Category: sref study

This is a “study” (investigation, adventure, trip down a rabbit hole?) into Midjourney style reference 2008. Captions used on the pictures are the text description provided for image generation. Typically (in my experience), the simpler the description, the “truer” to the style reference the images are.

For an initial analysis of style references, I’ll typically use the Midjourney “describe” command to provide a textual description of a number of images in the style. In this case, a common part of the description was that it was in the style of Disney cartoons. So, we’ll run with that as part of the description.

Color Palette

Dark blues and grays primarily, but there will almost always be a red accent.

Style

Digital image, cartoonish but with well blended features.

Racial Characteristics

People portrayed will typically be slim, dark haired, primarily Asian. This can be over-rules by the prompt, as a couple of the “Disney Princess” prompts produced blond and red-haired princesses.

Blending

Multiple copies of an object tend to be identical, whether this is cars, trees, or cloud formations.

sref 3084 has a number of interesting features as detailed below. The captions on the pictures are the text used to generate the image, for the most part being very simplae and allowing the style reference to show its inherent biases.

Setting

For the most part, image settings are during the age of sail, possibly the golden age of the British Empire, all seen through a golden lens of nostalgia. The description of “Captain” results in a sailing ship. Buildings likewise are from a similar era. From the presented images, only the “astronaut” one would be slightly modern.

Color Palette

The predominant color is that of parchment, but overall the palette leans fairly heavily into pastels.

Focus

Typically the bottom of the image will be out of focus, having somewhat of a blur effect.

Artifacts

The style reference often adds faint background artifacts to images that are relevant. In the “captain” image, a sailing ship is added. On the “sailing ship”, a compass rose is added. Often times there is a border added (see “Jack of Diamonds”, “Sailing Ship”, “astronaut”) which is often in faint gold.