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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   448 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026

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What's everyone's favorite AI image generation model?

I'm running a Pathfinder campaign, and being able to generate on-demand NPC art that looks like the vague idea I had in my head for a character is a huge step forward from having to scour the internet for stock art and make sure I haven't reused anything.

Unfortunately, I've been working with Microsoft's Copilot and ChatGPT (with a brief disappointing dip into Gemini), and recently I've noticed that both of them seem to have regressed in their image generation models: wonky eyes that don't get better, one side of the face significantly differently styled than the other, and my personal most annoying issue, being unable to generate with transparency in the background. ChatGPT can do this, but Copilot and Gemini regularly fail over and over at this task, often generating a white-and-grey square pattern that browsers will use to indicate transparency, but that's the actual background of the image, and you can see points in the background where it messed up and did the same color multiple times instead of alternation. These all feel like issues from the early days of image generation, so I suspect they've regressed their free models to something that's cheaper for them to run.

I'm not opposed to paying for it (though free is clearly better), but I'd really rather pay someone other than OpenAI, I just don't like Altman or how the company is run. And if I'm going to pay someone I'd want a good text model as well, I often use the text models to generate names or flesh out ideas.

I always request a black and white sketch/pen art style, harder to screw up. You can always remove the background with a browser tool after the fact.

This is good information, but I was really hoping I would not have to do either of these things. At some point I was able to get reliably quality artwork with transparent backgrounds, so I know the technology is there. It's possible it's not something I can access.

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