The idea I want to convey, in a slide deck at work, is that the codebase we are working on has not had enough attention for five years. It has been run by a small number of people who managed to keep the system working, 'kept the lights on' but the team were not the original authors, and was not big enough, and not empowered enough, to make updates, let alone the structural changes required.
I hit upon the idea of The Marie Celeste and her skeleton crew.
The original authors had left, the system was still running, but those running it were too few.
HotPot.ai is really good. It has a nice freemium on-ramp, generates images fast, and nearly had me spend money with them. I certainly used up my free goes.
I had to choose styles and engines.
Where is the crew?
Where is the crew?
Where is the crew?
Where is the crew? Appears to be a futuristic gun on prow.
Maybe some crew, the one I went with.
Where is the crew?
Too marvel
Too stylised
Too sexualised
I changed the prompt to Crew the ghost ship Marie Celeste or similar, Dalle encorporates the prompt into the filename.
I changed the prompt back to The ghost ship Marie Celeste or similar, I have lost track of the prompts by this stage.
Back to the crew.
Too much emphasis on the word skeleton
I guess it is picking up on 'girls name' + skeleton
'girls name' + skeleton in a different style
Too much skeleton
Back to just the ship
Just the ship in a different style
Skeleton and ship, but I have run out of free goes and the will to live.
creator.nightcafe.studio
creator.nightcafe.studio is a similar, polished service.
I liked this creation, though it is more Flying Dutchman than Marie Celest and has no crew, enough to tweet it.
I added the word 'Indian'
Lost the ship
Added 'on the sea'
Too much sea.
Lost the plot now
Back to ghost ship
'Indian skeleton crew on a ghost ship' in a different style
'Indian ghost ship' in a different style
'Ghost ship on the sea'
'Indian ghost ship on the sea' in a different style
'Indian ghost ship on the sea'
Out of credits
Dall-e
The big user benefit of Dall-e is that the prompt is in the file name, so not relying upon my poor memory.
Dall-e does not seem to offer a download all option, which the others do.
The Marie Celeste and her Skeleton crew in a fantasy style
The Marie Celeste and her Skeleton crew in a fantasy style
The Marie Celeste and her Skeleton crew in a fantasy style
The Marie Celeste and her Skeleton crew in a fantasy style
Conclusion
I never got the image I wanted, maybe the two ideas are too explicit, but I have an image which I can use. This process was not quick, but it is better than choosing a stock image from the Powerpoint selection.
