Recently, you may have noticed a curious set of shiny new buttons under your upscales: It is our newest zoom out feature!

Take, for example, this portrait of our friend, Fig.

We really liked this closeup shot because this has some unique eye details. We want to see a bit more of the picture, so we’ll use the “zoom out 2x” button here.

The algorithm seamlessly outpaints the original picture, extending the slight blur at the bottom of the original image into a depth-of-field effect.

But to say that the zoom button simply zooms out undersells its capabilities.

When zooming out, we can modify the prompt to add context which was not present in the original shot. To change the prompt, select “Custom Zoom” on this menu

Then, type your new prompt into the text box.

In the sample above, we started with a closeup of Fig’s frightened face. Now, we want to give a reason why Fig is scared. Maybe she is beset by deadly butterflies.

Or maybe she is experiencing some pyrotechnical difficulties.

Or maybe there is a scary knight in front of her.

By changing the aspect ratio parameter (--ar 2:1), we can leave enough blank space for zoom out to add entirely new elements to the composition.

Let’s use this technique to tell a story.

Start with a man enjoying a day at the beach.

What is he looking at? Let’s use zoom to follow his gaze.

How interesting: the framing of the picture changes the context. We’ve turned a pinup shot of a man with a sultry gaze into a story moment. Perhaps he’s jealous of the man and woman enjoying their cake date in front of him on the beach.

Notice that by not mentioning the man with the watermelon in our zoom out prompt, we are telling niji that he is not the main actor, but a background character. Again, we must change the aspect ratio to 2:1 to make sure that niji has enough blank space to work with, so that the extra characters get drawn.

We can continue zooming out:

Ah. So perhaps he is not jealous of one man and woman in particular, but of the general bourgeoisie who flaunt their high-calorie confections in front of him, while he can only eat watermelon. Perhaps he is on a diet.

Once again, pay close attention to how the zoom influences the shot. we’ve moved from a pinup (focused on the details of one character) to a story (focused on the relationship between 3 characters) to a scenic shot (focused on the general vibe of a location with people in it)

At some point, zooming too much becomes a bit absurdist: cramming too many elements into a drawing will hurt the composition; where to stop a moving thought is a conscious decision up to you.

We can combine zoom out with variations to carefully control an idea.

Here is a zoom out of frightened fig again, but on the beach.

We like the overall setup of this composition, but we’re not satisfied with the details. Back to this panel again, we can use the “Make Variations” button to switch up the minor facets.

Just changing a few elements on the same composition transformed this into a first-person shot. The viewer is suddenly in the frame, with the cake: it looks like Fig is happy to see us. (But the boy behind her doesn’t seem to share the same sentiment!)

A subtle change will go a long way in controlling the feel of a composition!

The interesting property of this zoom out feature is that art in the real world is seldom made like this. One of the first and most important steps in composing a piece of art is determining the subject’s relationship to its frame.

In fact, “drawing as you go” without planning the full composition is a very rare and powerful skill, requiring many years of discipline and practice, demonstrated here by the great Kim Jung Gi

Creating in the moment-to-moment is rather sinful and exhilarating: I’m sure most artists can tell you about the the time they ruined a composition by losing themselves in a beautifully rendered detail.

However, “moment-to-moment” is the way that we experience reality: information that we consume exists as fragmented signals (there is a man with a watermelon; there is a man and woman eating cake in front of him) that we must synthesize into a cohesive narrative. (There is a man who is jealous of the couple eating cake in front of him) Different ways of organizing these signals yield different results (There is a nice cafe which serves cake on the beach with lots of people in it.)

As we have shown with the third example scene of Fig eating cake with the reader, there is a great deal of finesse in the organization task, even between images with the same high-level composition. It is because organization is so difficult that it is traditionally far easier to start making art from the abstract, organized state, rather than from the moment-to-moment experience. You might have heard of this school of thought framed as “there is a countable number of compositions that work” or maybe more concretely, “given two characters, the blonde one is probably the prince/princess, and the dark-haired one is probably the honor student, and they are foils for each other.” Planning compositions beyond these pre-organized concepts is usually pretty difficult.

Thus, drawing without planning the result has long been in the realm of amateurs, blasphemers, and geniuses (read: extremely diligent people). Yet, all of a sudden, We find that it is quite within the grasp of the average individual.

Will creating moment-to-moment become a feasible technique, or is it merely a passing fad? We have provided the tool: it is up to you to explore its myriad forms.

Certainly, I am curious where this new paradigm will lead us. Whether you use this feature to scout the next step in your path or to plan the arc of your entire itinerary, I hope it serves you well on your journey.

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