For my own amusement, I recently used Google's Gemini AI to create images based on characters and incidents in Book 1 of my novel FIANCHETTO. The results were . . . interesting. Unlike the freakish "chess pieces in an x-ray skull" I tried a few months ago, these new images were much more natural. Some are downright creepy, being so close to my original concept as to be unsettling.
Some images were relatively easy to generate. Others took numerous tries to fine tune things the way I wanted. I append some comments on this to the picture captions. The images are arranged in rough chronological order as they appear in the novel.
One recurrent problem I never quite solved is Gemini's dogged insistence on making characters pretty. In some cases I had to pile on adjectives to get the image closer to my mental picture. With one or two exceptions, please consider all the characters you see are better looking than conceived!
Catching crayfish, from the prologue. Easy image to create.
Shawn teaches Victor how to play chess.
This image took only one try.
Victor's friend locked up for fighting.
This one was spooky; I didn't specify hair
style or clothing, and Gemini did this.
Victor's mother, founder of Fysikos Farm.
Victor's absent father, Adam. He's a
physician's assistant, so I asked the AI
to put him in scrubs. Gemini added the
'scope and coffee mug on its own!
Armand de Dernier, owner of FORT
and Victor's nemesis.
This required a little tweaking to
get the wardrobe I wanted.
The Librarian. I specified "old technology"
on his desk and got this. Not exactly right
but not bad. His age and look are good.
The manaical debutante herself, Ash Emerson.
Getting the sneer took some effort. Gemini
did the background all on its own.
A self-driving cab in L.A., 2065. I wanted
a different aspect-ratio, but settled for
this as the background was so good.
Talk show maven Karasu Nohane. This one
was hard. I asked for a confident, tall, Japanese
woman and kept getting uniformed North Korean
looking commissars. Gemini botched the katakana.
The correct ones are in black below her name.
Victor's chess coach and second, Dian
Suparmanputri. Gemini kept glamming
her up, but I managed to tone it down to this.
Valentin Malenkov, VP of the Russian
company that owns ARAKHNA.
This is one of the best realizations; it's
my imagination brought to life.
Erika Freitag, Victor's sponsor. She's dressed for
dinner at a fine Munich hotel. Her vivid red hair
took some work. The resulting image is more
artificial than most of the AI's efforts.
The buskers in Munich. Nice trio, but I
could not convince the AI to make the
scene dim. Too much light.
Erika's father, Nobel Prize winning
cyberneticist Hermann Freitag. I asked
for "intellectual and studious," and got
this rather silly pose, but the face and
shirt are good. This is supposed to be
at the Outer Banks.
Governor of North Carolina, Mikel Kareem.
Good face and physique, background
is a little vague, but not bad.
The ferry on the Bodensee. Easy
image, got it in 2 tries.
Retired Hungarian grandmaster János
Márton.
This was a difficult image. I kept getting
cuddly old gents instead of a crusty
curmudgeon.
The railgun. This was the hardest image I
came up with. I must have gone through
15-20 versions, and this was the best.
Simone Hart, ex-US Army, Victor's
bodyguard. Gemini kept offering
me Wonder Woman, and I wanted
a tough, working woman instead.
I got her.
Victor himself. He's too handsome, but
after toning down several hunks, this view was
acceptable. Note the weird shoe sole next
to his leg. I didn't get many bizarre AI
artefacts, but this was one.
For quick and dirty illustrations, Gemini wasn't too bad. It was a fun exercise. Back in 2017 when I first began working on the novel, I scoured the web for pictures of people that resembled the characters in the book. I could never show those to anyone though, as they were real people.
One problem I did have was trying different pictures using previously created characters. They don't match, of course. As an example, here's Erika Freitag and Simone Hart teaming up at the Outer Banks.
They don't much resemble their earlier images, but their
expressions are very good. The pistol tucked in Simone's
wetsuit is odd, but at least she has the right number
of fingers!
Future images from Book II:
huge! The detail was so good I left it
alone, but the field in the novel is not so
enormous.
The Zeppelin's cabaret chanteuse,
Eiko Bing. When I specified the singer
was Japanese, the AI decided everyone
in the audience was too.
Vintage tech guru Lex Bradley. This was
brilliant! The pose, the T-shirt, the
junk on the floor is all the AI's doing.
Purser Parn, of the good ship Liisbet Koppel.
Simone dressed for the cabaret on board
the Zeppelin Otto Lilienthal. The background
and diners, etc.are not correct, but the that's
a good rendition of Simone.
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