AI art generators are incredibly popular right now because of their ability to generate detailed art after receiving a written prompt. The prompt can be as long or short as you like, but the more information a program has to give, the more likely it is to create anything you imagine. Crazy, right?
While there are several of these programs such as Bing Image Creator and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, Midjourney is one of the most popular as it can work with many different styles and offers a free trial. However, it can be difficult to use if you’re not already familiar with Discord, the social chat program that hosts it. No problem. Here’s how to set up and use Midjourney on Discord.
Note: AI art generators like Midjourney were trained by feeding them actual artist work without their permission. This is why some artists are suing AI art generators for stealing their works. You should keep this in mind when using Midjourney and note that the rules for these programs may change in the future.
Getting started with Midjourney on Discord
Midjourney can only be used within Discord, the popular social messaging and video calling software. This means you must have a Discord account before using Midjourney. Create a free Discord account now if you don’t already have one. It can be used on your desktop computer or your phone.
Now that you have your free Discord account, you can continue with the following steps to learn how to use Midjourney:
- Go to Midjourney.com (opens in new tab) and click Join the beta.
- Click on Continue to Discord when this screen appears.
- Choose Join Midjourney. You will then have to take a CAPTCHA test to prove you are human.
- If you have never been to the Midjourney server, a small help box with information will appear. Read it if you want or choose it Deny. If you have previously joined the Midjourney server, a blank page will open and you need to click white sailboat midjourney icon on the left side of the screen to enter the server.
- To start AI art generation, click on one of the Newcomer room Channels on the left side of the screen. Here you join other free trial users and can input prompts to get 1:1 AI generated art.
- Click the command box at the bottom of the window and type “/introduce” (without the quotation marks) then select the Crate that shows up above.
- Enter what you want in the prompt box, as long as it doesn’t violate Midjourney’s user rules, which can be found in one of the info channels. Adding lots of detail to your prompt is more likely to make your images look the way you want them to.
- Prompt example #1: Colorful illustration of a kite flying through the night sky roasting a playful marshmallow art style
- Prompt example #2: Hyper-realistic portrait of a woman eating berries while burning, gothic art style surrounded by red roses and black bats 8K, 16:9, depth of field
- If this is your first time using Midjourney, the Midjourney bot will respond and prompt you to accept the terms of service. Read it through and if you agree with everything, select it Accept Terms and conditions.
- Now Midjourney is working on the prompt you wrote earlier. Give him a few minutes. The more people are actively using the Newcomer Room, the longer it may take to get to your prompt. After a while, Midjourney generates four images based on your prompt. Scroll to the end of the channel to view it.
- Nine buttons appear below the generated graphic. Each of the four images is assigned a number: 1 is top left, 2 is top right, 3 is bottom left, and 4 is bottom right. The buttons below correspond to this order. Here’s what buttons do:
- U1-U4: U stands for Upscale. Selecting one of these buttons will generate a higher resolution image of the thumbnail it correlates with. There will be slight changes between the initial thumbnail and the upscaled image that is created.
- V1-V4: V stands for variation. This will create four different variations that resemble the image the button corresponds to.
- Update: By pressing this button, Midjourney will generate four brand new images based on the original prompt.
Picture 1 from 4
- After pressing one of the U keys, the upscaled image will appear with various keys underneath. Here’s what they mean:
- make variations: Make four variations of the picture. This can result in very subtle differences that can completely change the feel.
- Light Upscale Repeat: Upscales the image to 1024 x 1024p and adds more detail to the image.
- Beta Upscale Replay: Upscales the image to 1024 x 1024p while keeping it largely untouched.
- remasters: Retouches an image created in an older version of Midjourney by running it through the latest algorithm. Only displayed in some cases.
- network: Takes you to the official Midjourney website.
- favourite: Lets you let others know if you like the picture you’re viewing. You can also right-click the image and select Add Reaction to tag it with an emoji.
You can still create prompts and get AI-generated graphics back as long as the beta trial is available to you. Note that the free trial isn’t available when Midjourney has a lot of users until demand calms down.
How to sign up for a Midjourney subscription
You have limited access to Midjourney’s features unless you decide to actually pay for a subscription. There are three midjourney subscription plans: a Basic plan at $8 per month, a Standard plan at $24 per month, or a Pro plan at $48 per month billed annually. As you might expect, the more you pay, the more features you get. How to get your subscription.
- Go to the command box in one of the newcomer rooms and type “/Subscription” (without the quotation marks) and then select the Crate that appears above.
- The midjourney bot responds. Choose Open subscription page.
- Choose Yes!
- You will be redirected to the subscription page. Read the details of each plan, choose Subscribe to Choose the plan that works best for you and enter your payment information.
A subscription gives you priority access to Midjourney over trial users, and you can get additional perks depending on the plan you choose. Have fun inserting all the prompts you can think of into the AI art generator and tweaking things to get everything just right.
Create detailed graphics in seconds
As long as you include plenty of detail in your written prompt, Midjourney should be able to pump out something like what you want. You may need to rephrase yourself or find more meaningful words to type. Look at other users’ prompts to get a better idea of what to type. Really, the possibilities are as endless as your imagination and your ability to describe things.
With several substantive lawsuits filed against AI art generator companies, including Midjourney, it’s hard to predict what the rules for AI art generation will be in the years to come. In any case, it’s good to think about the ethical implications of using software that has been populated with artwork without the artist’s permission.
