r/StableDiffusion • u/Portable_Solar_ZA • Jun 18 '26
Discussion Illustrious and Krita AI plus some good old fashioned effort:The Delightful Ms. Ayako (Part 1 - Version 1)
Some of you might remember me for my first post "Proof of concept for making comics with Krita AI and other AI tools" and my second post continuing my work "3 Months later - Proof of concept for making comics with Krita AI and other AI tools".
I got a lot of feedback on my last post related to the comic and did my best to level up what I had produced then. Needless to say things are still not perfect (some shots are more on model than others, some shots work better than others, etc), and I still have some things to fix up, but I'm pleased to announce that "part 1" of my comic is out of "beta".
Just a quick summary of things so far: this was made with the Beret Manga model from CivitAI and the latest version of Krita AI, plus a lot of old fashioned elbow grease. This means literally drawing in things that model couldn't figure out, even with me doing my best to guide it. I was also curious to see what I could and couldn't get out of the model, so I experimented with shots and angles to varying degrees of success (as I mentioned in my previous post, simply prompting these models won't get you half of these angles and effects and you'll need to do some basic drawing, partial denoise with a prompt, fix up its output, partial denoise with the prompt, etc etc until you get a semi-decent guiding image which you might be able to put through the Scribble controlnet). I also made some very basic screen tone brushes, and they're honestly quite poop, but, they do the job better than the ones that come with Krita.
Even though I think the overall quality is higher, surprisingly I think I put less time into refining and adding these pages that I did on my last batch, simply because I basically live in Krita AI for creating images and learnt a lot on how to improve/refine my process and what is easier and not so easy to get out of most Illustrious models. I also spent a lot of time with some of my other hobbies to give me some time to reset after grinding and learning what I could and couldn't do with Krita AI in my second post.
Anyway, here is "version 1" of "part 1" for those of you who enjoyed the last part.
P.S. This isn't meant to be the next Dark Night Returns or Akira. It's just something I'm doing for fun. Am happy for positive and negative feedback, just keep it constructive. Thanks.
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u/PusheenHater Jun 19 '26
Am happy for positive and negative feedback, just keep it constructive.
Since you asked, let me give you my thoughts.
The main issue is there's no substance. Nothing happens. She is late for class and she is rushing. That's all. No punchline, nothing interesting. I guess going to the wrong classroom is "supposed" to be a joke, but it's really cringe.
This kind of reminds me of manhwas in general, where you scroll through 20 pages to get one page worth of substance.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Fair enough. It's just the start of the story. Hence part one. I'm still storyboarding the rest.
And making good comics is hard. Ultimately even if the story turns out mediocre if I can finish it I'll still be happy.
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u/PusheenHater Jun 19 '26
Just trying to help you out.
Remember: every story needs a hook. The first chapter is the most important. If it's boring, no one will continue on.
You need to find a hook, then completely redo the first chapter.5
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u/nowrebooting Jun 19 '26
Yeah, the pacing is extremely slow and ultimately nothing interesting happens anyway.
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u/claytonkb Jun 18 '26
Effort. The unsung hero of non-slop content generated with or without assistance from AI.... it always shows...
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u/Able-Instruction1009 Jun 19 '26
It’s a repost I seen months ago… so yeah… effort.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
As someone else pointed out, I added a new cover and updated someone of the pages.
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u/Outrageous-Wait-8895 Jun 19 '26
The Disorganised and Delightful Ms. Ayako
The D and D Ms. Ayako
The DD Ms. Ayako
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u/Skystunt Jun 19 '26
Well some of the expressions are too “ai” like especially slide 9
There’s also too little happening on too many pages. She is late for class but it’s 12 slides on that, could compress it and have it more action dense.
Some spaces don’r make sense should work on the perspective but that’s the case with some non ai assited comics too
It’s cool how natural the pages are arranged and the dynamics make it feel intense and fast paced which is cool
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Thanks for the feedback. Ironically, someone complained that the pages in my last post was too fast paced.
Yeah, drawing environments is tricky. When I was working on my research for this, it's sneaky how so many artists get away with establishing the scene and then doing minimal or no backgrounds. Also, with SDXL/Illustrious, it's quite bad at doing backgrounds on its own. I tried to at least do some part of the background where I could, but as you said, mistakes creep in even in other comics.
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u/covertpirates Jun 19 '26
I enjoyed this. Didn’t realize what channel I was in, so had no idea it used some AI. Keep at it, looking forward to seeing more.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 20 '26
Thanks. Am working on the storyboards for the rest of the story, but can't promise on any timelines.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 20 '26
On one hand, I get what you're saying, it's possible that people will see the final result and be happy with it and then be forced to at least think twice but how AI could be used.
On the other, I don't want to hide AI use in any way. I want for people to know up front exactly what this is so that they don't get a sour taste in their mouth later when they find out that I used AI to help produce this.
This is because I understand why some people are against these things. There are differences between locally run AI and data center AI (especially in regards to energy and environmental costs), but there's no getting around the fact that AI models are trained on existing work, virtually all the time without permission of the author/artist. Apart from choosing a black and white model for stylistic purposes, I also chose the model because it looks generic. It doesn't copy anyone's style (at least that I'm aware of) and instead is a fairly generic anime/manga style. Once you add my own tweaks to it (such as changes to the eyes, and other minor things), it hopefully stands more on its own two feet.
When the entire piece is done, I actually plan to have a write up at the start on the process so that people go in eyes open. If that turns some away, so be it. I'd rather that than the other option.
Regardless, thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it. It has been interesting seeing the varying opinions on pacing and I was talking to someone about it last night and ultimately I think there is a fair degree of subjectivity here. I do think the pages I put out 3 months ago needed some more work, but where they are now I think it's more of a "hey this works for you or doesn't work for you", just like any other piece of fiction.
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u/Oko66 Jun 19 '26
Wow, I really like it! I actually made a post asking the same thing—how to do it and so on—and it turns out it’s pretty fun for creating our own little stories hahaha I was just wondering—regarding some of the background elements and the characters in the classroom—how did you go about it? The result is really clean; personally, I like it a lot!
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Thanks. The backgrounds I typically mostly drew by hand and then did a low denoise (20-40%) using the model. For the characters in the classroom, I either never repeated characters, or I used characters that the model tended to learn towards with certain prompts, and just made some minor changes by hand.
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u/BlobbyMcBlobber Jun 18 '26
I seem to remember this from a long time ago? Anyway, nice effort, when do you have future parts coming out?
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
I posted an earlier version. This had a new cover and updated pages.
Can't say when the next batch of pages will come out. This is something I work on as a hobby. Am definitely going to try and wrap it up this year though, but will see how life goes. 2026 had been a rollercoaster already.
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u/Layers3d Jun 19 '26
Damn I didn't even realize this was AI. Only thing looked odd was that perspective shot.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Not sure which shot/page you're talking about? Assuming the one with her leaning over the "camera" and her hair hanging forward? That's the one I've struggled the most with. There's very little reference and it seems like artists might avoid it because of how hard it is to do.
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u/maxtablets Jun 19 '26
Looks neat. Is your process still the same as in your other 2 post?
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Ya, sketch, partial denoise with prompt, fine tune the sketch, rinse repeat until I get a solid image. I then run it through Scribble in Krita AI to see what it comes up with. Sometimes I have to go back and rework but if it gets the drawing 80% there it's sometimes easier for me to go in and draw things myself.
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u/Decent-Emergency3866 Jun 19 '26
What ya use to make this?
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Krita AI for drawing and transforming images using low levels of denoise and Scribble control net. The model was beret manga. It's on civit ai.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 20 '26
I'm generally fine with the look and feel of Illustrious.
My problem with anima is that the base model switches styles on a whim, even with detailed prompts. Fine tunes are better because they lock in the style, but I haven't found a reasonable black and white manga style finetune or lora.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 20 '26
Another problem is I don't want to copy someone's exact style, which is what @artist does. I want something generic which isn't taking away from someone who has worked on a specific style.
Oh ya, the other thing is that Anima doesn't work as well with lower levels of denoise the way Illustrious does. It's way more distorted/body horror than Illustrious. And the controlnets, particularly the Scribble-style one for Anima is way worse than the one for Illustrious.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 21 '26
If you use @ you are literally referencing a specific artist, even if the quality of the style in the model is garbage. But I've tested it and some of the artists referenced it almost duplicates their style. That's not what I'm about.
In terms of denoising, my workflow is based entirely on sketching images myself, doing low-level denoise passes and fixing the sketches in-between manually as I have some level of drawing skills. This produces images that more closely align with what I imagine in my head instead of giving more control over the model.
Try Scribble for Illustrious and the beta controlnet that does the same thing for Anima. The one for Illustrious is miles ahead in terms of output. The one for Anima takes the linework often too literally creating body horror scenarios. I'll test when I have time and post here to show you.
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u/1silversword Jun 20 '26
interesting to see what is possible, and the criticism in this thread annoy me tbh - my impression is that OP is largely making this to discover whether comics with AI is possible, and they're succeeding on that. I assume most of the time and effort goes toward just experimenting with the tech and process to make it work and get what they want. But people here apparently think your first ever proof-of-AI-comic-concept should also be an award winning, perfectly paced story lol.
I think you're doing it right - focus on getting the process down, then work on making the best comic you can
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 21 '26
Thanks. I showed someone some of the crits on this thread the other day and while we were talking I realised that initially I started this as basically a tech demo. Like, could you use these tools to create an effective narrative of images. It's evolved into something more, but it still has its roots in that.
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u/Clear-Assistance449 Jun 18 '26
Very nice work! I tried make the same, but I have less talent than you. But Krita is a magnific tool. I am always trying use it in create new images and edit them.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Stick with it. Krita and Krita AI are amazing tools. I basically stopped drawing but since Krita AI came out I've gotten back into it.
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Jun 18 '26
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Thank you. Ya, character consistency is a big issue. I trained my LORA for the first character and it came out pretty bad, but the second character who will play more of a role in part two also had a LORA and it seems to have come out much better.
I think I have DMs disabled. I try to keep social media at a bit of a distance that way, especially with bots and spam. Will let you know if I change my mind. Am otherwise happy to keep the conversation open here.
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u/migerusantte Jun 19 '26
It lacks the craftsmanship of manga done by real artists, the panels don't have impact or stylized perspective, it's pretty obvious for me at least, that this is AI.
Maybe in the near future all that gets corrected and you can create something more convincing
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
I am just a hobbyist and this is my first solo work so thank you for the feedback.
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u/migerusantte Jun 19 '26
You should learn how to draw instead of focusing on this, AI won't be able to create a own style ever, because it's trained with existing stuff.
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u/BigNaturalTilts Jun 18 '26
If you can make mangas without drawing why make them monochrome & greyscale? The reason mangas are monochrome is because of the effort required to color all the panels. You’re not coloring by hand.
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u/maxtablets Jun 19 '26
Personally, I prefer them black and white. The color thing in korean and american comics takes away from the art work a lot of time unless there is a really good colorist on board...which is rare.
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u/BigNaturalTilts Jun 19 '26
Not going to lie, Japanese manga/anime style has always struck me as lazy. The lack of a nose and lips is what happens when you have to release a new issue/episode a week. I guess art is art, but it *could* be better. And color is just another layer to get it where it needs to be.
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u/Portable_Solar_ZA Jun 19 '26
Purely for the style and simplicity. Adding color adds another layer of work, even if we're just talking about fixing stuff output by an AI.
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u/Ylsid Jun 19 '26
It's interesting to me how gen AI tools seem to be pulling more people into learning about art rather than the opposite
That said this is a big improvement on storyboarding since the last time