Making art has never been this easy
By Amy Smith
Artificial Intelligence may sound frightening to some of you, and it is easy to understand why if you grew up watching the likes of The Matrix. Technology is advancing rapidly now, and it can be daunting to keep up with the latest news, to find out what impact AI may have in our future. However, I have discovered something that offers a more nuanced shade: a mobile app called ‘Dream’.
In case you have not heard of this, Dream is an app that uses AI to create images within seconds by letting the user type a quick description of what they want to see. Dream uses a variety of filters to style the artwork in the user’s desired choice. The developers of the app, Wombo, originally had success in February 2021 with an app that turned selfies into lip-syncing deepfakes. As of March 2022, the Dream by Wombo app has over 1 million downloads on Android with a rating of 4.8/5 stars.
During my time with the app over the last four months, the developers have been continuing to make improvements. New filters are being added frequently with the latest inclusions being the Studio Ghibli filter and the Psychedelic filter – I don’t think I need to explain what either of those do. Not only that, but the latest update also included the option of uploading a reference photo that the app will take inspiration from when creating your AI artwork. As of March 2022, there are no adverts and no in-app purchases when it comes to maintaining the app, but there are now options to purchase a physical copy of your artwork as either a poster, framed print, or canvas.
Even after all this time, I am still constantly left impressed with the artwork that this AI is able to produce. Whether you give it a location within the world, an animal, or a character in pop-culture, this app will usually be able to generate something that resembles what you are looking for. There are some filters that don’t work as well, but these filters will usually improve and develop over time with the prompts that other users put in. The developers have also recently removed specific filters that proved to be unpopular, such as Rose Gold – a filter that focused on an autumnal colour palette – and Ukiyoe – inspired by Japanese artwork. With the addition of the Studio Ghibli filter, the Ukiyoe filter was no longer needed on the application. As for the Rose Gold filter, I did think there was potential for it when it was first released, but the lack of improvement over the months made it a choice that I did not use.
For newcomers to the app, I wouldn’t recommend immediately uploading a reference photo. It is a great function to have, but right now even when you select the photo to be a weak reference for the created artwork it still takes a lot of inspiration from it. It is a lot more fun to begin the app by learning what it already can produce from just the text given and playing around with the preset filters. You will also learn quickly that certain filters work better for specific prompts, but interesting artwork can be made with most of them. All three pieces of artwork shown in this article have been created using the same prompt: Scotland. Just one word, no reference image used and no further context. Some filters excel in landscape design and realism, while others take an abstract approach to the prompt, and yet I was able to get interesting results with a simple prompt through almost every current filter choice.
It is so easy to get addicted with the artwork that you create through Dream that you end up spending hours on your phone coming up with fresh prompts and sharing your favourite ones online. With the option to refresh on a bad design and to ‘publish’ the ones you love by saving the artwork online, the algorithm is quickly learning how to improve and what the desired outcome should be. Perhaps not everything that is advancing technologically has to be daunting or life-changing, and instead can just be used to impress us.
Dream by Wombo is available for free on iOS and Android.
Photos created using the Dream by Wombo app, generated by Amy Smith
