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Show HN: I used OpenAI's new image API for a personalized coloring book service

316 points by darajava 1y ago

I've had an idea for a long time to generate a cute coloring book based on family photos, send it to a printing service, and then deliver it to people. Last month, when OpenAI's Sora was released for public use I (foolishly) thought I'd manually drag-and-drop each order’s photos into Sora's UI and copy the resulting images back into my system. This took way too much time (about an hour for each of the few books I made and tested with family and friends). It clearly wasn't possible to release this version because I’d be losing a huge amount of time on every order. So instead, I decided I'd finish off the project as best I could, put it "on ice," and wait for the API release. The API is now released (quicker than I thought it'd be, too!) and I integrated it last night. I'd love your feedback on any and all aspects. The market is mostly family-based, but from my testing of the physical book I've found that both adults and kids enjoy coloring them in (it's surprisingly cathartic and creative). If you would like to order one you can get 10% off by tapping the total price line item five times.

TestOutlet 1y ago
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mmastrac 1y ago
The comics look pretty Miyazaki-inspired, like all of the comics I've seen lately. I've kinda started to dislike this look because it's _everywhere_ that low-effort comics are these days. Maybe worth trying to train a better style for this. This is probably something where you could put a little effort in up-front (ie: using a model that's for segmentation to get outlines, using some classic image-processing for boundary detection) and then have AI touch it up a little more lightly and a less of the "default" style. Also, do you have AI images for the "real world" samples on the left? They have a certain "I don't exactly know what, but it's creeping me out" vibe.
- rafram 1y ago
  This has zero resemblance to Miyazaki’s style. (And I say that as someone who isn’t a fan of this idea at all.)
  - mmastrac 1y ago
    Hard disagree. Sample #2 is totally the Miyazaki-vibe that is everywhere in OpenAI-generated comics. https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/2_cartoon.png https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/2_cartoon.png The cartoon owl at the top has a different vibe and would probably work for the comics as well.
    - xdfgh1112 1y ago
      It's nothing like Ghibli, you are overthinking this.
      - ks2048 1y ago
        I'm gonna agree with the above comment - #2 looks like a Japanese-style cartoon (for better or worse).
        dgellow 1y ago
        OP confirmed their prompt explicitly asks for a studio ghibli style
      - mmcwilliams 1y ago
        You think that the model is not properly producing the style it was prompted for in the below prompt? I don't see other artists or styles mentioned. > Make this a page in a colouring book. The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style. Bleed all the way to the edges. Background colour is #ffffff and lines are bold and #000000. There is no shading or crossthatching.
    - uvesten 1y ago
      After seeing this example, I think this is the elevator pitch: ”We take your personal highlights and make them as generic and impersonal as possible.”
- ronsor 1y ago
  It doesn't look particularly Miyazaki style to me; it's just a generic cartoon style. I think the Ghiblipocalypse has gotten people on edge.
  - fouc 1y ago
    there's 4 sample pages, and the one with the cat is the only one that is not Ghibli-style. Here's some generic cartoon styles to look at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/04/ef/5f04ef77ce3beb272a61e276b32f31bb.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/04/ef/5f04ef77ce3beb272a61...
    - throwup238 1y ago
      That's probably the only info-graphic I've ever seen that's worth a damn.
    - darajava 1y ago
      This is so interesting - I could add some of these as options.
      - cjaybo 1y ago
        Jesus Christ
  - Klonoar 1y ago
    It absolutely resembles the current Miyazaka-esque OpenAI image trend that’s been going on.
  - asteroidburger 1y ago
    The author has since listed the prompt elsewhere in the comments. It includes, "The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43801189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43801189
  - 0_____0 1y ago
    OP confirmed that their prompt includes a directive for Ghiblification. Given that Miyazaki is known to hate GenAI I really can't condone... I mean there's nothing anyone can do about it but it's just kind of sad.
sharkjacobs 1y ago
from clevercoloringbook.com: > Please only upload photos that are in line with OpenAI's Usage Policy. > We are not able to include any photos that do not follow their policy in the final printed book. from openai.com/policies > Editing uploaded images or videos that contain real people under the age of 18 is not permitted. The first two sample pictures on the page contain of adolescent children. Are you concerned about this apparent contradiction?
- mdeeks 1y ago
  I'm not the OP, but during the recent Studio Ghiblification craze there were a huge number of photos of families and kids passing along in facebook, twitter, and other social media. It was literally everywhere you looked. OpenAI obviously saw all of that. I don't think they actually care unless it's something bordering on illegal.
  - ronsor 1y ago
    I agree. In practice OpenAI is unlikely to care about families uploading their own photos. I think the policy is mostly to stop random people from engaging in creepy activities with the photos of children.
- ks2048 1y ago
  > "that contain real people" It seems the loophole on this site, is the examples (by my best guess) are AI.
- darajava 1y ago
  Great point. As per our TOS - users of the site must be over 18 and have the consent of everyone in the image (i.e. their own kids, relations etc). I put that line about OpenAI's usage policy there for practical reasons. If someone orders something that OpenAI refuses to generate (like a photo of Bart Simpson say), then I can't include it in the printed book. With this project, if someone uploads content that's in any way inappropriate, we'll see it and refuse to fulfill the order (and take other appropriate actions, if needed)
- 1y ago
mdeeks 1y ago
This is a cute and simple idea! I'd like to see what a real physical book looks like before I buy it though. Do you have real pictures of a printed one? I think our kids would appreciate seeing the original (even if a small thumbnail) along side it. You can't always tell from these AI drawings that it was originally you and your family. Also, it's REALLY expensive. $30 for a book that my kids will draw on in one or two nights and then never touch again is probably too much.
- subpixel 1y ago
  It’s not cheap, but my kids treasure coloring books for a long time and probably one like this until it falls apart.
- zakki 1y ago
  To the author, I have this idea, for each page, put a sheet of transparent plastic or something like that. So the owner will color the plastic which can be erased. But it may increase the cost anc the color may not stick to the plastic.
- darajava 1y ago
  Thanks! I've added a section at the bottom of the site showing some real photos of an actual coloring book I got in the mail. There are thumbnails of all photos uploaded on the back. $24 + postage is the lowest I could reasonably charge for this. Printing costs are a bit more than half of that, OpenAI charge a surprising amount for image generation, but there is also a good amount of human effort (and creative choices) in generating the book. It's not a fully automated process and I hope that's evident from the quality of the end product.
themanmaran 1y ago
Nice and simple! I'm excited for all the fun micro businesses that get enabled by the new image API. Things like your coloring book, instant sticker/tshirt/swag creation, video game assets, etc. Also love the "tap 5 times for a discount" feature.
- darajava 1y ago
  Thank you! I was happy with the discount thing alright but it's not useful for tracking referrals unfortunately.
vunderba 1y ago
You'll want to really drive home the niche (through your feature set) that it's for family photos, because the generic photo to AI vectorized coloring book service has been done to death.
- darajava 1y ago
  Can you show me an example? I think before 2-3 days ago this wasn't really possible without the output images looking really bad.
abaymado 1y ago
I like GPT wrapper's that let me personalize/customize existing real world things, and this a good example of that. I like it.
- darajava 1y ago
  Thank you!
rafram 1y ago
For what it’s worth (and it’s probably not much), it doesn’t cost that much to commission comic book-style art from an actual artist online. When you do that, the proceeds go to an artist, not to an AI company that stole from them and a software developer who wrote a wrapper around their API.
- warkdarrior 1y ago
  Maybe, but then I have to negotiate with the artist, handle their refusal to draw art of my choosing, and wait for their (possibly unpredictable) schedule. AIs mostly avoid these problems.
- op00to 1y ago
  Didn’t the artist “steal” from artists that came before them by looking at and taking inspiration from their photos? Especially ones that would do such artistic genres as commercial coloring book art?
  - jmathai 1y ago
    Yes. But they are people, perhaps with families to feed. Not computers. Cool idea. I can see keeping colored pages of these by my kids up on the fridge a lot longer than what’s on there now!
    - op00to 1y ago
      So it’s ok to steal as long as you are feeding a family with it? :) I get what you’re saying, anyway and it’s an important distinction. I guess what you see as “stealing” I see as inspiration. I also believe that there will be artists who use these new artistic image generation models in ways that are new and interesting just like the first person who used spray paint for graffiti was ripped off by everyone else. It delighted my kids to see themselves depicted in coloring sheets in situation where they are currently interested. There is no world where I would have paid an artist to make these photos, and we would have just colored on blank paper. Again, I get that real people’s content was devoured by these big companies, but at the same time I am much more concerned about bigger issues and would rather focus on getting ahead of AI rather than fighting it.
kelvinjps10 1y ago
Why not just an option to print the image?
- ks2048 1y ago
  Presumably, it’s more profitable to sell a physical book, which makes sense.
- beering 1y ago
  You can simply open up Chatgpt and generate the image yourself, faster than it’d take to transact with this third party. The cool thing is that they are printing a physical book for you.
  - deleted 1y ago
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- darajava 1y ago
  I've added this option - we send out two print-ready PDFs for the cover and the coloring sheets.
xnx 1y ago
Is there somewhere to download a PDF to print out?
- darajava 1y ago
  No, but perhaps I could add this as a paid option.
barbazoo 1y ago
For anyone looking for a prompt to do this manually, it seems to be as simple as this: > Generate a version of this photo that can be used as a coloring sheet
- sen 1y ago
  Yeah I've been doing this with image-gen AIs pretty much since they started and it's a lot of fun. Even early Dall-E etc was awesome at doing stuff like "Create a colouring in sheet with some dinosaurs having a party" or generic prompts like that, and more recently giving photos to convert has been loads of fun for the kids.
- thehappypm 1y ago
  I’ve done this a bunch with my son. It’s not quite that simple because often times it’ll create images that have too much detail, sometimes it’ll actually include colors. But yeah, it’s not really all that complicated
- an0malous 1y ago
  The OP looks like it runs images through a Ghibli filter first
- darajava 1y ago
  Close enough! The prompt I use is: > Make this a page in a colouring book. The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style. Bleed all the way to the edges. Background colour is #ffffff and lines are bold and #000000. There is no shading or crossthatching.
  - natdempk 1y ago
    I think one thing that slightly drags this down is the Ghibli style produces images that don’t really look that much like the original people. If you can find a prompt that is still stylized while preserving more of the characteristics of faces would go a long way on the personalization front. Maybe easier said than done.
- level09 1y ago
avree 1y ago
Cool idea and really nice looking site. Pricing is quite high - 24 pages maximum for $23.99. There are 100-page coloring books on Amazon for $5.00, and the age group that really would be using this is not going to remember what was on the page a week from the day they did it. Maybe it can work in the nice of "adult coloring books" - I've seen some social media content where people really go crazy on coloring books, and being able to get nice physical copy to work off could appeal there.
- subpixel 1y ago
  Presumably you aren’t the parent of a 5-7 year-old child. I might try this manually and save some money but my kids will absolutely cherish coloring themselves, their friends, and their parents. We’re on vacation now and this is gonna be big when we get back.
  - avree 1y ago
    Interesting presumption. I know about the 100-page coloring books because I've bought them. Paying $1 per page at the speed they get colored would cause me to go bankrupt. I presume you're fabulously rich, and it doesn't matter.
    - subpixel 1y ago
      I stand corrected. I think we are looking at this product through different lenses. E.g a page from this coloring book might wind up framed and kept forever, whereas all our other coloring books are eventually secreted into the trash.
  - zengineer 1y ago
    You may want to give dibulo.com a try. We also launched a photo -> coloring page, but we will go one step further that you can bring it to life again.
  - mirsadm 1y ago
    My 5 year old will start coloring, get bored and scribble all over it.
Terretta 1y ago
Seems like this cat (and various variants in similar settings) was a top rated image in Sora's explore/images a week ago. Was it yours, should it be credited, or did you hit edit prompt<enter> to get a variant? No worries, just wondering how that should work.
- darajava 1y ago
  Wow, yes you're right. I did in fact take that image from the Sora homepage because I thought it was cute. I pretty much just assumed they're all in the public domain. I can't find the image anymore so I've decided to remove it for now. I generated the other three myself.
  - Trixter 1y ago
    They look generated, which is off-putting. Maybe use three real photos instead?
gitroom 1y ago
Nicely done, Ive always wanted something like this for my family pics. you think AI-generated art will ever feel as special as something handmade?
- darajava 1y ago
  I mean it's pretty close. The handmade element comes from coloring it in.
pelagicAustral 1y ago
Awesome idea, implementation and design!
- darajava 1y ago
  Thank you!
MaxLeiter 1y ago
For those interested in building something similar, I prompted a story book generator using v0 and Gemini’s image generation a few weeks ago: Demo: https://v0-story-maker.vercel.app/ https://v0-story-maker.vercel.app/ The chat: https://v0.dev/chat/ai-story-book-creator-zw7TrmkN2Eb https://v0.dev/chat/ai-story-book-creator-zw7TrmkN2Eb
- r0fl 1y ago
  The quality of the images is incredible! Great job How much does the api cost to run? Do you have any safe guards in place in case bots try to build 1000 stories?
  - MaxLeiter 1y ago
    That’s all Gemini, I did very little prompting I’m just using Geminis rate limits, because its pretty ridiculously cheap. You can get pretty far on just their free tier last I checked (when I made this the image model was 100% free) I wrote about it a little bit here: https://x.com/max_leiter/status/1906492622551884187 https://x.com/max_leiter/status/1906492622551884187
- pknerd 1y ago
  wow!!!! Any idea how much it costs to create a book?
- rahimnathwani 1y ago
  I love the method you used to get image consistency: construct a conversation history with the model where it explicitly accepts each image and agrees to use it: User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 1] User: [Image 1] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 2] User: [Image 2] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 3] User: [Image 3] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Please maintain character appearance, art style, and color palette consistency with these previous illustrations when creating the next image. Assistant: I'll ensure the characters, art style, and colors remain consistent with the previous illustrations. User: Generate an illustration for a children's ABC story: [Current Prompt]. Make it colorful, child-friendly, and in a consistent style with any previous images. Include diverse characters with different ethnicities, genders, and abilities. Ensure representation is natural and authentic. I'm curious: did you settle on this after trial and error? I mean, did having the assistant explicitly agree increase consistency, compared with just asking nicely at the end?
transformi 1y ago
Why don't you use canny/HED filter :O? (seems pretty overkill for this job..)
- jw1224 1y ago
  Do you not think the AI output looks far more polished and print-ready? Canny edges have a lot of noise and don't look at all clean for coloring book purposes.
- darajava 1y ago
  Canny filter: https://i.imgur.com/Ju7Ggac.png https://i.imgur.com/Ju7Ggac.png Sora: https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/3_cartoon.png https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/3_cartoon.png I've had this idea years ago and searched extensively for a way to turn images into nice line art, but it turns out there needs to be a good bit of creativity (AI) to do so. Old school computer science techniques don't cut it.
ks2048 1y ago
This is a great idea and looks well done. I wonder if printing services (Lulu?) have a automatic API or if it requires some manual intervention? (And the shipping part?)
- darajava 1y ago
  Thanks! There is a good bit of manual effort involved on our side - we generate the images, regen any that don't look great, choose the best cover, and then send the PDF to Lulu. It's dropshipped, we never see the physical book.
darkxanthos 1y ago
Wow a lot of criticism. I'm considering a similar business. I think this is too expensive when printing this is so easy these days. But charging some small about per printable coloring book would be very attractive.
- darajava 1y ago
  The printing aspect of this wasn't too easy... I wish I could charge less but as it stands (especially with surprising API costs) I'm barely making a profit on this.
  - arnavpraneet 1y ago
    have something similar in the building pipeline, yeah the API costs caught me off-guard too. I knew it was going to be expensive but this is still pretty high
jaredcwhite 1y ago
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sabslikesobs 1y ago
Do you ever handle the physical book, or is this a fully automated drop-shipping operation?
- darajava 1y ago
  There is a good bit of manual effort involved on our side before we send the book to print - we generate the images, regen any that don't look great, choose the best cover, and then send the PDF to Lulu. Yes it's dropshipped, we never see the physical book.
hamiecod 1y ago
How did the launch go? Could you share Revenue stats after the first 24 hours of the launch?
zeroq 1y ago
This is fucking amazing! Everyone and their mother are trying to hop on the band wagon of AI and make a half assed service just because it may sell just due to the "ai" tag attached to it - this is different! Chapeau bas! It's simple but brilliant. It's a great example of what a good idea is - with minimal effort he made an epic product focusing not an AI, but what AI can bring to the table and executing it flawlessly. Hats off!
- laborcontract 1y ago
  i've been doing this with my child and picture books. i take pictures of pages, convert it to a coloring book, print it, and then we color her favorite books together.
- darajava 1y ago
  Thanks so much! Really glad you like it.
- waynesonfire 1y ago
  You're uploading your family pictures.. nevermind. Go enjoy your coloring book.
ks2048 1y ago
Can you preview the images? I uploaded one image and don't see the outline-version.
- darajava 1y ago
  No, it's not a real-time process. We have an admin panel to generate the images, cover and PDF. There is a good bit of human input involved.
irishmansevilla 1y ago
Your contact form is not working . Try using FabForm !
- darajava 1y ago
  Oh nice catch! Fixed, thanks.
ks2048 1y ago
Suggestions: * one full PDF (including cover) of an example book. * don't use AI images as examples - it's not obvious if the outline version will look as good on real images.
- darajava 1y ago
  Thank you, I agree and I'll update the example photos. I didn't add a PDF but I added some photos of the real end product to the bottom of the landing page now.
osigurdson 1y ago
I tried copying the one of the photos into ChatGPT and asked it to make me a coloring book style image out of it. It is definitely not as good as this site (i.e. I don't think kids would recognize themselves). Good prompting!
- pknerd 1y ago
  Ask GPT to give you a prompt that would create a color book :-) I always use LLMs for meta-prompting. They know themselves better than others :>
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ugh123 1y ago
Love it! Idea: option to print "mini books". I have some kids that still color, and it would be great to keep something in my pocket to give them quick with a crayon or pen.
- darajava 1y ago
  I was thinking of doing different sizes alright! They might not be too much cheaper, that's the only problem I can think of there.
  - ugh123 1y ago
    I'd pay for the convenience. Not sure about others!
DrakeDeaton 1y ago
Not sure if you're aware, but if you're interested in SEO/AEO marketing, there's very healthy monthly traffic for long-tail searches in this area. Some searches getting towards 100K per month. Love the idea! Good luck.
- jdthedisciple 1y ago
  Where do you get that from?
- darajava 1y ago
  I don't know much about it, feel free to send an email to dara@clevercoloringbook.com
zengineer 1y ago
Well done - I like the style of the page and simplicity! We recently created one too, where you get a printable version: dibulo.com/editor - the next step will be to bring the templates to life again.
pinoy420 1y ago
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schuettla 1y ago
great idea! how did you realize the actual producing of the book? you connect to some print on demand api like from printify?
- darajava 1y ago
  Yes I use the Lulu API. It's great!
Huppie 1y ago
I've been using (mostly) the OpenAI image generator for quite some time generating coloring pages, it's pretty decent at it and can generate just about anything my kids want as long as you word it a bit neutral to avoid it generating (something it recognizes as) copyrighted content. Great idea to turn your own photos into a coloring book generator! Edit: I wonder how you prevent it from generating copyrighted content when people upload e.g. 'photos' of Disney content? Or has that not been a problem yet?
- darajava 1y ago
  Thanks! Hasn't been a problem yet, but if that happens I'd just email the customer directly and ask for a replacement photo/if it's okay to leave that one out.
avereveard 1y ago
They have an api now? amazing! I have been using gemini flash but results are... less than stellar.
- darajava 1y ago
  Yes! https://openai.com/index/image-generation-api/ https://openai.com/index/image-generation-api/ I was very excited when it came out. Google have Imagen 3 (is that the same as Gemini Flash?), but you need special access to be able to edit images. I haven't tested it yet but I think it's a lot cheaper than OpenAI
  - avereveard 1y ago
    imagen 3 is a standard diffusion model the new one is attached to gemini 2.0 flash experimental. model naming and working is super confusing there
- pknerd 1y ago
  Gemini has released new models, maybe they are better. Also, I request you to expand further, why Gemini is not better?
  - avereveard 1y ago
    instruction following is good most of the time, but hands are still regularly coming out garbled and there's a small percentage of failed generation in the mix. style following is also a bit hit and miss, I'm producing watecolor mostly, but every now and then a generation is photographic site is not really ready for this, but if you want to get an idea go here https://d2uua1ig5ocnwt.cloudfront.net/ https://d2uua1ig5ocnwt.cloudfront.net/ and search these: amber ladybugs north I manually remove failed gens, but the proces doens't scale to where I'd like if I have to manually verify images. and I have to have a few automatic rejection in the pipeline, like top border not white or image not squared.
pknerd 1y ago
Congrats! I would like to know the cost of the tokens you are paying for an image. How many pages coloring book will be created against $24 book?
- darajava 1y ago
  Thank you! OpenAI costs are surprisingly expensive. It's about $7 to generate a whole book (24 pages). There are 8-24 images allowed in a book, with a cover too. So there'll be 48 max pages in a book (incl blank pages).
  - pknerd 1y ago
    Thanks for your prompt and kind response. Yeah, it is expensive because it is new at the moment. They already mentioned the high token cost.
sathishmanohar 1y ago
I'm from India. I was looking for a service like this but without sending me a physical book part. I'd use this at @ $10 price point if I'm able get downloadable a4 coloring pages from a picture. It would be great. Also this way your customer base becomes international. $10 for 20 pictures is a good price point for me. Pretty expensive but I'd still go for it.
- darajava 1y ago
  I'll implement this today. Edit: I've implemented this! It's a lot of code changes so I hope I didn't break anything.
  - deleted 1y ago
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  - sathishmanohar 1y ago
    Thanks!
OPBoot 1y ago
Oh, sorry - I'm going to be that person.... Your step 2 is wrong :-) > Step 2: We convert them into a high-quality physical coloring book with OpenAI’s brand-new Sora model, then send it out for printing. You don't convert it into a physical book /before/ sending it for printing.
- darajava 1y ago
  Oh, lol. Nice catch - I'll fix that.
riidom 1y ago
Maybe I am thinking a bit meta here. But who is supposed to colorize these pages? Kids that are in the progress of learning to instead use AI for everything? It can surely deliver better results quicker, after all. Same question would be relevant if you wouldn't have used AI to generate these outlines, of course. I just want to point out there is a certain irony of the "cut the branch you are sitting on"-kind here. Edit: typo
vb7132 1y ago
This is an awesome. I had a similar one: Convert the dense non-fiction books into something more readable. eg. SAPIENS vs UNSTOPPABLE US. But this makes me wonder: What is the barrier to entry for these apps now? Anyone can do it. There is going to be a barrage of apps/websites like this?
- faeyanpiraat 1y ago
  Why would you do that to Sapiens, it's an enjoyable read
simianparrot 1y ago
Every example is the Studio Ghibli style. Tasteless and no respect for the studio and its legacy. I don’t understand how you can do this and not feel horrible about it. But I guess not everyone cares as long as it might earn you a few dollars…
- true_religion 1y ago
  I suggest that they use the Disney style. It’s similarly popular and well known but no one will stand up to protect it since it’s a multi billion dollar company that we already know has no respect for artists or artistic legacy.
  - deleted 1y ago
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- darajava 1y ago
  What's so bad about it?
- reneretord 1y ago
  [dead]
- yosefk 1y ago
  Style has been copied since time immemorial and was never copyrightable. I think it's better to be the studio everyone copies in their AI slop than the studio nobody copies in terms of publicity, sales and cultural impact. And the mass copying by a handful of models in a reasonably consistent way together with everyone talking about it is probably better for the studio than flesh and blood artists here and there copying it not so consistently / competently without the buzz attributing the style to the studio
- slantaclaus 1y ago
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  - deleted 1y ago
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nesk_ 1y ago
Love it! Finally a product that properly leverages AI :)
- darajava 1y ago
  Thanks!
deleted 1y ago
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nextworddev 1y ago
Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy of…
firesteelrain 1y ago
Why can’t people just appreciate some thing cool rather than turn every HN comment section into a controversy? I had never heard of this Ghibli controversy.
- dkh 1y ago
  When you learn of a situation that a lot of people care about and feel very strongly about, it would be wiser and more respectable to not immediately dismiss it. Since you admit to only finding out about the situation five minutes ago, you might not have a firm enough understanding of the nuance to reduce everyone involved to haters without valid concerns. If you dig into the subject a little more, the answer to your question will become apparent, even if you disagree it.
  - firesteelrain 1y ago
    I don’t agree or disagree with it. It’s the constant outrage. I don’t understand how people can be constantly unhappy
    - dkh 1y ago
      You don’t know if anyone upset about this is a generally and constantly unhappy person, they are upset about this. Are there no topics in this world that you have a very strong opinion on, that you would express given the situation? Could you not be a generally happy person and express those opinions, at the same time? Also, I mean, I know a lot of people don’t care about the whole “A.I. vs. artists” thing, but it should absolutely not be difficult to understand why many do. We are talking about a fast-growing technology and industry that will perhaps decimate jobs and entire professions, that will definitely reduce the value of certain things to zero, and while that will be good for some things, it is concerning for many that one of the first things being seriously threatened is art—something generally thought to be a deeply human ability, and a profession already notoriously difficult to earn a living at. For a lot of people this is existential. This guy’s little coloring book project is not the problem, but it‘s still a small facet of the larger issue, and being concerned about that issue is very valid, and anyone with perspective and a modicum of empathy should be able to understand it.
BugsJustFindMe 1y ago
People are complaining about using the Ghibli style, but I'm here to complain about the fact that they turn everything into generic abstractions that look nothing like the people in the original photos. Generic-cartoon-vaguely-reminiscent-of-your-family-but-not-really is a product that I'm surprised someone would be proud of.
- parpfish 1y ago
  I wonder what would happen if you ghiblified images of the slop I cooked for dinner. Ghibli food always looks so good
DonHopkins 1y ago
[flagged]

316 points by darajava 1y ago

TestOutlet 1y ago

[dead]

mmastrac 1y ago

The comics look pretty Miyazaki-inspired, like all of the comics I've seen lately. I've kinda started to dislike this look because it's _everywhere_ that low-effort comics are these days. Maybe worth trying to train a better style for this. This is probably something where you could put a little effort in up-front (ie: using a model that's for segmentation to get outlines, using some classic image-processing for boundary detection) and then have AI touch it up a little more lightly and a less of the "default" style. Also, do you have AI images for the "real world" samples on the left? They have a certain "I don't exactly know what, but it's creeping me out" vibe.

rafram 1y ago
This has zero resemblance to Miyazaki’s style. (And I say that as someone who isn’t a fan of this idea at all.)
- mmastrac 1y ago
  Hard disagree. Sample #2 is totally the Miyazaki-vibe that is everywhere in OpenAI-generated comics. https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/2_cartoon.png https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/2_cartoon.png The cartoon owl at the top has a different vibe and would probably work for the comics as well.
  - xdfgh1112 1y ago
    It's nothing like Ghibli, you are overthinking this.
    - ks2048 1y ago
      I'm gonna agree with the above comment - #2 looks like a Japanese-style cartoon (for better or worse).
      - dgellow 1y ago
        OP confirmed their prompt explicitly asks for a studio ghibli style
    - mmcwilliams 1y ago
      You think that the model is not properly producing the style it was prompted for in the below prompt? I don't see other artists or styles mentioned. > Make this a page in a colouring book. The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style. Bleed all the way to the edges. Background colour is #ffffff and lines are bold and #000000. There is no shading or crossthatching.
  - uvesten 1y ago
    After seeing this example, I think this is the elevator pitch: ”We take your personal highlights and make them as generic and impersonal as possible.”
ronsor 1y ago
It doesn't look particularly Miyazaki style to me; it's just a generic cartoon style. I think the Ghiblipocalypse has gotten people on edge.
- fouc 1y ago
  there's 4 sample pages, and the one with the cat is the only one that is not Ghibli-style. Here's some generic cartoon styles to look at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/04/ef/5f04ef77ce3beb272a61e276b32f31bb.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/04/ef/5f04ef77ce3beb272a61...
  - throwup238 1y ago
    That's probably the only info-graphic I've ever seen that's worth a damn.
  - darajava 1y ago
    This is so interesting - I could add some of these as options.
    - cjaybo 1y ago
      Jesus Christ
- Klonoar 1y ago
  It absolutely resembles the current Miyazaka-esque OpenAI image trend that’s been going on.
- asteroidburger 1y ago
  The author has since listed the prompt elsewhere in the comments. It includes, "The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43801189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43801189
- 0_____0 1y ago
  OP confirmed that their prompt includes a directive for Ghiblification. Given that Miyazaki is known to hate GenAI I really can't condone... I mean there's nothing anyone can do about it but it's just kind of sad.

sharkjacobs 1y ago

from clevercoloringbook.com: > Please only upload photos that are in line with OpenAI's Usage Policy. > We are not able to include any photos that do not follow their policy in the final printed book. from openai.com/policies > Editing uploaded images or videos that contain real people under the age of 18 is not permitted. The first two sample pictures on the page contain of adolescent children. Are you concerned about this apparent contradiction?

mdeeks 1y ago
I'm not the OP, but during the recent Studio Ghiblification craze there were a huge number of photos of families and kids passing along in facebook, twitter, and other social media. It was literally everywhere you looked. OpenAI obviously saw all of that. I don't think they actually care unless it's something bordering on illegal.
- ronsor 1y ago
  I agree. In practice OpenAI is unlikely to care about families uploading their own photos. I think the policy is mostly to stop random people from engaging in creepy activities with the photos of children.
ks2048 1y ago
> "that contain real people" It seems the loophole on this site, is the examples (by my best guess) are AI.
darajava 1y ago
Great point. As per our TOS - users of the site must be over 18 and have the consent of everyone in the image (i.e. their own kids, relations etc). I put that line about OpenAI's usage policy there for practical reasons. If someone orders something that OpenAI refuses to generate (like a photo of Bart Simpson say), then I can't include it in the printed book. With this project, if someone uploads content that's in any way inappropriate, we'll see it and refuse to fulfill the order (and take other appropriate actions, if needed)
1y ago

mdeeks 1y ago

This is a cute and simple idea! I'd like to see what a real physical book looks like before I buy it though. Do you have real pictures of a printed one? I think our kids would appreciate seeing the original (even if a small thumbnail) along side it. You can't always tell from these AI drawings that it was originally you and your family. Also, it's REALLY expensive. $30 for a book that my kids will draw on in one or two nights and then never touch again is probably too much.

subpixel 1y ago
It’s not cheap, but my kids treasure coloring books for a long time and probably one like this until it falls apart.
zakki 1y ago
To the author, I have this idea, for each page, put a sheet of transparent plastic or something like that. So the owner will color the plastic which can be erased. But it may increase the cost anc the color may not stick to the plastic.
darajava 1y ago
Thanks! I've added a section at the bottom of the site showing some real photos of an actual coloring book I got in the mail. There are thumbnails of all photos uploaded on the back. $24 + postage is the lowest I could reasonably charge for this. Printing costs are a bit more than half of that, OpenAI charge a surprising amount for image generation, but there is also a good amount of human effort (and creative choices) in generating the book. It's not a fully automated process and I hope that's evident from the quality of the end product.

themanmaran 1y ago

Nice and simple! I'm excited for all the fun micro businesses that get enabled by the new image API. Things like your coloring book, instant sticker/tshirt/swag creation, video game assets, etc. Also love the "tap 5 times for a discount" feature.

darajava 1y ago
Thank you! I was happy with the discount thing alright but it's not useful for tracking referrals unfortunately.

vunderba 1y ago

You'll want to really drive home the niche (through your feature set) that it's for family photos, because the generic photo to AI vectorized coloring book service has been done to death.

darajava 1y ago
Can you show me an example? I think before 2-3 days ago this wasn't really possible without the output images looking really bad.

abaymado 1y ago

I like GPT wrapper's that let me personalize/customize existing real world things, and this a good example of that. I like it.

darajava 1y ago
Thank you!

rafram 1y ago

For what it’s worth (and it’s probably not much), it doesn’t cost that much to commission comic book-style art from an actual artist online. When you do that, the proceeds go to an artist, not to an AI company that stole from them and a software developer who wrote a wrapper around their API.

warkdarrior 1y ago
Maybe, but then I have to negotiate with the artist, handle their refusal to draw art of my choosing, and wait for their (possibly unpredictable) schedule. AIs mostly avoid these problems.
op00to 1y ago
Didn’t the artist “steal” from artists that came before them by looking at and taking inspiration from their photos? Especially ones that would do such artistic genres as commercial coloring book art?
- jmathai 1y ago
  Yes. But they are people, perhaps with families to feed. Not computers. Cool idea. I can see keeping colored pages of these by my kids up on the fridge a lot longer than what’s on there now!
  - op00to 1y ago
    So it’s ok to steal as long as you are feeding a family with it? :) I get what you’re saying, anyway and it’s an important distinction. I guess what you see as “stealing” I see as inspiration. I also believe that there will be artists who use these new artistic image generation models in ways that are new and interesting just like the first person who used spray paint for graffiti was ripped off by everyone else. It delighted my kids to see themselves depicted in coloring sheets in situation where they are currently interested. There is no world where I would have paid an artist to make these photos, and we would have just colored on blank paper. Again, I get that real people’s content was devoured by these big companies, but at the same time I am much more concerned about bigger issues and would rather focus on getting ahead of AI rather than fighting it.

kelvinjps10 1y ago

Why not just an option to print the image?

ks2048 1y ago
Presumably, it’s more profitable to sell a physical book, which makes sense.
beering 1y ago
You can simply open up Chatgpt and generate the image yourself, faster than it’d take to transact with this third party. The cool thing is that they are printing a physical book for you.
- deleted 1y ago
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darajava 1y ago
I've added this option - we send out two print-ready PDFs for the cover and the coloring sheets.

xnx 1y ago

Is there somewhere to download a PDF to print out?

darajava 1y ago
No, but perhaps I could add this as a paid option.

barbazoo 1y ago

For anyone looking for a prompt to do this manually, it seems to be as simple as this: > Generate a version of this photo that can be used as a coloring sheet

sen 1y ago
Yeah I've been doing this with image-gen AIs pretty much since they started and it's a lot of fun. Even early Dall-E etc was awesome at doing stuff like "Create a colouring in sheet with some dinosaurs having a party" or generic prompts like that, and more recently giving photos to convert has been loads of fun for the kids.
thehappypm 1y ago
I’ve done this a bunch with my son. It’s not quite that simple because often times it’ll create images that have too much detail, sometimes it’ll actually include colors. But yeah, it’s not really all that complicated
an0malous 1y ago
The OP looks like it runs images through a Ghibli filter first
darajava 1y ago
Close enough! The prompt I use is: > Make this a page in a colouring book. The drawing is in a simple Studio Ghibli portrait style. Bleed all the way to the edges. Background colour is #ffffff and lines are bold and #000000. There is no shading or crossthatching.
- natdempk 1y ago
  I think one thing that slightly drags this down is the Ghibli style produces images that don’t really look that much like the original people. If you can find a prompt that is still stylized while preserving more of the characteristics of faces would go a long way on the personalization front. Maybe easier said than done.
level09 1y ago

avree 1y ago

Cool idea and really nice looking site. Pricing is quite high - 24 pages maximum for $23.99. There are 100-page coloring books on Amazon for $5.00, and the age group that really would be using this is not going to remember what was on the page a week from the day they did it. Maybe it can work in the nice of "adult coloring books" - I've seen some social media content where people really go crazy on coloring books, and being able to get nice physical copy to work off could appeal there.

subpixel 1y ago
Presumably you aren’t the parent of a 5-7 year-old child. I might try this manually and save some money but my kids will absolutely cherish coloring themselves, their friends, and their parents. We’re on vacation now and this is gonna be big when we get back.
- avree 1y ago
  Interesting presumption. I know about the 100-page coloring books because I've bought them. Paying $1 per page at the speed they get colored would cause me to go bankrupt. I presume you're fabulously rich, and it doesn't matter.
  - subpixel 1y ago
    I stand corrected. I think we are looking at this product through different lenses. E.g a page from this coloring book might wind up framed and kept forever, whereas all our other coloring books are eventually secreted into the trash.
- zengineer 1y ago
  You may want to give dibulo.com a try. We also launched a photo -> coloring page, but we will go one step further that you can bring it to life again.
- mirsadm 1y ago
  My 5 year old will start coloring, get bored and scribble all over it.

Terretta 1y ago

Seems like this cat (and various variants in similar settings) was a top rated image in Sora's explore/images a week ago. Was it yours, should it be credited, or did you hit edit prompt<enter> to get a variant? No worries, just wondering how that should work.

darajava 1y ago
Wow, yes you're right. I did in fact take that image from the Sora homepage because I thought it was cute. I pretty much just assumed they're all in the public domain. I can't find the image anymore so I've decided to remove it for now. I generated the other three myself.
- Trixter 1y ago
  They look generated, which is off-putting. Maybe use three real photos instead?

gitroom 1y ago

Nicely done, Ive always wanted something like this for my family pics. you think AI-generated art will ever feel as special as something handmade?

darajava 1y ago
I mean it's pretty close. The handmade element comes from coloring it in.

pelagicAustral 1y ago

Awesome idea, implementation and design!

darajava 1y ago
Thank you!

MaxLeiter 1y ago

For those interested in building something similar, I prompted a story book generator using v0 and Gemini’s image generation a few weeks ago: Demo: https://v0-story-maker.vercel.app/ https://v0-story-maker.vercel.app/ The chat: https://v0.dev/chat/ai-story-book-creator-zw7TrmkN2Eb https://v0.dev/chat/ai-story-book-creator-zw7TrmkN2Eb

r0fl 1y ago
The quality of the images is incredible! Great job How much does the api cost to run? Do you have any safe guards in place in case bots try to build 1000 stories?
- MaxLeiter 1y ago
  That’s all Gemini, I did very little prompting I’m just using Geminis rate limits, because its pretty ridiculously cheap. You can get pretty far on just their free tier last I checked (when I made this the image model was 100% free) I wrote about it a little bit here: https://x.com/max_leiter/status/1906492622551884187 https://x.com/max_leiter/status/1906492622551884187
pknerd 1y ago
wow!!!! Any idea how much it costs to create a book?
rahimnathwani 1y ago
I love the method you used to get image consistency: construct a conversation history with the model where it explicitly accepts each image and agrees to use it: User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 1] User: [Image 1] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 2] User: [Image 2] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Previous page prompt: [Previous Prompt 3] User: [Image 3] Assistant: I've received this image and will maintain visual consistency with it. User: Please maintain character appearance, art style, and color palette consistency with these previous illustrations when creating the next image. Assistant: I'll ensure the characters, art style, and colors remain consistent with the previous illustrations. User: Generate an illustration for a children's ABC story: [Current Prompt]. Make it colorful, child-friendly, and in a consistent style with any previous images. Include diverse characters with different ethnicities, genders, and abilities. Ensure representation is natural and authentic. I'm curious: did you settle on this after trial and error? I mean, did having the assistant explicitly agree increase consistency, compared with just asking nicely at the end?

transformi 1y ago

Why don't you use canny/HED filter :O? (seems pretty overkill for this job..)

jw1224 1y ago
Do you not think the AI output looks far more polished and print-ready? Canny edges have a lot of noise and don't look at all clean for coloring book purposes.
darajava 1y ago
Canny filter: https://i.imgur.com/Ju7Ggac.png https://i.imgur.com/Ju7Ggac.png Sora: https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/3_cartoon.png https://clevercoloringbook.com/samples/3_cartoon.png I've had this idea years ago and searched extensively for a way to turn images into nice line art, but it turns out there needs to be a good bit of creativity (AI) to do so. Old school computer science techniques don't cut it.

ks2048 1y ago

This is a great idea and looks well done. I wonder if printing services (Lulu?) have a automatic API or if it requires some manual intervention? (And the shipping part?)

darajava 1y ago
Thanks! There is a good bit of manual effort involved on our side - we generate the images, regen any that don't look great, choose the best cover, and then send the PDF to Lulu. It's dropshipped, we never see the physical book.

darkxanthos 1y ago

Wow a lot of criticism. I'm considering a similar business. I think this is too expensive when printing this is so easy these days. But charging some small about per printable coloring book would be very attractive.

darajava 1y ago
The printing aspect of this wasn't too easy... I wish I could charge less but as it stands (especially with surprising API costs) I'm barely making a profit on this.
- arnavpraneet 1y ago
  have something similar in the building pipeline, yeah the API costs caught me off-guard too. I knew it was going to be expensive but this is still pretty high

jaredcwhite 1y ago

[flagged]

sabslikesobs 1y ago

Do you ever handle the physical book, or is this a fully automated drop-shipping operation?

darajava 1y ago
There is a good bit of manual effort involved on our side before we send the book to print - we generate the images, regen any that don't look great, choose the best cover, and then send the PDF to Lulu. Yes it's dropshipped, we never see the physical book.

hamiecod 1y ago

How did the launch go? Could you share Revenue stats after the first 24 hours of the launch?

zeroq 1y ago

This is fucking amazing! Everyone and their mother are trying to hop on the band wagon of AI and make a half assed service just because it may sell just due to the "ai" tag attached to it - this is different! Chapeau bas! It's simple but brilliant. It's a great example of what a good idea is - with minimal effort he made an epic product focusing not an AI, but what AI can bring to the table and executing it flawlessly. Hats off!

laborcontract 1y ago
i've been doing this with my child and picture books. i take pictures of pages, convert it to a coloring book, print it, and then we color her favorite books together.
darajava 1y ago
Thanks so much! Really glad you like it.
waynesonfire 1y ago
You're uploading your family pictures.. nevermind. Go enjoy your coloring book.

ks2048 1y ago

Can you preview the images? I uploaded one image and don't see the outline-version.

darajava 1y ago
No, it's not a real-time process. We have an admin panel to generate the images, cover and PDF. There is a good bit of human input involved.

irishmansevilla 1y ago

Your contact form is not working . Try using FabForm !

darajava 1y ago
Oh nice catch! Fixed, thanks.

ks2048 1y ago

Suggestions: * one full PDF (including cover) of an example book. * don't use AI images as examples - it's not obvious if the outline version will look as good on real images.

darajava 1y ago
Thank you, I agree and I'll update the example photos. I didn't add a PDF but I added some photos of the real end product to the bottom of the landing page now.

osigurdson 1y ago

I tried copying the one of the photos into ChatGPT and asked it to make me a coloring book style image out of it. It is definitely not as good as this site (i.e. I don't think kids would recognize themselves). Good prompting!

pknerd 1y ago
Ask GPT to give you a prompt that would create a color book :-) I always use LLMs for meta-prompting. They know themselves better than others :>

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

ugh123 1y ago

Love it! Idea: option to print "mini books". I have some kids that still color, and it would be great to keep something in my pocket to give them quick with a crayon or pen.

darajava 1y ago
I was thinking of doing different sizes alright! They might not be too much cheaper, that's the only problem I can think of there.
- ugh123 1y ago
  I'd pay for the convenience. Not sure about others!

DrakeDeaton 1y ago

Not sure if you're aware, but if you're interested in SEO/AEO marketing, there's very healthy monthly traffic for long-tail searches in this area. Some searches getting towards 100K per month. Love the idea! Good luck.

jdthedisciple 1y ago
Where do you get that from?
darajava 1y ago
I don't know much about it, feel free to send an email to dara@clevercoloringbook.com

zengineer 1y ago

Well done - I like the style of the page and simplicity! We recently created one too, where you get a printable version: dibulo.com/editor - the next step will be to bring the templates to life again.

pinoy420 1y ago

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schuettla 1y ago

great idea! how did you realize the actual producing of the book? you connect to some print on demand api like from printify?

darajava 1y ago
Yes I use the Lulu API. It's great!

Huppie 1y ago

I've been using (mostly) the OpenAI image generator for quite some time generating coloring pages, it's pretty decent at it and can generate just about anything my kids want as long as you word it a bit neutral to avoid it generating (something it recognizes as) copyrighted content. Great idea to turn your own photos into a coloring book generator! Edit: I wonder how you prevent it from generating copyrighted content when people upload e.g. 'photos' of Disney content? Or has that not been a problem yet?

darajava 1y ago
Thanks! Hasn't been a problem yet, but if that happens I'd just email the customer directly and ask for a replacement photo/if it's okay to leave that one out.

avereveard 1y ago

They have an api now? amazing! I have been using gemini flash but results are... less than stellar.

darajava 1y ago
Yes! https://openai.com/index/image-generation-api/ https://openai.com/index/image-generation-api/ I was very excited when it came out. Google have Imagen 3 (is that the same as Gemini Flash?), but you need special access to be able to edit images. I haven't tested it yet but I think it's a lot cheaper than OpenAI
- avereveard 1y ago
  imagen 3 is a standard diffusion model the new one is attached to gemini 2.0 flash experimental. model naming and working is super confusing there
pknerd 1y ago
Gemini has released new models, maybe they are better. Also, I request you to expand further, why Gemini is not better?
- avereveard 1y ago
  instruction following is good most of the time, but hands are still regularly coming out garbled and there's a small percentage of failed generation in the mix. style following is also a bit hit and miss, I'm producing watecolor mostly, but every now and then a generation is photographic site is not really ready for this, but if you want to get an idea go here https://d2uua1ig5ocnwt.cloudfront.net/ https://d2uua1ig5ocnwt.cloudfront.net/ and search these: amber ladybugs north I manually remove failed gens, but the proces doens't scale to where I'd like if I have to manually verify images. and I have to have a few automatic rejection in the pipeline, like top border not white or image not squared.

pknerd 1y ago

Congrats! I would like to know the cost of the tokens you are paying for an image. How many pages coloring book will be created against $24 book?

darajava 1y ago
Thank you! OpenAI costs are surprisingly expensive. It's about $7 to generate a whole book (24 pages). There are 8-24 images allowed in a book, with a cover too. So there'll be 48 max pages in a book (incl blank pages).
- pknerd 1y ago
  Thanks for your prompt and kind response. Yeah, it is expensive because it is new at the moment. They already mentioned the high token cost.

sathishmanohar 1y ago

I'm from India. I was looking for a service like this but without sending me a physical book part. I'd use this at @ $10 price point if I'm able get downloadable a4 coloring pages from a picture. It would be great. Also this way your customer base becomes international. $10 for 20 pictures is a good price point for me. Pretty expensive but I'd still go for it.

darajava 1y ago
I'll implement this today. Edit: I've implemented this! It's a lot of code changes so I hope I didn't break anything.
- deleted 1y ago
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- sathishmanohar 1y ago
  Thanks!

OPBoot 1y ago

Oh, sorry - I'm going to be that person.... Your step 2 is wrong :-) > Step 2: We convert them into a high-quality physical coloring book with OpenAI’s brand-new Sora model, then send it out for printing. You don't convert it into a physical book /before/ sending it for printing.

darajava 1y ago
Oh, lol. Nice catch - I'll fix that.

riidom 1y ago

Maybe I am thinking a bit meta here. But who is supposed to colorize these pages? Kids that are in the progress of learning to instead use AI for everything? It can surely deliver better results quicker, after all. Same question would be relevant if you wouldn't have used AI to generate these outlines, of course. I just want to point out there is a certain irony of the "cut the branch you are sitting on"-kind here. Edit: typo

vb7132 1y ago

This is an awesome. I had a similar one: Convert the dense non-fiction books into something more readable. eg. SAPIENS vs UNSTOPPABLE US. But this makes me wonder: What is the barrier to entry for these apps now? Anyone can do it. There is going to be a barrage of apps/websites like this?

faeyanpiraat 1y ago
Why would you do that to Sapiens, it's an enjoyable read

simianparrot 1y ago

Every example is the Studio Ghibli style. Tasteless and no respect for the studio and its legacy. I don’t understand how you can do this and not feel horrible about it. But I guess not everyone cares as long as it might earn you a few dollars…

true_religion 1y ago
I suggest that they use the Disney style. It’s similarly popular and well known but no one will stand up to protect it since it’s a multi billion dollar company that we already know has no respect for artists or artistic legacy.
- deleted 1y ago
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darajava 1y ago
What's so bad about it?
reneretord 1y ago
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yosefk 1y ago
Style has been copied since time immemorial and was never copyrightable. I think it's better to be the studio everyone copies in their AI slop than the studio nobody copies in terms of publicity, sales and cultural impact. And the mass copying by a handful of models in a reasonably consistent way together with everyone talking about it is probably better for the studio than flesh and blood artists here and there copying it not so consistently / competently without the buzz attributing the style to the studio
slantaclaus 1y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago
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nesk_ 1y ago

Love it! Finally a product that properly leverages AI :)

darajava 1y ago
Thanks!

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

nextworddev 1y ago

Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy of…

firesteelrain 1y ago

Why can’t people just appreciate some thing cool rather than turn every HN comment section into a controversy? I had never heard of this Ghibli controversy.

dkh 1y ago
When you learn of a situation that a lot of people care about and feel very strongly about, it would be wiser and more respectable to not immediately dismiss it. Since you admit to only finding out about the situation five minutes ago, you might not have a firm enough understanding of the nuance to reduce everyone involved to haters without valid concerns. If you dig into the subject a little more, the answer to your question will become apparent, even if you disagree it.
- firesteelrain 1y ago
  I don’t agree or disagree with it. It’s the constant outrage. I don’t understand how people can be constantly unhappy
  - dkh 1y ago
    You don’t know if anyone upset about this is a generally and constantly unhappy person, they are upset about this. Are there no topics in this world that you have a very strong opinion on, that you would express given the situation? Could you not be a generally happy person and express those opinions, at the same time? Also, I mean, I know a lot of people don’t care about the whole “A.I. vs. artists” thing, but it should absolutely not be difficult to understand why many do. We are talking about a fast-growing technology and industry that will perhaps decimate jobs and entire professions, that will definitely reduce the value of certain things to zero, and while that will be good for some things, it is concerning for many that one of the first things being seriously threatened is art—something generally thought to be a deeply human ability, and a profession already notoriously difficult to earn a living at. For a lot of people this is existential. This guy’s little coloring book project is not the problem, but it‘s still a small facet of the larger issue, and being concerned about that issue is very valid, and anyone with perspective and a modicum of empathy should be able to understand it.

BugsJustFindMe 1y ago

People are complaining about using the Ghibli style, but I'm here to complain about the fact that they turn everything into generic abstractions that look nothing like the people in the original photos. Generic-cartoon-vaguely-reminiscent-of-your-family-but-not-really is a product that I'm surprised someone would be proud of.

parpfish 1y ago
I wonder what would happen if you ghiblified images of the slop I cooked for dinner. Ghibli food always looks so good

DonHopkins 1y ago

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