Navigators AI School: We test Gencraft

Have you been thinking about trying AI but don't know where to start? Don't worry, in our AI School we explore and evaluate the industry's leading AI tools. In today's article, we're testing Gencraft, a program that lets you create imaginative images in no time.

To make it easier for you as a marketer to navigate the AI jungle, we have created the Navigators AI School. A series of articles where we explore the industry's leading AI tools. How do they work? What should they be used for? And above all, are they worth learning?

In previous AI School episodes, we've taken a closer look at copywriting program Jasper AI, imaging program Midjourney, design program Flair AI, and video program Synthesia. This time, we test the image program Gencraft.

This is Gencraft

Gencraft is a program where you use AI to create your own unique images. The program has various features that allow you to create images from scratch or from existing photos you already have. In addition, Gencraft has a "writer's block" function that can help you come up with ideas about what to create. Gencraft can be used on the web but is also available as an app for both iOS and Android. Like many similar tools, Gencraft allows you to explore and be inspired by other users' images.

In this article, our copywriter Klara and our graphic designer Julie test the program and share their thoughts. Stay tuned!

Our first impression

When we surf to gencraft.com, we are greeted by a dark purple website with a happy pink octopus. As we scroll down, we see a gallery filled with images that other users have created with the program. Many of the images are colorful, utopian and playful. Gencraft feels like a place for creative users, where they are encouraged to unleash their creativity and create exciting, innovative images.

We click on "Sign Up/Log in" and are greeted by a box where we can choose to log in with Facebook or Google. We choose Google and soon we are inside the program. Once there, we end up in a pop-up box that navigates us around the basic functions of the program. It all feels simple, intuitive and easy to learn.

Registration and start-up

Before we get started, we choose to pay for Gencraft's trial version that gives us unlimited access to the program. The trial version costs SEK 69 a week, and as an option there is also a starter version that gives the user 25 prompts per day, as well as a free version that gives the user 8 prompts in total.

Test 1: Scary Dracula with roses

We go into the program and click on the "Generate" tab. There we can type in our prompt, choose the image style, exclusion words as well as the aspect ratio. Since Halloween is approaching, we choose to create a Halloween image. We choose Halloween as the image style and type:

"A happy Dracula standing in a graveyard in the evening, holding a bouquet of roses, celebrating a birthday"

We click on "Generate," and after a few seconds the following two images appear:

At first glance, both photos look good, but when we take a closer look we see some inaccuracies. Both pictures contain roses, but in the second picture the roses are on the ground instead of in a bouquet. As we wrote in our prompt, the pictures contain evening light but Dracula doesn't look happy or celebrate his birthday. In other words, half right!

As a continuation of the test, we choose to try the program's "Magic Edit" function, where we can select a part of the image and fart directly on it. We select Dracula's cloak and type:

"Yellow cape"

In the new version of the image, Dracula's skin is lighter and his hair is longer, but the change we asked for, the yellow cloak, doesn't seem to have quite taken hold. Part of Dracula's cloak has turned yellow but far from all of it.

Test 2: Cute bunny with cookies

After the scary Halloween image, we decide to create something more light-hearted. We go through the different image styles of the program and settle on "cartoon." We choose it and write the following prompt:

"A fluffy yellow bunny sitting in a forest surrounded by white mushrooms, eating a chocolate chip cookie"

The pictures are really cute and playful, but do they match the prompt we wrote? Well, not really. In the first picture, the rabbit is sitting in a forest of white mushrooms holding a cookie just like we wanted, but the color of its fur is not yellow but white.

In the second picture, the rabbit is yellow, but here it is surrounded by fly agaric and all the cookies are scattered on the ground.

Despite some inaccuracies, we still like the first image, and we decide to give the "Magic Edit" feature another chance. We highlight the rabbit's fur and type:

"Yellow fur"

But my God, what happened here? The rabbit has been transformed into a wolf-faced human, wearing a yellow fur coat. This is perhaps one of the strangest things we've seen, and the more we study the image, the more confused we become.

Test 3: Elevator from Wes Anderson movie

As a final test, we want to try uploading our own image. The program allows us to upload an image of our own and use it as a reference image for the image we want to create. We choose to upload an image we like from Wes Anderson's movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

For the image we write the following prompt:

"A boy and a girl standing in an elevator wearing ugly Christmas jumpers"

The image is definitely reminiscent of the reference image from Wes Anderson's movie, but many details are changed. As we wrote in the prompt, the picture shows a girl and a guy, but there are two more people in the picture. The elevator is similar to the one from the movie, but here it is made of stainless steel. If we zoom in on the faces and hands in the picture, we see that they are quite deformed and don't look quite natural.

The image is fine, but we have some difficulty understanding how to use this feature. We understand that the program retrieves information from the uploaded image and creates a new similar one, but we find it difficult to see when one would need such a function.

Reputation

Gencraft is a modern and playful program that is easy to use and easy to get started with. The program offers a wide range of image styles and you will quickly achieve striking results. The images are at their best if you keep the prompts short and let the program experiment a bit on its own. The various special functions such as magic tool and custom image work like that, and probably need a little more development time.

Benefits and advantages

• Quick and easy
• Many different image styles
• Possible to choose image format
• Everything is automatically saved in an archive
• Relatively cheap

Disadvantages

• The special functions work poorly
• Varying quality of results
• People's faces are often distorted
• Having difficulty dealing with long prompts

Final rating

For those who want to try out image generation with the help of AI, Gencraft is a good and simple program to start with. Without having much prior knowledge, you can quickly create beautiful images and with the help of the different styles, it is easy to be creative. However, if you want to create more advanced images with a lot of detail, Gencraft may be a little too limited. Then we recommend Midjourney instead, which is a more advanced program.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Want to learn more about AI?
Read the other parts of our AI school here.