Overtime: We Tested Midjourney’s New Editor Live. Here's How to Use It.

0:00Full conversation

Play from 0:00 8:88 0:00 Midjourney dropped V8.2 edit model last night. Last night so not didn't give us a lot of time before this episode. I ran some initial tests that we can just kind of go through and diagnose and then we can also run some stuff on the fly here. I took a crack at maybe five or six things, but we need to really understand like does is this good enough to bring people back into tool and to stay in Tulle for things like this? Because people still love to start with Midjourney, but there becomes this line in the sand where you you have to take it outside of Midjourney to do the editing portion of it. So, like let's get into like what's actually working and we can just kind of talk through where this lives right now. That said, maybe Midjourney, right, like is going to continue to incrementally improve on

Play from 0:48 8:88 0:48 this. So, first of all, let's talk about where you go to get in here. I went in one way and I'm curious.

Play from 0:56 8:88 0:56 Okay. Yeah. And and I haven't the way that I got into it, I don't think is the preferred way to get into it. I'm hoping like let's figure this out together. We're going to give them kind of like a little UIUX experience here. If we were to go into this or if we're just landing on Midjourney, where do we go to edit the image?

Play from 1:15 8:88 1:15 Edit. Edit. Edit a new image. Hey, upload existing. Or

Play from 1:23 8:88 1:23 could Yep. We could go in here. I'll just throw something. Organized, right?

Play from 1:30 8:88 1:30 Okay. Then what? Uh I don't know. Write your edit. Is that how it works? Just do that. Let's see. cuz this is, you know, this I I was wondering when they said edit model if it was just an updating on the edit model itself or

Play from 1:43 8:88 1:43 that's what I was wondering too. Yeah. Yep. Um cuz it was it was very vague. Um

Play from 1:50 8:88 1:50 okay. So this did do it. So I think this is one way in then. This is one way in where what you you got to upload a URL like a a URL or the image itself.

Play from 2:00 8:88 2:00 How I got in here was I was just looking at old images I had. I clicked into one and then hit this quick edit and it tossed it here and I just prompted right here.

Play from 2:11 8:88 2:11 Huh. Okay. Interesting. To me, this is probably the way that I would do it just knowing that that that was my reaction to it.

Play from 2:20 8:88 2:20 Um, it was this image that I started with and then this is what I got. So, I just had it uh change your shirt to a nun's habit. All four of them gave me a habit, right? So I was like, "Okay, solid. Solid." Like easy change. Did it. And then I took this and I just wanted to say like put a put a bruise under her eye. It did that. And this mean this isn't the best image because I think this is like a V7 image, you know, like it's it's not the best skin ever, but I did want to just like test it variably.

Play from 2:51 8:88 2:51 So it it got that. Now there is like some slight differences that I notice even between that, which is she got a little bit more saturated here. Oh, I do see that. I see a little bit more.

Play from 3:04 8:88 3:04 See that? See that warmth being added? And then here again, so I I just wanted to like increase micro contrast skin texture and realism on her skin. This is just sort of like my first quick approach to like just see what it would understand. This got even more considerably warm.

Play from 3:20 8:88 3:20 Mhm. And green now. You see the the the robe? Yeah. Yep. Yep. Got a little green. There's and also I didn't based on this I was like this is not the right uh communication or phrase to improve that. Then I kind of went even a little bit bigger

Play from 3:38 8:88 3:38 and I said something along the lines of like make her skin texture look real visible pore like I called out all the things that make skin texture real right

Play from 3:46 8:88 3:46 and then I also kind of put in the negative guard rails. So then explicitly kill common failure mode so no airbrush skin no beauty retouching blah this is what I got. Um, little bit better results. Still the the contrast though, the color being added to it was driving me a little bit nuts. I did get better results though when I kind of took a lot of this out. I kept all the nose in,

Play from 4:10 8:88 4:10 but the skin here looks much better than I had earlier. Then I was like, okay, like let's make like she had some she, you know, she kind of had like a funky tooth here. So I was like, I don't know. Let's just play with the teeth. Let's see what it gives me. make her two top front teeth gold. One of these teeth should have a slight glare. Give her Bugs Bunny teeth, you know, like. So, I thought like, ah, you know, again, just one-shotting this. So, who who knows if I were to run this, but my general rule is if I don't get what I like in, you know, that that strand of four images, then I need to change something. You know, if I get it in one right, I know that there's something right about it.

Play from 4:47 8:88 4:47 That's the way that I interpret it. I tried this with like a different image. So then I was like, okay, um, I used this image. This was kind of probably a bad example, but I was trying to like get this nose from the cat and the mouth sort of blending together. But you'll notice again, look at the look at the color of the skin change.

Play from 5:07 8:88 5:07 Yeah, it's starting to right. Yes. Like so red. The hue and saturation.

Play from 5:14 8:88 5:14 And so I just thought that was interesting. And then I kind of went into the the camera angle thing, right? like maybe more things that you would expect to see. So, I wanted to see, you know, change to a 3/4 angle, keep her identity, blah blah. Thought this was okay. Subtle differences. Um, change to a side profile, right? I only got the gun on one. So, it it discarded the gun on the other side.

Play from 5:38 8:88 5:38 Change on each one each of them. Um, yep. Change to aerial. Now, I've got like two different backgrounds here,

Play from 5:48 8:88 5:48 right? Um, glasses are pretty solid throughout. The eyes feel relatively the same, but you've got even different hues in this batch,

Play from 6:00 8:88 6:00 which again, like even, you know, let's be fair, like even with Nano and chat, when you when you run those four times, you do get there are variations in those things.

Play from 6:08 8:88 6:08 There's degradation over over edits. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like change to a high angle, it's like that's not really a high angle. Change to a low angle. Okay. Low angle it got. But again, no gun in this one. Okay.

Play from 6:20 8:88 6:20 Um, text. I'm like testing this in the background while you guys are talking. I love Midjourney so much that like they can literally do no wrong. And I think I'm so the opposite of spoiled. I'm so used to like

Play from 6:33 8:88 6:33 the slot from them and going through the process that like the results I'm getting right now, the fact that I can like zoom out.

Play from 6:40 8:88 6:40 I'm like I'm like this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. We we need we needed an edit model in here. I like I've been saying that this is

Play from 6:50 8:88 6:50 this is going to be a pivotal moment for them. I think to to get people back in here and spending more time. Yeah.

Play from 6:56 8:88 6:56 Literally trying this like live. So I made this with you guys. Ethereal woman. And then I said, "Move her hair out of her face." Which I think the biggest thing, like if I brought this into Nano, sometimes it does it good. But the worst part about bringing to Nano is it like it'll change the vibe in a way that's just like you can't recover it. Like yes, it'll be the same woman. Yes, it'll be like her hair out of her face, but something really important will change. So like the fact that I can even get like even if I still have to take this into nano to do something with it, the fact that I can get the shapes essentially the composition good, this is like huge win already. So then I took this image again and I said make a full body image of this woman and it it did it.

Play from 7:42 8:88 7:42 It's keeping the face very keeping the face [clears throat] and the vibe. Like if I did this to Nano and I said make a full body image of this woman, it would it would give me

Play from 7:50 8:88 7:50 going to change. Yeah. Her face would change and it would give me like, you know, like not very pose.

Play from 7:56 8:88 7:56 Yeah. So like, but you also have that glow from the mood boards, too. Like that white. I feel like that that skin mood boards coming through with that like vivid like crisp white background that has like the, you know,

Play from 8:09 8:88 8:09 the rear glow coming through, which is sick. It's that's a good that's a good idea. I like to project.

Play from 8:15 8:88 8:15 And then this one, this is just like a random vibe image I had. I said create a different angle of this.

Play from 8:21 8:88 8:21 All right. Yeah. Also, does it add text? Like is it good enough to add text? Oh, look.

Play from 8:29 8:88 8:29 And that would be another interesting thing to play with is like the kind of text like maybe playing with Sans versus Serif and then going into maybe other maybe more accessible widely global type faces that to see if it if it matches, you know, like that would be interesting too. Mhm. So, it also brings you back here. I would like I've never seen them do this, but if you click it, it'll bring you back to that original prompt, which is pretty nice in terms of workflow cuz then you can actually

Play from 8:59 8:88 8:59 It's, you know. All right, let's see. Um, I have one that has text that I can remove maybe.

Play from 9:07 8:88 9:07 Yeah, because I'm It's been better at text lately. Like I I'll just try certain things with not, you know, I'm not asking for paragraphs. I'm asking for small things, but it's been relatively good at stylizing typography too with that, you know, especially with mood boards that I throw in there. Um, you know, on this 90s stuff is doing was really it looked like handdrawn fonts and it does

Play from 9:27 8:88 9:27 yeah, pretty good job translating it. Don't be wrong, you know, every two out of four, but [laughter]

Play from 9:34 8:88 9:34 that that nailed it. We got remove text. That's pretty freaking great. Wow. Um, okay. Wait.

Play from 9:45 8:88 9:45 Um, change the font to be my pants if this works. Let's see. [laughter]

Play from 9:54 8:88 9:54 Yeah, there there's I mean there's so many different little tests within here. Oh my god.

Play from 10:00 88:88 10:00 Okay, but look look at the look let's look at the difference of those cursive fonts. Like there's Drew, you're no fun.

Play from 10:07 88:88 10:07 Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What I'm saying is there's a variation to the cursives, which is good because what I'm saying is with nano specifically, you're getting a lot of the same type face

Play from 10:24 88:88 10:24 for these things. These are considerably different.

Play from 10:30 88:88 10:30 So, I'm wondering if you could add texture to that font now, too. It's like, can we add can we texture it? Can we add, you know, sort of like depth to it? Can it turn into 3D? Can it turn into Can we add color to it? How do we can we ingrain it in the photo and like layer it? Like now there's so much to ask now, you know, if it can do stuff like that. It does tend when Midjourney gets font and when it gets typography correct and it blends it into the photo, like it works really well. Like even better than I, you know, a lot better than I can do with design.

Play from 10:57 88:88 10:57 Like that's interesting. Um, see when like the N is blended well into that image as like a design choice. It's not just like overlaid on top. Um, but there's so much. Yeah. Like especially for assets like this where you're only really using one or two words. Like you don't need a

Play from 11:16 88:88 11:16 don't need a don't need a you know tab switch. Yeah. Oh my god. Dang.

Play from 11:22 88:88 11:22 So I said change the word Ibiza to Paris and then Okay. So I already had Paris in here so I guess that's fine.

Play from 11:31 88:88 11:31 Wow. Okay. Now, now I want to try this with like a I want to try something.

Play from 11:37 88:88 11:37 There we go. Cuz this is what I'm thinking, too. So, okay. So, you can attach You can just do edit right in here.

Play from 11:47 88:88 11:47 And I wonder too, like when when you continue to edit that same image, right? Like nano really degrades it over time.

Play from 11:55 88:88 11:55 You know, you start doing edits to that same image three or four deep, you're los you're losing stuff. Did that keep the typography style?

Play from 12:06 88:88 12:06 Yeah, pretty much. I mean, yeah, kind of. Well, let's Yeah, maybe say let's use the exact same type face. Let's see. Let's see how

Play from 12:20 88:88 12:20 how true it stays. Something like that. This is interesting. Yeah, cuz this

Play from 12:26 88:88 12:26 I don't know. I'm pretty excited about this. This is when I'm like, "Oh, we can drop logos in here." And then like things like that, then like really start to If you can if you can add logos into the mix or if I can just like stack it in as a layer and then be like blended in in a certain way.

Play from 12:41 88:88 12:41 I wonder if personalization matters too with in regard to the

Play from 12:47 88:88 12:47 I don't think I just tried a couple quick ones and like adding SFS, moving SFS. Yeah. Um Wow. Okay. So the logo is the logo is asymmetric and it kept it asymmetric. That's cool.

Play from 12:59 88:88 12:59 Yep. That's Hey, it's listening. And that's you start to wonder how far it can go. You know what? How coded is this thing?

Play from 13:08 88:88 13:08 Um, let's see. Change, just for anyone listening, we're change the sweatshirt design. Now, let's see.

Play from 13:15 88:88 13:15 So, I said make it a pixel butterfly. So, this is a pretty This is not a very optimized prompt. So, I'm seeing how it does. God. Well, it is pixelated.

Play from 13:28 88:88 13:28 Oh my god, that's so cool though cuz it's like embroidered and it's you get Midjourney.

Play from 13:34 88:88 13:34 Oh my god own spin on things. Yeah, you've got you've got some some really good use cases here. Hey, try try that same image

Play from 13:43 88:88 13:43 because you've got three different pixel elements there. See if you can call out like the top one to change to a butterfly. I'm curious like you know if we get really specific where this sort of if it breaks or not.

Play from 13:56 88:88 13:56 So change the top design on the sweatshirt to be a pixel butterfly in the same style as the others.

Play from 14:04 88:88 14:04 And again this is like it's also finicky with these with these edit models too like the exact language you use. You know there's

Play from 14:10 88:88 14:10 there's some disparity like with the coherence depending on which words you use. So there's like lots of blurry lines here. Just because we use like something may not work here doesn't mean it doesn't work either. We might have to rephrase it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Play from 14:25 88:88 14:25 Wow. Oh my god, you guys. That that that last one that last one looks like it is embedded in the same way as the others. This is H. Here goes an Here goes an afternoon. Yeah. Or you know what? It might be might be good to just do this at at night while I'm sitting up and you know,

Play from 14:52 88:88 14:52 but like imagine this on mobile. Like if this is Imagine this on mobile. Okay, if this can do the social template, this is crazy.

Play from 15:01 88:88 15:01 There. Look at that. Oh my god, it kept everything the same. I I like this. This is This is going to be fun.

Play from 15:08 88:88 15:08 This kept the E the same. It kept the E like this is this is the font. That's that's impressive because that's not that's not a uh is that a custom font you guys built or is that something

Play from 15:19 88:88 15:19 No, it isn't. But this it is like particularly this is the font. It's not just like mono font.

Play from 15:25 88:88 15:25 Yeah. All right. This is running it in HD. Let's see. It's even keeping like the layout. I don't really like how like far up it is, but it's keeping that. Okay. In HD it's worse. Why?

Play from 15:37 88:88 15:37 Huh? Weird. Maybe more pixels. That's interesting. That's interesting. Holy crap.

Play from 15:45 88:88 15:45 But like what did I mean what did the pixelation look like on the on the design too? Was that was that different? Did it change it when it when it HD it

Play from 15:55 88:88 15:55 like the like the blockiness of it? Did it get smaller? Cuz those those are things that would piss me off, you know, like that kind of stuff. Um

Play from 16:03 88:88 16:03 the color I mean it looks really similar. Yeah. Yeah. But we're going to have to tell Matteo to watch this part cuz I wonder like what they what they internally

Play from 16:13 88:88 16:13 bring this to the front. Yeah. What they internally test here because like the these are there's so many goose we just ran through. Um you know there was one interesting one too. I there was one other one I ran on that none where you know how it was getting very saturated. I said decrease saturation and color warmth by 50%. It did a pretty good job. And then I did ran it at 100% and it did a pretty good like it it brought it back completely.

Play from 16:38 88:88 16:38 What did we ask on this one? Make the character on the horse a woman. So, this is also kind of like a pretty sloppy image.

Play from 16:45 88:88 16:45 Yeah. So, let's see if it even Yes. Wow. Look at that, dude. That's a cool animation right there. Just those four. Like, I don't know why that's a that feels like a cool animation for a GIF. Like, if you're just changing the rider there

Play from 16:58 88:88 16:58 or something like an icon for I wonder if you could Hold on. Could you could you take that and then just be like, you know, 1 second later and then see if you could if you could create like a stop motion style animation with that like that's cuz if like is it going to say like the horse, you know, I was going to do the horse like in a different leg position.

Play from 17:14 88:88 17:14 Good call. Good call. Like a flip book. Okay. I said create this scene 1 second later. Don't change anything else. I'm really impressed so far.

Play from 17:31 88:88 17:31 Huh? Is it if we go back? Okay. So, the horse's legs are like that right now. It's maybe not a second. This might

Play from 17:41 88:88 17:41 Her hair is a little longer. We might need to give it a little more help. Yeah, but it looks like it looks like some stuff moved, you know.

Play from 17:49 88:88 17:49 Yeah. Let's try try longer. Try like three or five seconds. Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's interesting to test what what variables will work. Like so with that saturation things, it was like using a percentage. I also tried that same thing with like 2x 5x. It didn't respond as well, right? So it's like interesting from a percentage standpoint. Maybe it has more coherence.

Play from 18:14 88:88 18:14 Make her outfit more crazy. [laughter]

Play from 18:20 88:88 18:20 That looks like looks like something there. Maybe. No, some different leg positions, but not that much.

Play from 18:29 88:88 18:29 But we're we're pushing the edges here. We want to see where this where this holds up. All right. So, this is make her outfit more crazy.

Play from 18:37 88:88 18:37 Yeah. And it didn't Let's Let's see. It didn't change her face, right? Everything else looks very static.

Play from 18:43 88:88 18:43 The one's got a little bit more saturation on her face, but it's pretty good. Wonder if it's like selectively in painting instead of actually regenerating the whole image. M like

Play from 18:54 88:88 18:54 I wonder if that's what's happening instead of because some of the stuff is really tight like you know when you when you do it across nano or GPT like if you looked at them like if you just flipped through them back and forth you could see things have moved um or slightly changed

Play from 19:08 88:88 19:08 right that's an awesome this is an awesome image by the way I do I like that

Play from 19:14 88:88 19:14 I I fixed it up in nano but now I can I'm saying make this an album cover change the text to say devices I'm just seeing like what it'll do cuz this is what I ended of doing with this image myself. Um, where did it go? I like made it like a mockup. Yeah. So, I changed the text to say vices

Play from 19:35 88:88 19:35 and then I made like cuz I don't know. It's just a experiment. But got the text all four too.

Play from 19:43 88:88 19:43 Okay. So, dang. So, let's try. Do do you think like for example, you've got mood boards selected here. Do you think it's again leveraging those in any way with the edit

Play from 19:58 88:88 19:58 when I tried a quick test here with this car? Yeah, I tried with the SRFs. I tried with uh different mood boards. It didn't change anything.

Play from 20:07 88:88 20:07 Okay. Huh. Yeah. So, that's kind of like a UI because I would assume Could you imagine if you could like I want to try doing like a style reference. Okay. So, this is it trying to do a mockup. Yeah. What if you had like a What if you had like a CD cover, like an album cover reference or something like that?

Play from 20:25 88:88 20:25 CD texture. Yeah. You know what I mean? Look at that.

Play from 20:31 88:88 20:31 All right. This is right up the alley. We haven't We haven't done this in a while. We're having some fun. Thanks for bringing us back, Jamie. Yeah. Apply the CD texture to the first image, guys.

Play from 20:42 88:88 20:42 Let's see. I don't know if it's going to be able to do this. And do you put that as a style reference? I wonder.

Play from 20:52 88:88 20:52 So I put it as a edit reference. Oh, an edit. I got to regrate my course now. This is so

Play from 20:58 88:88 20:58 I know, right? Oh, okay. So it's try, you know, fair. It's like trying to blend it. Yeah.

Play from 21:07 88:88 21:07 As a screen layer style. There you go. Okay. Like imagine I take like five minutes to prompt this like Yeah. But but also like I wonder if there's like an element of this where you you with with nano or like if you're using prepick you can you can assign it like image one apply image two to image one like I wonder if there's like an component of this that exists in there.

Play from 21:30 88:88 21:30 Just needed the right language. Oh my god. So if you prompt it Yeah. like this is like almost maybe if you change like the ratio

Play from 21:39 88:88 21:39 ratio Yeah. to a one because that's typically what a Yeah. That could be

Play from 21:46 88:88 21:46 I find it more and more talking technical design terms to it and it works really well. Like it it just the more and more you get into it with that kind of stuff, um it just handles it better than it used to.

Play from 21:57 88:88 21:57 Okay, I'm just trying like a wildly large aspect ratio. Make the full scene of this image large turquoise table.

Play from 22:05 88:88 22:05 Oh, what do we got here? Huh? Wait.

Play from 22:11 88:88 22:11 Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. So, you even selected 219. You're saying it's it's it's pushing it. Oh, is that because you had AR in the prompt, though?

Play from 22:19 88:88 22:19 It wasn't in the prompt. Well, if you Is it going to make you manually edit it now? Like if you go into the actual

Play from 22:28 88:88 22:28 Yeah. Like if you go to open editor and then go 219 or 21. This is really impressive though that it's like maintaining her like pose.

Play from 22:36 88:88 22:36 Yeah. I'm like definitely going to Yeah, I'm going to be using Nano significantly less for sure.

Play from 22:43 88:88 22:43 You heard it here first, folks. Yeah, that was the question is like, is this going to be good enough? Like, is is it going to be good enough to keep people in?

Play from 22:52 88:88 22:52 You know, there are just so many people that start with Midjourney and I think we've we've kind of answered a lot like there are plenty of use cases right now where you don't need to go back into Nano. Look, we've always said this nano was the option and and chat JBT was the option because it could do what we needed it to do. But until it's until there's something better, then it's, you know, until Midjourney rolls this out and it can do editing, like I'm right back in. I've been I've been doing it way more with stuff. I'm using it as either I have to go and build references for GPT and Nano to get it somewhere, right? Like it doesn't you can't do it just by text anymore. Like you really need

Play from 23:31 88:88 23:31 to push it visually. um you know with references, but this is this is a welcomed sort of welcomed addition here. I feel like there's so much fun to be had with this and actually a lot of practical use cases too. Um

Play from 23:44 88:88 23:44 Jamie on that on that um 219 or that 21 that you got. Remind me, did did you end up getting that to do that in the prompt or did you have to go in that full editor and do it?

Play from 23:53 88:88 23:53 I have to go into full editor. Yeah. So you can't looks like you can't change aspect ratio in QuickEdit.

Play from 23:59 88:88 23:59 Okay. So I mean that part's it's still possible. It's just you got to do it in a different way, right? Right. Right now we're just using text changes.

Play from 24:06 88:88 24:06 So this is um create an image of a cat in the same style as this image. Uh let's say it would be like maintain natural cat physomy features.

Play from 24:25 88:88 24:25 Physical almost like anatomy. No human anatomy. say like just the visual style and vibe like this is how I prompt like Nano sometimes. So

Play from 24:39 88:88 24:39 like you're talking to an LLM. Yeah, [laughter] it it needs it sometimes. There's only so much it can do with the with the real

Play from 24:50 88:88 24:50 H. What if you say swap the person for a cat? Got like a human nose with that cat. Very creepy.

Play from 25:04 88:88 25:04 Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] It's like the opposite. Cat on a

Play from 25:11 88:88 25:11 pedestal. Pedestal. All right. How are that spelled? Okay, there we go. Swap. Swap might be like

Play from 25:21 88:88 25:21 cuz there was What was the other feature that these have in the editor? Retexture. Retexture. That's it. Yeah. still there, by the way.

Play from 25:29 88:88 25:29 Haven't used it in a while, but this kind of feels like it blends right into it. So, this is this is sort of the same thing.

Play from 25:36 88:88 25:36 Like most of my most of my editing is just like, you know, change the fit of this or like zoom in, zoom out,

Play from 25:43 88:88 25:43 uh different angle. Like I feel like midy could now maybe do a good chunk of this and then you only go into nano for like those like super specific things.

Play from 25:54 88:88 25:54 Yeah. I mean to your point like you were showing nodebased system too, right? Like major is just not going to be there. So you really don't have an option there if you're trying to build in that way.

Play from 26:04 88:88 26:04 Like Nano and GPT's framing kills me. I hate it. I'm like it never frames and crops the right way. Like it's always everything is always dead center like dead center axis place. Like it's never

Play from 26:16 88:88 26:16 Yeah. Like it's never like oh it's going to chop the forehead off. Like unless you specifically say it, right? Yeah. There's no edge to it. There's no edge. There's no like avantgard. There's no like personality.

Play from 26:27 88:88 26:27 It's never going to place someone off rule of thirds unless you ask it to like that kind of stuff. This is apply.

Play from 26:35 88:88 26:35 Yeah, I just said apply film grain to this image. This is the original and this is like There you go. There you go. Don't need a mood board for film grain.

Play from 26:43 88:88 26:43 Google stock down. [laughter] Wow. I think that was a that was a nice little surprise here right at the end to to go deep into it. There was some good