AI picture era is evolving at breakneck velocity. Simply while you assume you’ve got seen all of it, one thing new blows your thoughts.
Bear in mind when DALL-E and Midjourney had been launched? It felt like pure magic. Instantly, anybody might create beautiful AI-generated artwork with simply a number of phrases. However the world of synthetic intelligence does not stand nonetheless for lengthy. Increasingly more fashions had been created by the minute, like Firefly and Meta.
And now, now we have Flux.1, the most recent AI picture generator. Created by a few of the sensible minds behind Secure Diffusion, this newcomer is now the speak of the city on Twitter. Its promising photorealism might give Midjourney a run for its cash. The thrill round Flux.1 vs Midjourney is actual.
So how do these two AI powerhouses actually stack up? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Let’s discover out.
What are Luma AI and Midjourney?
Let’s begin with Midjourney, since that’s the one persons are most conversant in. This AI picture generator has been round since 2021, and it’s in all probability the most well-liked, with greater than 20 million customers as of August 2024. Midjourney takes a immediate and creates a picture based mostly on it — and this is only one of its many options, which we’ll get to in a bit.
Right here’s our full overview of Midjourney. In case you’re additionally desirous about prompting, right here’s an incredible article to start out with.
So, Flux.1. It’s extra much like Secure Diffusion than Midjourney since, to be truthful, it’s created by a few of the individuals who helped develop Secure Diffusion. It’s an open-source mannequin that may create photographs from prompts. From what I’ve been seeing on-line, Flux.1 appears to be a promising software for producing reasonable photographs — one thing that Midjourney and DALL-E battle with.
Flux has three completely different fashions: Flux.1 [pro] for business use, Flux.1 [dev] for a extra distilled model of the earlier mannequin, and Flux.1 [schnell] for private use.
Flux.1 vs. Midjourney: Options
Midjourney is only a beast in the case of options. It has widespread options like panning, zooming, image-to-prompt, and variations. However on prime of that, in addition they have extra distinctive options like fashion reference, character reference, and upscaling. And people are simply the tip of the iceberg.
Since releasing V6.1 and their net interface, Midjourney additionally upgraded their area variation characteristic to work extra like an editor. It now lets you spotlight an space from a picture utilizing a brush and alter the immediate, affecting solely the chosen area.
In contrast to Midjourney, Flux.1 doesn’t actually have an interface because it’s only a mannequin and never an software. Whereas this makes it a bit extra inaccessible to newcomers, this additionally makes it a way more versatile possibility, particularly for many who are already conversant in Secure Diffusion.
That mentioned, a few of the web sites that supply Flux.1 do give you some management over side ratio, variety of variations, output format, picture high quality, and NSFW enabling. For instance, take this Replicate web site that’s internet hosting Flux.1 [schnell]:
General, I’d nonetheless say Midjourney has extra options constructed on prime of it, so it takes the cake. But when we’re solely speaking about potential, then Flux.1 may simply be the following huge factor.
Oh and earlier than I transfer onto the following half, I’d identical to to level out one particular use case for Flux.1 that I discovered on-line: you possibly can prepare it with your individual picture. What does this imply? Nicely, simply have a look at this:
Flux.1 vs. Midjourney: Output High quality
Once more, Flux.1 doesn’t have an interface. So, for this take a look at, I’m going to make use of Replicate’s Flux.1 [schnell] picture generator.
Realism Pictures
| Immediate: portrait, a blonde girl strolling alongside a shore, candid images, analog, shot on cinealta | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: portrait, a blonde girl strolling alongside a shore, candid images, analog, shot on cinealta | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: a younger professor educating physics | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
Earlier than writing this text, I did my due diligence by on the lookout for Flux.1 generated photographs on Twitter. What I’ve seen set the bar excessive for my expectations.
However sadly, these expectations haven’t been met.
Don’t get me fallacious — Flux.1 continues to be wonderful for realism. It’s simply that Midjourney’s higher than base Flux.1 (no less than, in opposition to its base [schnell] mannequin). Photographs from Midjourney truly seem like they’re taken by an individual, and never generated by an AI. Flux.1 additionally didn’t observe the immediate I gave for the second comparability.
That mentioned, I’ve little doubt that, as soon as the mannequin’s fine-tuned, Flux.1 might be simply nearly as good (if not higher) than Midjourney.
As for Midjourney’s photographs, I don’t have any complaints apart from the final picture. Looks like there are nonetheless some points right here and there with producing faces even utilizing their newest mannequin.
Panorama Pictures
| Immediate: the grand canyon, panorama images | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | |
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| Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: aurora borealis | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | |
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| Midjourney V6.1 |
Flux.1’s outputs appear somewhat extra clean and brushed up. At first look, they seem like actual photographs, however when you zoom in, you possibly can shortly determine it as AI-generated. Midjourney has the identical drawback to an extent, nevertheless it’s a bit much less noticeable in my view.
Digital Artwork
| Immediate: pixel artwork, a view of the ocean from the shore throughout sundown | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: vector artwork, a child who can management fireplace and ice, 80s comics fashion | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: stunning anime paintings, a schoolgirl turning into an angel, neon streets, anime screencap fashion | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
For the pixel artwork, I truly want Flux.1’s simplicity and notably like how correct the pixels are. The pixels on Midjourney’s model bleed into one another.
As for the opposite two, there’s no query — Midjourney’s creativity outshined Flux.1.
Emblem
| Immediate: a minimalist brand for a barbershop | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
| Immediate: a chair icon | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | Midjourney V6.1 |
For the primary set of logos, I want Flux.1’s output as a result of it has extra of a mass attraction than Midjourney’s model. However for the second, Midjourney takes the cake for making a brand that’s extra distinctive than Flux.1’s model.
Textual content Era
| Immediate: a comfort retailer named “12AM SNACKS” | |
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| Flux.1 [schnell] | |
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| Midjourney V6.1 |
Nicely, each did fairly nice right here at writing the title of the shop, so no complaints from me. It’s actually nice to see how far AI picture mills have are available in simply a short while in the case of textual content era.
Flux.1 vs. Midjourney: Worth
Flux.1 is technically free, however that comes with a number of asterisks. Due to its many (and by many, I imply 12 million) parameters, you want a fairly costly GPU together with a powerhouse system to run it. So, the simplest method to make use of it’s to entry it through their accomplice websites like Hugging Face, Mystic, and Replicate.
A few of these I discussed lets you use Flux.1 [dev] and Flux.1 [schnell] free of charge till you hit a sure variety of runs.
However, Midjourney just isn’t free. It is advisable pay for certainly one of their plans, which begins at $8 monthly.
The Backside Line
So, what is the closing verdict on this conflict of the AI picture mills? For now, Midjourney nonetheless wears the crown for normal photographs, however Flux is rather a lot higher for folks and faces. Its new and already-polished interface, wealth of options, and constantly spectacular AI artwork outputs hold it on the prime of the pack. And this is not the tip of the street for Midjourney too, because it’s solely going to hold getting higher from right here.
However do not depend Flux.1 out simply but. This scrappy newcomer reveals unimaginable promise, particularly within the realm of photorealistic AI-generated photographs. The race between Flux.1 and Midjourney is much from over.
So, who’s the actual winner in all of this? That is us — the customers. This fierce competitors between AI picture fashions is driving speedy innovation. What appeared inconceivable simply years in the past is now at our fingertips, and the ceiling for AI artwork creation retains getting increased.