I’m Using Image Playground and Pixel Studio to Make the Laziest Holiday Cards

I did not person clip to acceptable up a photoshoot with the household this year. Initially, we would each deterioration tracksuits and airs successful beforehand of my car successful a squatted presumption successful grant of my Balkan ancestors. But nary one’s feeling it this year. Instead, I mightiness fto the machine and the far-off water-cooled information centers bash my vacation bidding. I volition privation the radical I attraction for a blessed vacation by sending retired thing AI-generated.

Google and Apple made a important fuss implicit including on-device artificial quality connected their flagships. Google was the archetypal to laud its abilities and spent most of the year convincing america that Gemini was the mode of the aboriginal of Android. Then, Pixel Studio launched connected the Pixel 9 smartphone. It’s suitable for concocting images of things successful varying creation styles and presents them arsenic if they were polished successful Adobe Photoshop beforehand. It’s besides beauteous good astatine generating modular text, though it shows limitations if you effort to veer off-script.

iOS 18.2 is retired for the iPhone 16, and Image Playground is portion of the package. It’s Apple’s instrumentality connected everyone else’s attempts astatine generative AI. Like Google, the creation generated by Image Playground besides indicates Apple’s creation style. The app is bully astatine generating images of people, peculiarly the faces of radical you’ve loaded up successful Apple Photos. Image Playground volition prime the radical it knows you attraction astir the astir and past fto you acceptable a photograph for inspiration. From there, you tin adhd inheritance details, set covering options, and fine-tune facial features arsenic you spot fit.

Instead of a photograph sprout with a household struggling with sickness, I utilized Google’s Pixel Studio and Apple’s Image Playground to make my yearly vacation newsletter artwork. I’m inactive not convinced it’s a replacement for the existent photoshoot. But we’ve heard from Google and Apple each twelvemonth circular astir the innovation down these image-generating suites disposable connected our computers successful our pockets. Why not enactment them to the trial portion successful dire straits?

Image Playground: Use it for faces

Ironically, Apple Intelligence, launched later successful the year’s timeline, is overmuch friendlier with quality likeness than Google’s Pixel Studio. (Google says connected a enactment leafage that it’s “working connected the quality to make quality images, on with the quality to edit existing images with people.”) Technically, Apple wins this situation due to the fact that I tin make a representation of my household without physically positioning america successful beforehand of a camera. The lone downside is that it wouldn’t diagnostic each of america unneurotic successful 1 photo; currently, it tin lone process 1 look astatine a time.

I already previewed what it’s similar to usage Image Playground earlier it rolled retired to iOS 18.2. That acquisition taught maine that little is more. It’s champion to statesman with a fewer variables and past dilatory physique upon them from there, truthful I did that. I started with the look of the idiosyncratic I wanted to correspond that Apple Intelligence had already identified: my kid. Then, I selected the prefilled offering for “winter holidays” and fto the AI bash its thing. It generated her with brownish eyes, truthful I asked it to power to bluish eyes to lucifer her successful existent life. This whitethorn beryllium a synthetic image, but that doesn’t mean the likeness isn’t there. Then I asked it for a scarf to circular retired the wintertime scene.

I hold with my husband, her commencement father, astir the accuracy of the Image Playground photo. When I asked his opinion, helium said, “It’s beauteous cute. It looks similar her.” Indeed, contempt the botched rima country successful astir of the photos products, the images are passable. Just don’t zoom in. The mode Apple Intelligence made her teeth look creeped maine retired a bit; successful 1 picture, it seems similar each her teeth had fallen out, and I tin spot wherever the AI attempted to capable in. Her eyes besides struggled to materialize successful immoderate cases, and I recovered this to beryllium a communal contented for each the images generated by Apple Intelligence of circumstantial people.

The bully happening astir Image Playground is that it keeps your platform of representation punctual phrases successful bid truthful that you tin adhd and subtract arsenic needed. I ended up sticking with the “winter holidays” + “scarf” terminology and past adding the word “Santa hat” to initiate much Christmas cheer.

I was unsatisfied with the snowpeople sculptures generated successful the inheritance of my images. Image Playground volition bash a good occupation of putting unneurotic a generic-looking snowman connected his own, similar the benignant you tin bargain connected a twelve greeting cards successful bulk. But the snowman couldn’t drawback a interruption arsenic a inheritance object. In astir instances, helium had his ember eyes and rima but thing else.

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
The mediocre snowmen. Where are their faces?

Image Playground is not large for generating substance wrong an image. In each cases that I tried, it simply did not work. When I asked Image Playground to spell “Merry Christmas,” it wrote axenic gibberish instead. I tried respective times to get it to nutrient thing astatine slightest societal media-worthy, but astir of what Image Playground conjured up looked similar the rubric representation astatine the apical of the article.

Pixel Studio: Use it for stickers

Google’s Pixel Studio is amended if you’re trying to walk disconnected creation that’s a small little overt, though inactive precise evidently artificially generated. For starters, it can’t make an representation successful the likeness of different humans yet, truthful you’re beauteous overmuch constricted to immoderate the app suggests you commencement with erstwhile you occurrence it up. Some adjuvant prompts offered presently see “cats,” “dogs,” and “Christmas histrion inspiration.”

Pixel Studio’s connection to make a feline oregon canine could enactment if you person a favored astir the location that could beryllium the absorption of your artificially-generated cheer. My feline has been gone for 5 years but lives connected successful representation and AI (and wrong of a container connected apical of the fireplace mantel). I asked Pixel Studio to marque “a sleepy, tuxedo feline with greenish eyes and a pinkish chemoreceptor wearing a Santa hat. There’s a Christmas country down them. At the bottom, there’s substance that spells retired ‘Catmas.'” I’m honestly shocked astatine however good it delivered.

I tried the aforesaid punctual connected Apple Intelligence. I learned archetypal that the full operation I typed antecedently into Pixel Studio doesn’t acceptable successful the representation statement punctual connected Image Playground. It included everything up to “There’s a Christmas country down them.” I added different line, asking it to see substance astatine the bottommost that spells retired “Catmas,” Image Playground promptly replied that it was an unsupported ability. It generated a achromatic and achromatic tuxedo feline successful a Santa hat, though the feline besides wears an actual tuxedo. The Pixel Studio kept the cat’s carnal likeness and was capable to spell retired “Catmas.” The acquisition is that you should consciousness nary shame successful focusing the yearly vacation missive connected your pets, adjacent if it is AI-generated.

I’d hoped I could get distant with asking the Pixel Studio for assistance generating stickers successful different languages. Pixel Studio did good erstwhile I asked it to parse retired “feliz navidad,” which is “Happy Christmas” successful Spanish and besides the sanction of a fashionable Christmas song. But nary substance however often I asked the AI to parse thing successful Romanian, Pixel Studio spits retired thing illegible. I could spot it was a conflict to fig retired the accepted Romanian aesthetic to instrumentality with, too. In immoderate cases, it made the substance look similar it was attempting Cyrillic, which is utilized successful the Russian and Greek languages, with Slavic accent points.

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo

Apple Intelligence worked champion for the manufactured vacation acquisition due to the fact that it generated my family’s likeness without overdoing the creep factor. Even though capable AI artifacts were near behind, the representation is passable due to the fact that it looks similar an artist’s effort astatine a caricature. As I said earlier, don’t zoom in. The Pixel Studio is amended if you’re looking for thing much circumstantial extracurricular the realm of including people. It’s not cleanable astatine generating text, but if it’s a operation that Google’s Gemini has seen repeatedly—like “Happy Holidays” oregon “Merry Christmas”—it looks adequate.

Ultimately, some Image Playground and Pixel Studio’s renditions of Christmas near thing to beryllium desired due to the fact that of the uncanny vale effect. I’m funny to nonstop this to friends and household and survey their thoughts connected our AI-generated likeness arsenic a stand-in for the yearly Christmas photograph shoot. I’ll fto you cognize erstwhile I get feedback.