AI: Make an Elf That Looks Like Brad Pitt

Surprisingly difficult!

AI really has come a long way in a short period of time, but it’s also still surprisingly stupid at many seemingly basic tasks.

I wanted a generic AI image generator to make a male elf with blond hair, kind of like Lord of the Rings.

The AI actually improved my initial simple prompt (“male elf with long blond hair”) and wrote this long paragraph as the prompt:

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has striking blue eyes, slightly pointed ears, and wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

The first few versions were women with flat chests, such as:

So I type: “a MALE elf with a strong, masculine face” and the prompt becomes:

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a strong, masculine face with striking blue eyes, slightly pointed ears, and wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

The next adjustment: “a masculine face without makeup or earrings”

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a strong, masculine face without makeup or earrings, striking blue eyes, and slightly pointed ears. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

Still a bit feminine and the ears are all Keebler cookie elf, not realistic elf. And what’s up with the longbow-turned-toothbrush?

After many more iterations, including asking the AI to use Brad Pitt as the face model, and trying to convince it to make the ears smaller, I was unsuccessful. E.g.:

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a very strong, masculine face resembling Brad Pitt, without makeup or earrings, striking blue eyes, and smaller, slightly pointed ears. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

He has a hand growing out of his liver! And those horrible ears! Let’s try again:

“better but with much smaller ears, more like Spock's ears”

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a very strong, masculine face resembling Brad Pitt, without makeup or earrings, striking blue eyes, and much smaller ears like Spock's. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

“the ears should still be pointed”

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a very strong, masculine face resembling Brad Pitt, without makeup or earrings, striking blue eyes, and much smaller, slightly pointed ears. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

This is Brad Pitt’s twin sister with a 5 o’ clock shadow.

“much smaller, slightly pointed ears like spock's ears”

A tall, slender male elf with long, flowing blond hair stands gracefully, shimmering like spun gold. He has a very strong, masculine face resembling Brad Pitt, without makeup or earrings, striking blue eyes, and much smaller, slightly pointed ears like Spock's. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

”a star trek vulcan who looks like brad pitt in an elf costume”

A tall, slender male Vulcan resembling Brad Pitt stands gracefully, dressed in an elf costume with long, flowing blond hair shimmering like spun gold. He has a very strong, masculine face, striking blue eyes, and much smaller, slightly pointed ears like Spock's. He wears elegant, forest-green robes with intricate silver embroidery. A silver circlet adorns his brow, enhancing his regal appearance. He holds a beautifully crafted longbow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. The background features a lush, ancient forest with towering trees and dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy.

The ears still aren’t right and the bow is all wrong, but after many attempts (some not shown above) we have a reasonable visage of Brad Pitt meets Legolas.

For the time being, graphic designers will still have jobs, even it is just to clean up AI messes.