Big Feet, Big…
Text prompts in Midjourney v5.1.
Besides images created for the feet series, I’ve included a set that visually explains why it’s difficult to generate feet with AI engines.
Big Feet, Big… Boots
Big Feet, Big… Sneakers
Barefoot and Sandals
Issues with creating feet in AI
If you thought that getting 6 fingers in Midjourney was bad, try asking MJ to make feet. You’ll have a nightmare.
I realized this when I started making images of greek gods. I wondered why the engine kept on fading their feet out. From my perspective, the worm’s eye view (from the view of the floor) of these towering figures would be most enticing. Classical paintings usually depict Greek Gods as barefoot, and I wanted to be as visually similar as possible. I’ve repeated the “barefoot” keywords in prompt, used “barefoot::1.4” emphasis, negative prompts “--no shoes” etc. But MJ continues to give them shoes and sandals. It’s funny but also extremely frustrating. It doesn’t just apply for greek gods. Try “man walking in office barefoot”. They always wear shoes no matter what you do.
Eventually, I decided to take a look at what exactly is happening, so I wrote some prompts for feet, and then it’s clear what’s going on — Midjourney renders feet horribly. It’s not hard to imagine why — training data for feet is near non-existent. With the exception of feet fetish site which I imagine MJ is actively avoiding to index, where else would you find photos of feet on the web except maybe medical research sites? And for those, they’re usually there to display bad medical conditions so you definitely won’t want to train on that.
The unfortunate side effect of this is that when I get lucky and got a photo with feet, the results are unusable 90% of the time, which I have to throw away anyway. I have included some of those at the end of the set. The images are otherwise quite fine — but the weird bits like 6 toes, 4 toes, and strange toe curlings are extremely common.
I dare you to go to the prompt and ask for a “close up view of feet”. Be prepared to see all manners of weirdness. They could be attached to the most beautiful people in the world, but their feet… should never be seen.
