something quick, hit up another tool.
Playform review
I think Playform in particular strikes a good balance of keeping things simple for image generation without losing too much out on quality. The sky and clouds look realistic enough, and artifacts are minimal in most Playform generations once you get used to it.
The only downside to Playform is that it doesn't accept words, only rough sketches. So if you want to just type a word or a sentence and let the computer do the work, you'll be out of luck. But if you're willing to draw something up, it can be really interesting to see how Playform interprets your sketches.
HotPot review
HotPot reminds me of another, Desktop, program, called RunwayML. That company has since switched gears and focuses on videos, but for a while, they let you generate images. It's actually what got me into art in the first place. HotPot's images are very small, so you'll have to do some clean up to get them in a polished look.
Text2Art review
I just stumbled onto Text2Art from an article they wrote. They get huge props from me because they've offered a Google Colab notebook where you can try it yourself. The options are a little restricted, but it's a great tool to get your feet wet. Text2Art, like HotPot, relies on image generation from text only. It may be "down for maintenance" but you can copy my copy of their Colab notebook here.
Final thoughts
The field of AI is changing so rapidly that it's honestly hard to keep up with all of the cool apps and programs out there. An app will show up, and just a few months later, that app will be gone. I hope that some of these programs will keep their feed and start producing pictures that are truly awe-worthy.
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