How I trained a neural network to generate Niva posters

One of the results of the pre-trained neural network

Hi all! There comes a time in every man’s life when he wants to buy a Niva. At 33 years old, I wanted to buy this car. And while I was saving up money for a long-awaited purchase, I wanted some merch with Niva. A quick search on popular marketplaces did not yield results that would please my inner aesthete.

It was decided to generate images using a neural network. I tried Dall‑E and Midjorney, Flux – everything was wrong, neural networks had never seen our domestic Niva, the results were pathetic parodies, more like a short Land Rover or Toyota. An example of what the neural networks produced is posted below.

It looks like a Niva, but a trained eye will notice that the proportions are a little off... — It looks like a Niva, but a trained eye will notice that the proportions are a little off…

Thinking that I was an engineer, I decided to further train Flux in open photographs of Niva from the Internet.

Education

The training turned out to be indecently simple. I used replicate.com to run and train Flux. They have a wonderful tutorial in English on how to further train Flux. I’ll describe it here briefly in Russian for those who are too lazy to read.

We select pictures for training. Approximately 10–20 high quality images
(Optional) For each image, write a text description and save it to a file with the same name but extension (.txt)
We put everything in a zip archive and upload it to the replicate service
We wait 20–30 minutes until the neural network is fully trained
We generate images using a trigger word (in my case NIVA)

Results

I was surprised that in about 20 minutes the neural network was fully trained and began producing beautiful images of the Niva. I remember before it required a lot more effort – deploying the model on your computer, struggling with different versions of libraries…

Poster with Niva from a pre-trained neural network

To generate images I used the following prompt:

Imagine a sleek and modern t-shirt design featuring a powerful NIVA as the central element. NIVA should be depicted in a dynamic and adventurous pose, capturing the essence of freedom and exploration. Consider incorporating elements like rugged terrain or a scenic background to enhance the outdoor theme. The color palette should be bold and vibrant, reflecting the spirit of adventure. Aim for a design that is both stylish and eye-catching, appealing to NIVA enthusiasts and adventure.

In the process of searching for the perfect T-shirt poster, I generated about 20-30 images. The cost of training and generation was approximately $5.

Thank you for reading to the end! I will be glad to see your comments.