I was experimenting with a more flat, animated style in Stable Diffusion using various models. Clouds are fascinating and storm clouds are even better. Add in some rugged mountains and a white castle, all at sunset, and that sounds like fun!
After some tinkering with models and prompts I founds a generation batch that looked promising, with the general style I wanted. I chose this picture because of the bright colours, beautiful contrast, warm inviting castle, and the cute path. Here’s the prompt:
(anime), (illustration), cartoon, detailed, a white castle on the top of a rugged mountain, dark storm clouds in a huge sky above, sunset at dusk, fantasy, intricate
I wanted this picture to be wider so I used outpainting to extend it horizontally in both directions. The left side was pretty good but the right bottom was giving results that I didn’t like. I wanted more of an abyss. So I opened GIMP and crudely painted in the colour I wanted there.
I inpainted the bottom right and also the top left, to clean it up and make it more consistent with the rest of the picture.
I outpainted more on the left and got some lighting. Makes sense since I did ask for storm clouds in the prompt:
(anime), (illustration), cartoon, detailed, trees with rugged mountains in the distance, dark storm clouds in a wide sky, sunset at dusk, fantasy, intricate
I didn’t like how the clouds seem to end on the left, though, nor how the lightning was occluded by the clouds. I used GIMP to draw in thicker clouds and added a jagged lightning bolt. I lightened the clouds some by the lightening to encourage a glow in the clouds there, for more realism.
And inpainted to clean that up. Splendid lightning!
The scenery is really nice now. Time to upscale and then focus on cleaning up the castle (mansion?) and other oddities.
OK, those balconies look wonky, the windows in the roof are duplicated, and the top piece is lopsided. Also, there’s an extra post in the pathway fence. I had done four upscales and used GIMP to edit together three of them, piecing the best bits together. Then I did more inpainting in various parts of the castle to fix issues or make it more the way I wanted. I’m quite tickled with the final result! It feels like it’s got a thrilling story to tell.
