What I Learned Creating AI Images for eLearning

Like many of you, I’ve been playing around with AI for image generation. There is a certain magic to it all. Add a text query and within minutes you’ll be presented with mostly viable images. On the surface, everything is really cool. Many of us use stock images. This works OK, but the problem with stock images is that they are stock and very generic. Trying to find specific images to meet the needs of our courses is not always easy.

And that’s where the promise of AI imaging comes in. Need a specific image? Enter a descriptive query and you’ll get exactly what you want, when you want it. However, it doesn’t really work that way.

I use Midjourney for my experimentation.

This query: A 40-year-old person lifts a box in a warehouse, forklift in the background, Crewsdon style, became the image below. Looks nice, but obviously not very usable.

Challenges with AI images

There are currently a number of challenges that leverage AI to create the images you really need for your eLearning courses. Here are a few:

It’s a weather tiger. Playing around with creating an image is undeniably fun. I mean, who wouldn’t get lost in the endless possibilities? But here’s the catch – it takes a lot of experimenting with queries and tweaking images until they meet our expectations.
Consistency is key, but not always easy to achieve. You might end up with a fantastic image, but getting multiple versions of it with the same style and character can be quite a challenge. And that brings us back to the previous point about spending too much time messing with image generators. I honestly have no idea how all this magic happens. I’ll get three similar images and then the AI throws in some random, nonsensical creation. It’s as if the artificial intelligence took a sip of whiskey and got too creative!
Let’s talk about those strange artifacts. The AI seems to struggle with hands and poses. Sometimes you’ll get a hand with perfect perspective, other times you’ll get a hand on the wrong hand or with missing or extra fingers. Heck, sometimes you’ll even get extra arms or missing legs! It can definitely be a bit of a mixed bag.
Another challenge lies in the built-in biases of artificial intelligence. For example, images of women often lean toward excessive sexuality. And there can be prejudices related to race and gender. These things will eventually be corrected as technology develops. When creating images, it’s important to be aware of these biases and use instructions to mitigate them.

Tips Creating AI images

That said, over time, as technology evolves, many of these challenges will be resolved. In the meantime, here are some tips that have helped me while trying to get the right pictures:

Find inspiration in the work of others. If you come across an image style you like, try to find the query that was used to create it. Then run your own tests with similar instructions and see what you get. If the results are pleasing to your creative eye, save that query for future reference.

Keep things simple. I have found that using simple queries gives better results. Start by specifying the object you want, provide some context, add a description, and specify the style you’re aiming for. When you find something you like, just change one variable. For example, if you have a fantastically illustrated character and your query was “Asian woman,” try using the exact same query, but change it to “Asian,” “black,” “black,” “Hispanic,” and so on. The image below shows the results. Basically all of these characters could work on the same course.

Make a handy list of the different industries, environments, characters and situations for which you often need images. Then, when you get a good result, simply replace those elements. You will be surprised how quickly you can generate sustainable asset wealth. I recently tried this approach while working on stock characters and in just an hour I created 24 folders with 15 unique characters in each. That’s an incredible 360 characters in a short amount of time!

Familiarize yourself with the AI tool you choose to work with. Each tool has its own characteristics and nuances. The more you experiment and play with it, the better you’ll understand what to expect. Remember, the secret lies in the art of prompting. When you have a good understanding of how instructions work within your chosen tool, you will gain more control and achieve better results.
The AI-generated image you get is just a starting point. If you’re going to use AI in this way for your eLearning images, consider it a means to create a general style and character types. You can then take that AI image and work with an illustrator to create custom images that fit your needs perfectly. It’s a brilliant way to determine exactly what you need before diving into the final creation of the artwork.
Working with AI generated images involves a lot of work. It’s not a simple process of just creating something and downloading it. You will come across various artifacts and oddities in the images you receive. At first glance they may seem fantastic, but if you take a closer look, you might notice strange eyes, distorted faces, missing fingers or even extra limbs. Of course, you can still use these images, but you’ll have to live with the artifacts, and they might not give off the most professional vibe.

With that said…

I’m definitely not an AI wizard. But, I had this idea to explore how we can create fantastic images in the blink of an eye, without the need for a bunch of editing. And guess what? I think I found a happy medium! In my next post, I’ll share some tips that even non-AI gurus like us can use.

But wait, before we dive into all that, let’s start with a bang!

Introducing Sarah, our superstar of the day. You can download this illustrated character absolutely FREE. I’ve cleaned up these images, enhanced them and even added transparent backgrounds. They are primed and ready for action. So what are you waiting for? Get your hands on this amazing character download and get creative.

Oh, just a warning, there’s more. Expect some fantastic characters that I designed while practicing the use of artificial intelligence. They are perfect for spicing up your eLearning courses.