Image utility to remove unwanted objects. The free version works very quickly and accurately, but delivers very low-resolution images for download. Prices for higher resolution results are quite low. Other image utilities offer similar magic brush functions, but are somewhat harder to use.
Author: Irene Muehldorf
remove background
Free and simple tool to remove backgrounds for low-resolution images. To download higher resolution images, purchase a subscription or credits. Prices become lower the more images you wish to process (see https://www.remove.bg/pricing).
Anonymizer
Upload a photo to this website to generate an anonymized portrait imagined by StyleGan. These portraits may be used in the social media. You may generate 50 images a month for free in low resolution (512 x 512 jpg) and for personal use. A citation and link to Generated Photos are required. On the same website, you can generate nonexistent persons – and apply parameters such as age, mood, skin and hair color.
DALL·E 2
Open AI’s new AI facility is currently (May 2022) still unavailable to users, but It promises to be a milestone in text-to-image generation. If you’re a fan of other text-to-image generators, you might consider exploring the website and joining the waiting list! The website does not show yet whether the pricing model for DALL·E 1 will apply to DALL·E 2 as well.
Luminar AI
Download a free trial version (Windows and macOS application and plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom) of LuminarAI for seven days to AI-augment your base images, style images, or finished dreams. Fairly easy to use on any images. You can download the resulting high-resolution images. Below is a DDG-dreamed tulip with and without enhancement using Luminar:
Using Artificial Intelligence To Make Art: Wombo and Deep Dream Generator
Check out this article at https://www.slaphappylarry.com/using-artificial-intelligence-to-make-art-wombo-and-deep-dream-generator/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1HHQAbKIbauT5wUK_wbd9hwCbwUHmLjJDlF3NWvfP634MwI0vuNe0OHN4. Thanks Stuart Harrison for the find!
Keywords for Text-Generated AI
Thanks to Stuart Harrison for this AI source: “~200 CLIP+VQGAN keywords on 4 subjects, by @kingdomakrillic” https://imgur.com/a/SALxbQm?fbclid=IwAR1wXINNuIy3fM7r2she8ogsjFjt2Qw2ZJvjvR-XVDtmZioeZ7Z4FMkSVxQ.
Public Domain Artwork
1,654 free works of art to download and use at http://www.publicdomainfiles.com. the works are categorized by medium or image type and have an acceptable resolution.
thisxdoesnotexist
For a compilation of all sites that use generative adversarial networks to produce images of a certain category – for example real estate or cats – go to https://thisxdoesnotexist.com/. You might find one or the other site useful for source or style images, who knows? Six-legged horses? Have fun playing around. If you want to use an image for dreaming, you’ll probably have to increase its resolution first.
MS Photos: Easy-to Use Video Maker
For a step-by-step guide on how to use the Windows 10 video maker using the photos app, see https://www.windowscentral.com/how-start-using-photos-video-editor-windows-10.
Deep Dream Favorites
#DDGChallenge Some source images images keep popping up in the dream feed. Why not try your hand at dreaming one of these popular images? You probably already have. Feel free to show us a dream of a popular image not on this list, too. Post your best results below!
Audubon: Birds of America
John J. Audubon’s Birds of America has unlocked 435 high-resolution digital prints of birds from American Avocet to Zenaida Dove. For background information, see http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/download-435-high-resolution-images-from-john-j-audubons-the-birds-of-america.html or https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/10/birds-of-america-download/. Sweet dreams!
Source Challenge: Color My Zebra
#DDGChallenge Here’s a new challenge for you. Deep style one of these b&w CC0 zebra images in color. Alternatively, try Thin Style or Deep Dream to add color. Have fun dreaming and post your best dreams!
DeepDreamGenerator Tips – Adding in Some Black n White (Without It Looking Messy)
Andrea Melissa Blacker wrote this short but sweet tutorial for Deep Dreamers: Hi everyone. I sure do love the black n white mixed in the final image but don’t always get the right parts n pieces to turn out black n white by using a total black and white source image. Example: I’m going to be using this image as my source image: image […]
AIArtists: Tools to Generate AI Art
AI Artists calls itself “the world’s first clearinghouse for AI’s impact on art and culture.” The site offers a truly comprehensive collection of AI-related material, including AI ethics discussions, a listing of AI artists, and a valuable compilation of tools to generate AI Art. The AI tool links are sure to become your go-to place to expand your horizon beyond – or within – DDG. This site covers not only the world of pictorial art, […]
Distill
Have you been wondering how all those layers of neural networks really interact? The machine learning research site Distill is dedicated to clear and simple explanations of such complex issues. One article in particular is interesting for Deep Dreamers who wish to better understand what’s happening when they use DDG. The authors of “Feature Visualization: How Neural Networks Build up Their Understanding of Images” will walk you through the scientific nuts and bolts. Even if […]
Deep Style V2 and Transparent Backgrounds
Tip from Daniel Prust: With DEEP STYLE V2 you can now upload PNG images with transparent backgrounds and the AI won’t style the transparent part of the image. It will simply turn the transparent portion white in the dream output. Conversely, with V1, DDG would treat the transparent background as white during the styling process, which would lead to style bleeding into the background of the dream. So V2 users no longer have to adjust […]
Public Domain Pictures
Public Domain Pictures Public Domain Pictures is a repository for free public domain images. The images are available for commercial and personal use. While you need to sign up to a payment plan to download large, high-resolution images, the freely downloadable images have sufficient resolution for use in DD. Search for useful styles and sources by applying criteria such as categories. As an example, here’s a floral pattern image from the category background:
Rawpixel
rawpixel Rawpixel Ltd. is a UK-based stock image provider that offers an array of free and paid images. The company prides itself on authenticity and creativity and on supporting good causes. And here’s a special tip for Deep Dreamers: rawpixel provides public domain images enhanced to high resolutions. Register to download 10 free images daily for personal or commercial use. Also, download unlimited public domain images. Currently, “to help you during these difficult times”, rawpixel […]
Stay Healthy with Fruity Vitamins
#DDGChallenge In times like these, it’s a particularly good idea to follow this health tip from U.S. educator and author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Deep dreamers can take this one step further and dream food. So, here’s a cornucopia of very diverse free-to-use fruit and vegetable images. One of these challenge images should suit your artistic taste buds.
Smithsonian Open Access
Smithsonian Open Access Another great museum has unlocked 2.8 million images for you to download and reuse. More public domain images will be added in time. The potential for dreamers is huge! Select from among images across the entire Smithsonian group. Browse collections in the areas art and design, history and culture, or science and nature. To search the collection images efficiently, apply a filter.
Biodiversity Library
Bidodiversity Library Are you looking for natural sciences images? Ones that are public domain, free, high-quality and interesting as sources for deep dreaming? Then check out the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s site, an open-access online archive containing over 150,000 images. Find a description of the archive’s content here and a well-organized selection of the images for download on the archive’s Flickr site. Search by Flickr album or download entire albums. In this way, you can target […]
FreeStockTextures
FreeStockTextures is a small site run by two design and web professionals who post-process their photos to create select texture images. Great news: You may use the lovely images for free, also for commercial purposes. To download more than five images a day (from a total of roughly 1,300), register with the site. This will allow you to download up to 50 images a day. Here’s a sample image:
Kaleider
Kaleider is a progam that lets you create nearly limitless kaleidoscope, 3D mirroring and funneling effects in images. You may choose any image on your computer to work with. Kaleider is available for windows (download the free trial version here) and as a free android app. Some good advice: To get the most out of Kaleider, read about the program’s myriad features here. You don’t feel like learning how to use the different mirroring options? […]
Inspiration Needed?
Are you looking to create your own hand-drawn source or style images but can’t think of any worthwhile motifs? My Modern Met has some inspiration for you to make simple doodles. Here’s Just the tip of the iceberg: different types of cacti; a repeating pattern of your favorit animal, fruit, or flower; doughnuts and coffee. Drawing ideas from My Modern Met include kichen utensils; your most interesting pair of shoes; a closeup of your eye. […]
Source Challenge: Shoes
Shoes. They can be sensible, frivolous, fashionable, ugly, shiny, dirty, uncomfortable, bespoke, orthopedic, fetish, iconic and so much more. They’re made of all manner of materials, not just leather, synthetics, canvas or rubber. Get them from bargain bins, high-end shops, supermarkets or second-hand. Shoes come in all colors and shapes to meet your particular needs: wear slippers, boots, flip-flops, work shoes, sneakers, high heels, mocassins, sports shoes, and wear them with or without socks or […]
Source Challenge: Architecture Reflections
Choose your favorite architectural source image and make it into a reflections dream!
What Is in the Image?
Dreamer Daniel Zamir has programmed a nifty little app that can recognize what is in an image – in particular, a dream image. To try it out,go to Daniel’s GitHub page first to download the app. Next, click on the green “Clone or download” button. If you download the ZIP file, open the file, then open the folder “dist” and click on “app.exe.” Should your computer refuse to open the app because Windows defender does […]
Source Challenge: Old Family Photographs
Here’s a new source challenge for you. Take your time finding material for this challenge. As you know, our challenges never have a closing date! Simply scan an old or even historical family photograph and make it into a dream. Alternatively, if you don’t have, or don’t want to use, a personal photograph, use public domain material. Here are some useful sites for historical family photographs: Wikimedia Commons, category historical images of people; Library of […]
GauGAN
Like thispersondoesnotexist, GauGAN (named after artist Paul Gauguin and GANs, i.e. generative adversarial networks) is another GAN-based tool developed by NVIDIA. This interactive app uses familiar paint program devices such as paint buckets and brushes to suggest a landscape in the form of a segmentation map on the left side of the screen. The GAN simultaneously translates your scribbling into a virtual landscape of your choice on the right side of your screen. What is […]
Summer Source Challenge Part 2
Summer, summer everywhere and not a drop to drink… Choose your favorites from among these Unsplash and Pixabay photos, make Summer Source Challenge Part 2 dreams, and post your best work below!
Scientific Material
The links below take you to selected deep-dreaming-related scientific material: Books, Papers, Articles Where We See Shapes, AI Sees Textures (2019) by Jordana Cepelewicz in Quantamagazine Controlling Perceptual Factors in Neural Style Transfer (2017) by Leon A. Gatys et al. Preserving Color in Neural Artistic Style Transfer (2016) by Leon A. Gatys et al. A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style (2015) by Leon A. Gatys et al. Music Transformer (2018) by Cheng-Thi Anna Huang […]
Spektrel Art
Download Spektrel Art for free for Windows and Mac. The app for IOS costs USD 2.99, the Android app EUR 1.09. The free download works like a charm. However, if you want to save the images you adjust with the program, you need to register with the company even for the free product. The company Jixipix then immediately e-mails you a registration number that you have to enter to unlock the save function. The images […]
Chaotica
Chaotica‘s website describes Chaotica as “a next-generation fractal art application, designed for both novices and professional artists.” Download the free versions for Windows, Mac OS and Linux here. The free program will render images of up to 1.23 mp. If you want to create images with up to 4 mp and animations, buy a license for USD 29 or EUR 25. Alternatively, purchase a professional license for USD 99 or EUR 89 to make images […]
JWildfire
JWildfire stands out for its flame fractal generator. Wildfire is a java-based image processing software (hence the “J”). The latest version (4.10), was released on May 11, 2019. Apart from the software, the site offers numerous support resources, such as a blog, a forum, and tutorials. Tip: software developer and architect Andreas Maschke provides a gallary of sample flame fractals you might find useful as styles for dreaming. To run the program, you need to […]
The Flickr Saga: What Happened to the Groups’ Shared Styles Collection?
We had a gigantic collection of styles, and some source images, all stored on a single online repository, for the use of the Deep Dreamers’ group. Here we tell the whole story:
How it got started, why it no longer exists, and some thoughts and ideas for creating a new online collection, while avoiding the pitfalls of the Flickr collection.
Deep Dream Subreddit
Some deep dreamers post on Reddit. The dedicated subreddit features chronological posts of AI art interspersed with questions and information.
Needpix
Needpix Needpix offers a collection of over 1.5 million free photos and illustrations under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. As the site states on its “about” page, “[A]ll photos hosted here are collected only from public domain sources such as: pixabay.com, pond5.com, picjumbo.com, publicdomainpictures.net, and others.” It’s easy to search the well-tagged site. Also, many images are high resolution. Apart from photos, you’ll find vector illustrations, clipart, paintings and drawings, fractals, as well as […]
Inspirograph
Inspirograph is a free online spiral image maker created by Nathan Friend, currently senior frontend engineer at GitLab. It’s very simple to use. Just choose the size of the fixed and rotating cogs as well as the background and line colors. Also, use a few easy keyboard shortcuts to make spiral images very quickly. Download the images for further use or submit them to the online gallery. If you want to use a spiral image […]
thiswaifudoesnotexist
This waifu does not exist produces an endless stream of potential source images for deep dreaming. Create a new waifu (a fictional character, typically an anime, manga, or video game character that is attractive to the point of being considered a significant other) every time you refresh the website. Click on pause refresh at the bottom of a waifu page to read the little made-up story to the right of the face. Alternatively, call […]
Burst
Burst Burst is a stock photo platform with thousands of royalty-free images mainly for the web community. But some collections are interesting for Deep Dreamers, notably animals and nature & landscapes. Moreover, the odd background or texture might be useful input for a style. Also, browse the site for new public domain photos added every week. Another nifty feature is the option to download a given image in high or low resolution.
NegativeSpace
NegativeSpace NegativeSpace offers photographers a platform to share their work free of charge and without copyright restrictions (Creative Commons 0). The website takes its name from a photography technique: photos focus sharply on a subject whereas the blurry surroundings represent the “negative space.” Search by categories or by color. Downloading is a cinch. Finally, you might consider signing up for a newsletter to receive 20 new stock photos by mail every week.
National Gallery of Art
Deep Dreamers, here’s another wonderful repository of open-access images: The National Gallery of Art makes open-access works in its collection available in a dedicated website. Go to NGA Images to see and choose from among over 51,000 digitized open-access works. You’ll find everything from Impressionist paintings to iconic works by U.S. artists. The site has a particularly useful feature: Select the most convenient image size and resolution. What is more, the NGA has organized images […]
wikiart.org
The drive to make art available for educational and other purposes has spawned new websites like wikiart. Wikiart’s mission is to collect art from around the world and make it accessible to everyone. Search for images by a broad range of categories, not just art styles or artists, but also unusual criteria like female artists. The site operates on the wiki principle: Anyone may contribute and edit content. Of course, new content is consistently moderated. […]
The Public Domain Review
The online journal The Public Domain Review showcases a large number of curated collections of PD images. An excellent classification system facilitates searching. Narrow down your search by defining criteria such as the century created, the type of artwork or its source (such as museums, libraries, government agencies). Understandably, most of the images are pre-twentieth-century works. But especially if art curiosities from centuries past are what you’re looking for as a Deep Dreamer, you will […]
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum is a pioneer of the movement toward digitization and open access in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector. It initially released over 100,000 images of artworks to the public domain already in 2012. Shortly thereafter, the Rijksmuseum launched Rijksstudio to allow users to create their own exhibition pages and share material. In fact, the museum encourages users to reuse images and share the results with the Rijksmuseum. To access the Rijksmuseum’s […]
thispersondoesnotexist
This person does not exist! Every time you refresh the website at two-second intervals, you conjure up a new synthetic face. Most portraits look uncannily real. The website uses code released by GPU inventor NVIDIA using data from generative adversarial networks (GANs) and style transfer to blend images. Software engineer Philip Wang created the thispersondoesnotexist website. To find out about Wang’s method and motives, look at his Facebook post. Also, if you’re interested in relevant […]
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art recently joined the league of museums that have adopted an open access policy. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement by Creative Commons on January 23, 2019: “Today, we are announcing a release of 30,000 high quality, free and open digital images from the museum’s collection under CC0 and available via their API. CC0 allows anyone to use, re-use, and remix a work without restriction.” This is great news for all […]
AndreaMosaic
AndreaMosaic is a free mosaic creation progam that will turn a source image into a tiled mosaic emulating the source image. The program is easy to download for Windows, Linux and in a legacy version for OS X. You may also extract images from video or movie files to use as tiles. The program makes a tiled mosaic in three simple steps. First, you choose a source image from your files (the green plus sign). […]
Belvedere
The Belvedere museum is the first museum in Austria to provide open access to parts of its collection online. About half the items in the collection are available in high resolution. So you’re free to download, share and remix any of these CC0 images without restriction. The works include a few fascinating paintings by Austrian artists like Gustav Klimt, Albin Egger-Lienz and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. But you also have open access to works by other […]
