102: Revealing the secret prompts and process behind our AI images

What’s up folks. As we close in on episode 100 and the end of this season, one episode that’s been on the list for a while now is revealing how we do our AI images.

Most of the comments we get on our social posts aren’t “wow amazing content, love the CDP topics, I learned so much about email deliverability…” It’s usually “that cover art is SO cool, what’s the prompt that you use, what tool are you using for these amazing images?”

So without further ado, let’s go behind the curtain and walk you through the process that we use to repurpose our audio only podcasts into long form blog posts packed with eye popping AI images.

Of note, this is a highly visual episode so check out the blog post here for all the images: https://humansofmartech.com/2023/11/21/98-revealing-the-secret-prompts-and-process-behind-our-ai-images/

Here’s today’s main takeaway: 
Ditch your raw transcripts and transform your audio podcast into a visually engaging blog with unique AI-generated images. Ditch lame stock images and learn how to use Midjourney for standout visuals that elevate your content and captivate your audience. But a word to the wise: these AI tools are addictive. Use them at your own peril.

Agenda for the episode:

• How to turn your audio-only podcast transcript into a long form blog post that you can then repurpose for social shares
• How to get started with Midjourney, setting up your Discord server and adding key bots. Picking a consistent style
• Bring your blog post social shares to life with eye-popping images and make your podcast stand out with a unique cover art that matches your featured guests

How to turn your audio-only podcast transcript into a long form blog post

JT: Alright so Phil, we’ve been using Otter.ai to transcribe every episode after you’ve edited them. What’s the first step to converting that long not so great raw transcript into the polished blog posts we have on the site today?

PG: Yeah so step number 1 involves our trusty friend ChatGPT. Here’s the prompt I start with:

I’ll provide podcast transcripts with [guest name], and I want you to convert each Q&A into a blog passage. Third-person only. No fluff or weird words. Remove 'ums' and 'likes.' Each passage gets an H2 title and ends with a key takeaway. Ready for the first question and answer?

So I go through our transcript, I copy paste the question we asked and I copy paste the answer from our guest. Here’s an example from our episode with Scott Brinker.

Naturally, the output isn’t always perfect. You’re asking ChatGPT to turn your raw transcript filled with ‘ummms’ and ‘likes’ and probably has several mistranscribed words. So it’s always worth going through it and looking for issues.

JT: Yeah that’s a super cool use case for ChatGPT, the output is usually pretty solid and it doesn’t always have that generic GPT signature or style to it because it starts with something vs just asking it to generate something from scratch. So do you move to generating images for each section now?

PG: Not yet haha. I actually use ChatGPT to help me write a summary of the episode and suggest variations of titles as well.

I start with getting a list of all the takeaways from each section and paste them all into Chat GPT and ask it to come up with a summary based on those takeaways.

JT: Very cool… okay now are we ready to move on to Midjourney haha?

Getting Started in Midjourney

First step here is creating a Discord account if you don’t have one already. Then you’ll want to create your own server so you can generate images in your own private channels.

Then you join the Midjourney Beta on their site, that’ll get you invited to the Midjourney Discord server. You can check out the #getting-started channel in there to get some startup instructions. You can start seeing what others are building in any of the #newbie channels.

But I prefer building in private so you can hit the ‘Show Member List’, click on the Midjourney bot and then add it to the server you just created.

JT: So it’s free up to certain point right?

PG: Actually since the Pope Francis in a puffer jacket earlier this year blew up their servers and they now require paid plans for all subscribers.

Well worth the $10 to start playing around though. You just need to hit the /subscribe command in Discord and you’ll get a link to sign up.

JT: One thing I find fascinating playing with DALL-E myself is that a lot of your illustrations and images have a crazy likeness to our guests. Are you gonna share the secret sauce behind that?

PG: Yeah this is a bit of trial and error and I can drop some screenshots in the blog post version of this episode but it all starts with another Discord bot. It’s called Picsi.AI by InsightFaceSwap Bot.

It’s a highly realistic portrait creation tool that you can use for free with their Discord invitation, or head over to Patreon to subscribe and access more features and higher usage limits.

The creators are InsightFace.ai, an open source Python library that offers 2D and 3D face analysis. It efficiently brings together top-notch face recognition, detection, and alignment algorithms. It's designed for performance, both in training and deployment phases. Both research institutes and businesses stand to benefit from using InsightFace.

Picking your style

JT: Another thing that lots of people comment on that I think is awesome about your art is how consistent it is. You can just tell that’s Humans of Martech. That’s something I’ve struggled with playing around in DALL-E rarely can I come up with two things using the same prompt that feel the same. How do you accomplish that?

PG: Yeah picking your style in Midjourney is one of the most important steps. At first you want to experiment and play around with a variation of style prompts and once you have something you like. Save it.

There’s probably thousands of styling permutations and combinations that can give you a pretty unique style. You can reference specific styles like cyberpunk, 8-bit, cubism, pop art. You can reference styles from video games like Zelda, GTA or Firewatch. You can also reference famous artists like Picasso, Davinci, Warhol, Kubrick and Tolkien. You can stick to real life and even reference specific cameras and lenses.

I went through a bunch of my favorite ones in my virtual talk at MOPSapaloza all using the same prompt, be sure to check out the blog post for these images.

Adding images to your blog post

JT: So are we comfortable having you reveal the prompt?

PG: Yeah I mean I dropped it at MOPSapaloza and on the Martech Podcast. But folks can also take one of our images and using the /Describe command Midjourney can spit out a prompt that’s probably close to what I use. 

I’ve settled on 3 recurring keywords in my prompt:

• Flat illustration: simple, two-dimensional elements and bright colors. It avoids gradients, shadows, and textures to achieve a clean and straightforward look
• Modern: characterized by simplicity, function, and clean lines. It avoids excessive ornamentation and often embraces new materials and technologies
• Geometric: clean lines and basic shapes like squares and triangles. It's minimal, precise, and often uses a limited color palette for impact

I’ll sometimes remix a prompt and add a few extra keywords:

• Neo-pop: bold colors, clean lines, polished and slick
• Bold stencil: strong, clear lines and high-contrast colors, 
• Minimalist: simple forms, clean lines, and a restricted color palette, sense of calm and clarity

So I like to use ChatGPT to help me come up with cool prompt ideas for Midjourney. It doesn't know what Midjourney is but it knows what DALL-E is so I’ll ask it to suggest DALL-E prompts based on the paragraph below and I paste each blog post section.

This is my prompt:

Write a DALL-E image prompt based on the paragraph below. Stick to one subject and a background. Start with "Flat illustration, modern, geometric," and end with "--ar 9:4". Avoid using words, symbols, icons, or hands. No tightrope or balance scale. Give me 10 variations. Make 'em creative.

Making the Cover Art for Humans of Martech

JT:  Okay let’s talk about the cover art specifically. How do you generate images that look so much like the actual guests?

PG: Yeah so step 1 is uploading an actual image of your guest, usually what works best is a high quality front facing, no glasses headshot.

The command you use after connecting InsightFaceSwap bot is

/saveid [idname] [image]

So you’re saving “Scott” with his headshot. The bot is then associating the facial features from your guest to the id name you’re saving. We’ll be using this to apply that overlay to the Midjourney output.

Step 2 is pasting 2-3 other headshot images from your guest in Midjourney and copy pasting the URLs for each image in your prompt. Here’s my prompt:

[image link 1] [image link 2] [image link 3] in the style of flat illustration, neo-pop, geometric, bold stencil, minimalist –[aspect ratio]

So using some of Scott Brinker’s headshots, this is the output in Midjourney:

You can always repeat a command if you want to see variations:

So you’ll notice that some of these kind of look like Scott, but most don’t. Because we’re applying real life image features to an illustration, the output isn’t always great, but let’s try to apply Scott’s face to one of these illustrations by right clicking on one of them, selecting apps > INSwapper.

I didn’t love what I was getting here so I tried to go with another theme. We all know Scott as the Godfather of Martech, maybe we can combine one of these illustrations with Marlon Brando, using this blended prompt:

[illustration image link] [godfather image link] in the style of [your style], flat illustration –[aspect ratio]

Let’s try something different, can we blend Scott’s famous martech maps with one of the illustrations using this prompt:

[illustration image link] [martech map image link] in the style of [your style], flat illustration, bold stencil, minimalist –[aspect ratio]

Instead of having the martech map image link at the start, let’s try adding it to the end of the prompt like this:

[image link 1] [image link 2] [image link 3] in the style of [your style], flat illustration, neo-pop, geometric, bold stencil, minimalist with this background [martech map image link]  –[aspect ratio]

And there you have it folks.

I don’t usually spend this much time on every cover art… but like I said, it can get a little addictive. And while there isn’t a perfect synergy between all our cover art, you can still tell there’s a theme. 

✌️ 

—
Intro music by Wowa via Unminus
Cover art created with Midjourney

What is Humans of Martech?

Future-proofing the humans behind the tech. Follow Phil Gamache on his mission to help marketers level up and have successful careers in the constantly expanding universe of martech.