Creating an Unknown Realm

Before I get started, if you found your way to this blog, please help me out by clapping up to the max of 20 claps per person. When I saw the theme, my mind went blank. Ask me to create a fashion, put a playful spin on a fantasy character, journey to place that exists, great! However, ask me to envision an entire unknown realm and my mind is black. I mean that literally as well as I don't see pictures in a 'mind's eye' like many people do (Aphantasia). First, I took the description ' Unknown Realm Imaginative vision of a mysterious world beyond the ordinary' and put it in an imaginative model and enhanced the best one with GPT 2.0 Sunburst. It sure was interesting and maybe would have done better than what I entered, but the surreal result didn't feel like my creation at all. Next I took a playful base prompt I often use and filled in things I thought might make a nice realm: alien flowers, crystals, mystical waterfalls. This resulted in a rather cute image but not something I could see doing well in the challenge. So next I started writing a prompt from scratch. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at it. Waterfall, magical flowers, bioluminescent, planets, galaxies, enormous relics, fractals, hybrid animals, etc ... and got these: I almost entered the one on the right. And somewhere in the mix, I chatted with GPT and got something with a lot more Tim Burton influence (below) which I almost went with. Then I thought of even more things I could throw at the prompt! Into the mishmash prompt they went and out popped the image below. At this point, I had already put in way too much effort for something that is as ridiculously unpredictable as voting and results in these challenges. Called it a night and decided to make my final pick the next day. By the next morning, I had decided I needed a subject. I needed someone discovering this unknown realm. In hindsight, with voting almost over, I realize these full screen images may have had more impact and performed better. Yet, I couldn't help but introduce the portal, my explorer and her cat. The following images were created. I modified the foreground, trying to give more contrast and put the bird back because I really liked him! Below was my final entry, for better or worse. Overall, I was happy with the images and decided to try some videos. Seedance 2.0 mini was underwhelming, losing a ton of quality once the portal is entered. Wan 3.0 prime with its adaptive size (since 3:2 wasn't an option) did not perform as expected. Last, I gave Grok a try. I did not suggest flying in prompt at all, but choices were made by AI. Finally, I felt like this image was just begging for a song! 'Into the Impossible' was created. Click below to visit my post and hear the song. https://budgetpixel.com/p/92019 Thank you for taking the time to read this. Again, I would really appreciate it if you can take the time to clap this blog (up to 20 times per person) and help me earn some credits.