Tutorial: A little hack to use GPT Image 2 for brainstorming and creative drafts

I think a lot of people know this problem: generating ai art can make things easier and have amazing results, but actually finding your way to these "good" results can take a lot of time. and eat up a lot of energy!

i'll give an example: i wanted to create a kind of futuristic cyborg DJ, but brainstorming how they are gonna look like, and then (essentially) doing trial and error with the ai generator... well, I wasted hours on this.

Sometimes one needs to spent a lot of time *thinking* about the art one wants, and how to phrase it correctly to the ai generator, before things finally work out.

So, by accident I stumbled upon a little hack with GPT Image 2, that bypasses this bottleneck and gets one quickly to these sweet results.

I am certain I am not the only one who "discovered" this, but I want to write about it anyway.

The idea is: you can give a *general* idea about the artwork you want, and tell GPT Image to give you a set of tiles with the artwork.
a grid, for example of 3x3 tiles or 3x4. that would give you 9 or 12 different images.

and then gpt image 2 does the whole brainstorming session itself, you don't need to worry about it anymore. it generates a number of possible artworks, and you can simple download the image and cut out the one you want to use. or generate a new set of tiles again, until you are happy.

how is this different from just generating 9 "full" images in a row, by repeating the same prompt?

well, as you can see by the example images, gpt image 2 is *much* more creative and diverse with the generated images this way. if you just prompt it 9 times with the same prompt, it is likely to generate very similar images. but not with this method!

obviously, this is suited for specific artworks, like icons, pixel art, game characters, and such... that do not exactly need a high resolution.
but it could also work for high resolution images: generate characters this way, cut out the one you want to use, then run it through gpt image 2 with image reference, and it will blow your character up to "life size!".

now let us look at some of the possible uses for this hack.
just like with the other tutorials, i will go with a "retro pixel art" theme, but for your own images, you would not need to do this.

prompt: create a 3x3 grid of 16 bit style futuristic pixel art characters.

so we have a selection of 9 images now. if i like the top right one and want to use it for my game, i can cut it out and discard the rest:

we can also be very specific about the theme. for example an rgp taking place in an egyptian setting.

prompt: create a 3x3 grid of 16 bit style pixel art characters for a rpg with an egypt theme.

or if we want to have variations of a specific character.

prompt: create a 3x3 grid of 16 bit style pixel art characters for a futuristic game. cool space rogues with green hair.

the user could then, for example, decided to use the top left one for their game.

but it does not even have to be humans or creatures!
how about some space ships?

prompt: create a 3x3 grid of 16 bit style pixel art space ships for a futuristic game.

or buildings for a world building game?

prompt: create a 3x3 grid of 16 bit style pixel art buildings for a world building game. isometric tiles with futuristic buildings.

the possibilities are, once again, endless.

bonus images:

Tutorial for GPT Image 2: Creating a retro era space video game

Hi friends,
It's time for another tutorial. And I will stay with the topic of retro-gaming and pixel artworks. But no, don't worry, this time it is not about "point and click" adventure games ;-)

It's about a space game. The concept is: you play a kind of interstellar rogue on his quest to save the galaxy and beyond!

And the aim of the tutorial is to show off the unique abilities of gpt image 2.

Specifically: to show how you can use one character art in the most diverse scenes and settings of other concept artwork. Throughout this retro game concept.

Let's start. I generate a character for our little space game draft.

Looks fine! I used this prompt:

create a 16 bit style pixel art character. futuristic, blue hair. looks like a space rogue.

What does a real game need? A title screen, of course!

So let's try to put our little blue man into one. Using this prompt:

put him into a 90s era space game "intro" screen.

Okay, start of the game. Level 1.
Let's begin with the story. Our rogue is imprisoned on an alien planet, deep underground, and he needs to fight his way up to the surface, through the labyrinths and catacombs:

I used this prompt to create the art.

put him into a 90s era space maze game. you can change the character to fit the game. but he should still be recognizable.

Level 2. We have reached the surface, and now our blue guy needs to find and get into his space ship.

The art was created with this prompt. Note that the "game" has switched from top down 2d to a third person 3d view.

put him into a 90s era "third person perspective" shooter game. you can change the character to fit the game.

Level 3: our hero has escaped, and found a bit time to relax on a space station somewhere.

Prompt used:

put him into a 90s era space game screen. it shows him drinking coffee inside a space station.

Level 4: Now that our rogue has been freed, the game changes into a strategic view:

I used this prompt for the art:

put him into a 90s era space exploration strategy game. you can change the character to fit the game. but he should still be recognizable.

We could go on this way, almost endlessly, but I will stop for now.

As you can see, with gpt image 2 we can put our character into very different designs and scenes. 2d, 3d, action, strategy, "relaxing"... and the looks of the character more or less stays coherent. These image were literally created within seconds.
These draft concepts could then be used to create a real video game.

Your imagination is really the only limit here!