How to Use Midjourney
Step 1: download the Discord program.
First things first â you will need Discord. Go download it here. Discord is a free program to install on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Midjourney will work on any of these.
Step 2: join Midjourneyâs Discord server.
Itâs in open beta and free to join. Click this link: https://discord.gg/midjourney.
Step 3: find one of the #newcomers channels.
As an extremely active and busy server, thereâs a LOT going on. Feel free to scroll up through them to go down the rabbit hole and see what other people have created. Thereâs a whole syntax that can be used to interact with the AI, and itâs ever-evolving to take advantage of the different ways to coax the AI to creating what you want it to create.
In the interest of keeping this post as futureproof as possible, I wonât try to go into all the various pieces of the puzzle. My advice for now is to not worry about them too much â this post is for absolute beginners, after all.
Step 3a (optional): keep exploring the Discord server.
Thereâs literally millions of images that have been generated, and many of them are right there on the server. Left-click on any of the newcomer or general channels you have access to and scroll up.
Step 4: imagine!
As a free user that just joined, youâll have about 25 free uses. (Technically speaking, the currency you use when creating images is âGPU-minutesâ or âGPU-hoursâ. This is what you buy when you pick up a paid plan. Presumably, some images use more while others use less.)
This is enough to play around and get comfortable with the technology, but if you like what youâre creating, youâll probably want to pay for a monthly membership (more on that later). The powers that be periodically give out more credits to try out new versions or tweaks to their algorithm, but I wouldnât count on those showing up when you want them to.
For now, head (back) to a #newcomers channel, find the text box at the bottom of the channel, then type â/imagineâ, a space, and then your prompt. When done, hit Enter.
Step 5: give the bot a minute to work its magic.
Watch the process if you like, or go grab a cup of something. Be aware that if youâve scrolled all the way down in a channel, Discord will automatically show the newer posts as they come in⌠and with hundreds of thousands of people on the server, thereâs a lot of requests coming in. Scroll up a bit to stay on your post.
Step 6: take in what Midjourney has created.
Hmm. Well. That isnât exactly what I asked for⌠but thatâs how it goes sometimes. Itâs all part of the learning process with the AI.
Step 7: choose to upscale, create variations, or tell the bot to try again.
When the botâs done, you should see 4 pictures in a 2Ă2 grid, each a different take on your prompt.
Below those pictures, youâll see a number of buttons related to those images.
âUâ means âupscaleâ, as in âcreate a larger version of this exact photoâ, or âadd more pixels to this picture so I can use it for something. Click âU1â to upscale the first picture, or the one in the top left.
âVâ means âvariations, âas in âuse this image as a starting place to create new variationsâ, or âriff off of this one!â. Click âV4â to make 4 variations of the fourth picture, or the one in the lower right.
Thereâs also a refresh icon to the right of U4, which is short for âgive it another goâ.
Step 8: Use Midjourneyâs website to see all your photos.
Head to https://www.midjourney.com/app/ â itâll ask you to sign in using your Discord account. Once youâre signed in, itâll show you all the photos youâve created. As of publication, there isnât a way to create or edit photos from the website â youâll have to use Discord to do that.
Step 9: Read the official documentation at some point.
The official stuff is over here: https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/
FAQâs
What communities should I join?
I havenât dived completely down this particular rabbit hole, but Redditâs r/midjourney is a solid place to start.
Does Midjourney allow commercial use?
YES if youâre a paying member, NO if you are not. The terms of service say free members get a CC BY NC license, which requires attribution and non-commercial use.
If youâre using the images for blockchain purposes (such as NFTs) or for a company that makes over a million dollars in revenue a year, there are a couple of other sentences for you to read. For the rest of us, âIf you are a Paid Member, Midjourney grants to You the rights to deal in the Assets you create without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Assetsâ
How do I reduce the amount of variety in the creations?
The AI has a ton of âfree willâ and randomness built in that isnât entirely under your control. This is perhaps the biggest trade-off of AI art, whatever program or service youâre using. As of publication, there are two ways to work towards standardizing what the AI creates:
- The âseedâ element. In most traditional generative systems, a random âseedâ controls the randomness (or pseudo-randomness)
- The âstylizeâ command, which is followed by a three-to-five digit number. According to the Discord post announcing it, âThe stylize argument sets how strong of a âstylizationâ your images have, the higher you set it, the more opinionated it will be. If you set it high enough it will get so opinionated it will start ignoring your words. Itâs great fun!â
- To use it, add ââstylize XXXXXâ to your prompt (thatâs two dashes, the word âstylizeâ, then a three-to-five digit number. From the Discord post:
ââstylize 625 if you basically want to turn it off
âstylize 1250 is good for when you want it to be âless strictâ but still âprettyâ (this is probably recommended for skilled users)
âstylize 2500 this is the default value
âstylize 20000 if you want it to âtake overâ and start drifting from your text
âstylize 60000 hands off the wheels who knows what will happenâ
- To use it, add ââstylize XXXXXâ to your prompt (thatâs two dashes, the word âstylizeâ, then a three-to-five digit number. From the Discord post: