Fun with optical illusions in Midjourney

Also called squint images they appear to be one thing from a distance but turn out to be something else close up

Sep 27, 2023

Optical illusions are a fun and engaging way to use AI image generators to create unique and creative art. Midjourney is a powerful AI image generator that can be used to create a wide variety of optical illusions, from simple geometric patterns to complex and mind-bending scenes.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use Midjourney to create your own optical illusions. We will cover how to use it to generate images, as well as some specific techniques for creating optical illusions.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to create your own stunning and mesmerizing optical illusions using Midjourney.

The basic workflow

The basic workflow is like this: We generate a base image and then we use it to create a variation of this image with a completely different prompt.

First up we need to decide what we’d like our base image to be. It should ideally be an image of something iconic and easily recognisable, like the Mona Lisa or a famous movie character.

Creating the base image

We start out by creating our base image. Just prompt Midjourney as usual. Let’s go for an image of Pikachu

/imagine A drawing of Pikachu

which results in this image. We choose to upscale this image.

Setting remix mode

In order to make Midjourney work the way we want to we need to turn on remix mode. Type

/settings

and we should see rows of buttons. Select remix mode and we’re ready to proceed.

Choosing the motif for the optical illusion

Now we should find out what the image should transform into. It’s best to select something with a lot of texture and many details like ‘a jungle clearing with many flowers’, ‘a city of many small houses’, ‘a crowd of people’. Let’s make a city of yellow houses as I imagine that goes well with the yellow Pikachu.