Freepik Pikaso Makes Another Leap

A few months ago, I wrote a post about Freepik’s unique drawing-to-image generator, Pikaso. Now Freepik has come up with some innovative new ways to generate and modify images at lightning speed, including the Reimagine feature, which allows you to explore limitless variations on an image with precise control over which details are modified. Let’s take a look at these impressive developments.

Text to Image

There are many websites and apps that will generate images from text, but none are as fast as Freepik Pikaso. In this example I asked for Medieval monk illuminating manuscript in candlelit room with light streaming through window. In a couple of seconds it returned a screen full of suitable images: as you scroll the window, more are generated instantly. 

It’s worth noting that it’s the same monk in each image, and this is the case with all Freepik generated images: You’ll get multiple views and arrangements, but it’s the same people each time.

Once you’ve selected the best image, you can choose to download it at high resolution. In this case, the monk came out at a satisfying 4864 by 3328 pixels.

Change the Style

Freepik offers a wide range of ways to change the appearance of the images. As well as choosing such styles as Dramatic, Golden Hour, and Indoor Light, you can also set the Framing (Portrait, Closeup, High Angle etc.), color (Pastel, Sepia, Duotone, etc.) and Style, which allows you to choose Cartoon, 3D, Comic, painting and more. Here’s a cartoon version of our medieval monk.

Bring in the Celebs

As well as conjuring imaginary people, Freepik Reimagine can replicate real people at will. Here, the prompt was Harrison Ford eating lunch in Paris cafe.

It’s clearly Harrison Ford, and the blue tint does suggest a Paris café. But perhaps I should have specified that he’s eating a baguette.

Doubling Up

Freepik is good at handling multiple people. Here, the prompt man and woman arguing in airport produced dozens of appropriate images.

Once again, they’re basically the same people in each image, although some have an extraneous third person in the shot.

Reimagine the Shot

As well as generating images from scratch, the Reimagine module can produce variations on the theme. Here, having chosen my favorite argument image, it has been recreated with subtly different variations.

The Reimagine window also interprets the image in text, although it tends to get things wrong. Here, it said both the man and the woman had black hair, and that the man was wearing a dark green shirt. 

Change the Description

Changing key words in the description produces new versions of the image incorporating those changes. Here, I specified a dark green shirt and brown hair, and the results were produced in an instant.

You can also hover over each image to pop up an icon menu that allows you to download the image, save it to a folder, or reimagine that image.

Use Your Own Images

You can drag any image into the Reimagine window to produce variations. My photo of my cat in a sink has here been reworked into many different versions – but all feature what is clearly my cat.

Changing the Pose

You can set the Imagination style to either Subtle, Vivid or Wild. I used the last setting on my photograph of a fox in a museum display, and Pikaso produced an almost infinite number of variations with the fox in different poses. 

Some of these are clearly incorrect (three back legs, extraneous objects sprouting from the neck) but most are useful versions of the original.

It’s Not Just Animals

Reimagine has an almost supernatural ability to understand what it’s seeing. My photograph of a statue of two metallic figures engaged in a martial arts pose was reworked with remarkable accuracy, even varying the plinth on which they stand. Again, there are some errors, such as one three-legged fighter, but the results speak for themselves.

Freepik Pikaso’s image generation is extraordinary. Its ability to produce as many variations as you want, simply by scrolling, is revolutionary. The only drawback I’ve noticed is the fact that once it’s created a person, it continues to use that person in all the generated images. Sometimes that’s what you want, of course. But it would be better to have the option to tell it to generate a variety of people. The Reimagine tool creates subtle or loose reworkings of any image you throw at it, at the same mind-boggling speed. 

You can try all of Freepik’s new tools for free at freepik.com, with the ability to generate a few images each day. For unlimited images, a Premium subscription is available.

Steve Caplin is a freelance photomontage artist based in London, whose satirical illustrations have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is the author of the best-selling How to Cheat in Photoshop, as well as 100% Photoshop, Art & Design in Photoshop and 3D Photoshop. He writes regularly for CreativePro and is an instructor at LinkedIn Learning. His YouTube channel 2 Minute Photoshop is a library of over 100 Photoshop tutorials, each just two minutes long, hosted at photoshop.london. When he’s not at his computer Steve builds improbable furniture, which can be seen at curieaux.com.
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