Last week, Midjouney completed one year of its launch. All this while, the image generation platform has gone through a massive transformation.
We all know about controversial photos like Donald Trump in Prison, Pope in a Puffer Jacket, and the bomb blast at the White House. For these images to look real, Midjourney did a lot of improvements and all these happened within a span of a year.
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In February 2022, Midjourney, launched the closed beta product (just for 500 users) and a few months later on July 12, launched the first public beta version of the product. The difference between the first and the current versions 5 and beyond is mind boggling. We have mapped the journey of the platform, metamorphosing from a psychedelic image generator to a Realistic Photo Album.
All photos below have the same prompt – an artist in her artist studio
Midjourney V1 – February 2022
Midjourney’s beta version was released to a limited group of 500 users, who are given the privilege to invite another 500 users, totaling 1000 users. This initial release serves as a testing phase to gather feedback and refine the platform. The founder, David Holz, encourages users to share their images on social media, likely to generate interest and grow the user base organically.
At its initial release, Midjourney V1 was revolutionary for its time, surpassing Stable Diffusion v1.4 and DALL-E 2 in producing remarkable results. While “quality” wasn’t a primary focus, users were impressed with the platform’s capabilities, even if the images were relatively low in detail. Although lacking in dimensionality, V1 produced interesting textures in the environment, likely serving as an early exploration of the platform’s capabilities.
Midjourney V2 – April 12, 2022
With community feedback from the beta phase, Midjourney releases new features, including “Upscaling” and “Variation” buttons, along with a solid pricing plan. The previous free generation option is transitioned to a paid beta model. As a result, the platform’s popularity begins to grow, and the waitlist for new users starts to expand.
In V2, Midjourney improved the character rendering to achieve a more realistic appearance. However, artefacts still created a unique “psychedelic” or dreamlike quality. The process involved generating low-detail images initially and then using the Remaster feature to enhance details and overall image quality.
V2 improved significantly, providing a more realistic sense of space, resembling concepts used in architectural design. It demonstrated that newer models aren’t necessarily always better, and creativity could flourish with older versions.
Midjourney V3 – July 25, 2022
Version 3 of Midjourney was launched with “–stylize” and “–quality” parameters. These enhancements offered users more control over the image stylization process and improved the overall quality of the generated images. As Midjourney gained momentum, its Discord community grew rapidly and reached an impressive milestone of one million users, surpassing the popular Fortnite and Minecraft Discord servers in terms of size.
V3 marked a significant step up in image quality, particularly in lighting and shadow effects. It was the first version where Midjourney showed promise in handling real illustration tasks, expanding its utility beyond just creative exploration. This version showcased a big leap in proper lighting and reflections, making the generated images look more realistic, suitable for architectural visualisation.
Midjourney V4 – November 5, 2022
The V4 update is considered a major game-changer for Midjourney. It elevated the platform’s image processing capabilities to an unprecedented level of quality, surpassing what was achievable with the newer versions of Stable Diffusion. This version was a game-changer, becoming the highest quality model available at the time. It was capable of handling subject matters like logos and web design, showcasing the platform’s versatility and adaptability.
This was the first version to be considered actually “realistic,” with images resembling photographs and renders. While technically “nicer,” some users preferred the creativity, art style, and unique possibilities of older versions.
Midjourney V5 – March 15, 2023
Continuing the trajectory of improvement, Midjourney V5 maintains the focus on enhancing image quality and versatility, building upon the progress made in the previous versions. Just like with V4, the platform maintained its focus on aesthetics, ensuring that images produced were visually appealing and creative.
With Midjourney V5.1 released on May 3, 2023 followed by Midjourney V5.2 on June 23, 2023, Midjourney pushed the boundaries of aesthetics even further, leading to even more visually stunning results. V5.2 continued to enhance aesthetics, particularly character designs with improved facial details and cohesive designs. Water reflections and other intricate details, such as trees were handled more effectively than in previous versions.
Midjourney v5.2 introduces several exciting new features such as Zoom Out, Make Square, Shorten, Variation Mode, Stylise, and Pan. Using all these new features people have been able to even make short videos using Midjourney images. The future is going to be revolutionary!
Read: 6 Spectacular Features of Midjourney v5.2
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