Creating imagery in Midjourney is quite easy and straight forward. Using the /imagine prompt with just a few words you can generate amazing imagery . The simplicity of midjourney does also deliver a level of randomness making it difficult to obtain reproducible results or consistent look and feel across multiple images.
This post will guide you through 2 workflows I use.
The first is actually defining a seed value in my intial prompt.
The second is where I go and get seed values from past images and apply them to new images. This has helped me gain more control over my outputs and find a level of consistency when generating imagery.
Simple text prompt and result
Lets take this simple prompt:
/imagine interior, Exhibition stall with pool, inspired by toyo ito and zaha hadid, concrete, mimicking the trees
For a simple text prompt this output is amazing. Lets rerun that prompt again.
/imagine interior, Exhibition stall with pool, inspired by toyo ito and zaha hadid, concrete, mimicking the trees
Again this grid of images look great, however you can see the differences. Different tone, some are not interior images and the look and feel of the structure, layout and feel is different from my orginal output.
Why does this happen and what is the seed?
The reason we get different images when using the same prompt each time is because midjourney uses randomness to generate the images. By default, Midjourney selects a random seed value for each generation process. That seed value defines the or field of visual noise or noise pattern (look and feel) as a starting point to create your initial image grid.
The seed number itself is not that important as it is simply used to make the result random. this is where my first workflow is useful
Workflow 1 - Defining a seed value
By defining a seed value in our initial prompt we can force Midjourney to use a specific starting point for our prompt. To set the seed value in your prompt use the "seed" command. add --seed onto the end of your prompt with a random set of numbers. Make sure you place a space between seed and the numbers. So it looks like --seed 1234 not --seed1234
villa, slung flat roof terracotta, facade with expansive, desert, cactus, settled like palm springs and pool --seed 1234
and again same prompt and seed...
villa, slung flat roof terracotta, facade with expansive, desert, cactus, settled like palm springs and pool --seed 1234So we can see same seed + same prompt = same output
Workflow 2 - Finding past seed values
If you didnt specify a seed value when you created your intial grid thats not a problem. Midjourney will have generated a random seed value. we cna find that seed value on an image grid aswell as upscaled images by following these steps.
In your discord message thread with Midjourney find your image > click the 3 dots over on the rght hand side of the message > type in 'envelope' and react to the message with the envelope emoji.
You will then recieve a mesage from Midjourney that shows that image, its job number and importantly the seed number Midjourney used.
Bonus workflow - same seed number with altered prompt
so now we have that seed number we could either create that image again using the same prompt and the seed number or what I like to do is alter my prompt slightly and apply the seed number to get a different image using the same field of visual noise.
my oringial prompt was :
single storey house, concrete, green tint, plan, forest, minimalist, photographyIf slightly changed the prompt and added the seed number from my original image above
loungeroom single storey house, concrete, green tint, plan, forest, minimalist, photography --seed 1521131725
bedroom single storey house, concrete, green tint, plan, forest, minimalist, photography --seed 1521131725
So there you have it. You can see by specifying the seed or applying a seed to future images you get the same noise field applied to subsequent images. This is good if you are creating a number of visuals that are connected and apply to a single project where you want to keep the same language or look and feel across your images. As always share your thoughts below on your experience with the seed prompt.
Comments