Midjourney is, hands down, one of the most powerful image-creation tools available right now. If you want to generate stunning artwork, photorealistic images, stylized illustrations, or even turn your images into video, Midjourney gives you the building blocks to do it. This guide is a comprehensive, practical walk-through for beginners and intermediate users alike. You’ll learn how to start, how to structure prompts, which parameters matter, how to iterate to get better results, how animation works, and some advanced workflows that will help you get professional-quality outputs.
Table of Contents
- Getting Started with Midjourney 🚀
- How Midjourney Generates and Iterates Images 🎯
- Animating Images into Video 🎬
- Pricing, Modes, and Commercial Usage 💳
- Explore the Community and Learn from Prompts 🧭
- Writing Better Prompts: The Building Blocks ✍️
- Midjourney Parameters That Matter ⚙️
- Advanced Techniques: Personalize, Mood Boards, In/Out-Painting 🎨
- Using Midjourney in Discord and Other Tips 💬
- A Practical Workflow: From Idea to Final Asset 🛠️
- Common Problems and How to Fix Them 🔧
- Ethics, Copyright, and Commercial Notes ⚖️
- Resources and Next Steps 📚
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ❓
- Final Thoughts ✨
Getting Started with Midjourney 🚀
Jumping into Midjourney is simple. The core experience is built around a straightforward create flow where you type a prompt, submit it, and wait for the model to produce images. Here are the essential first steps to get you up and running:
- Open midjourney.com and sign in with your account.
- Find the Create button (typically an icon on the site interface) and open it.
- Type your prompt into the input box and hit Enter or click Submit.
Example prompt to experiment with: “origami style combat scene from John Wick where the origami Keanu Reeves wields a samurai sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, engaging in a battle with a group of assassins.” Type that as-is, submit, and watch the model render four distinct variations. You’ll often see a grid of four outputs labelled 1–4. Those are your first drafts to iterate from.
How Midjourney Generates and Iterates Images 🎯
When you submit a prompt, Midjourney returns a set of four images. Think of these as first drafts—each one explores a different interpretation of your prompt. The platform provides helpful actions so you can refine and evolve what you like.
- Vary (V) — The “vary” action (often shown as V subtle or V strong) asks Midjourney to produce new images similar to the chosen variant. V subtle = small, incremental changes. V strong = bigger, bolder reinterpretations.
- Upscale — Upscaling generates a larger, higher-resolution version of a chosen image and often smooths out minor artifacts. Upscale options may include “subtle” (faithful, minor improvements) and “creative” (adds more artistic reinterpretation).
- Animate — For images you want to turn into video, the Animate option transforms the still into an animated sequence. More on that later.
Iterative workflow example:
- Submit prompt → you get four images.
- Pick the image that most closely matches your vision.
- Use V subtle to refine details or V strong to explore a new direction.
Keep iterating. The first outputs are rarely perfect—expect to refine multiple times until the image aligns with your vision.
Animating Images into Video 🎬
Midjourney adds a powerful animation capability that converts a generated image into a short video clip. Animation options are typically presented as modes like Auto, Low Motion, and High Motion.
- Auto — The default that creates subtle motion suited to the image’s composition.
- Low Motion — Gentle, slow movement (think small swaying, camera shifts, or slow motion actions).
- High Motion — Aggressive action and dynamic movement for scenes with active elements (fight scenes, explosions, rapid camera pans).
When you animate, Midjourney usually produces four variations of the animation. Pick the one you like best and you can optionally extend the clip for longer durations. Typical generated clips are several seconds long (for example, ~5.2 seconds in many cases), and the platform provides an “extend” action if you want more length. Remember: animation quality and fidelity depend on the complexity of the image and how much training data the model has for your described scenario.
Pricing, Modes, and Commercial Usage 💳
Understanding pricing and usage limits is crucial, especially if you plan to use Midjourney for business or high-volume production. Midjourney typically offers different access tiers with trade-offs for speed and concurrency.
- Fast Mode — Immediate results that consume your monthly fast hours. Each user plan includes a limited number of fast hours to render images and video quickly.
- Relax Mode — Submits jobs to be rendered when GPU resources are available. Relax mode typically does not consume fast hours and is ideal for batch generation or unlimited video renderings (on qualifying plans).
- Pro & Mega Plans — These higher-tier subscriptions often unlock unlimited relaxed mode generation and higher concurrency. Pricing varies by plan; typical starting points for professional-level access are around US$60 per month (check the platform for up-to-date pricing).
Commercial considerations from the model’s documented policies:
- Subscribers generally have broad commercial rights to assets they generate.
- If your business exceeds a high revenue threshold (e.g., more than US$1 million annual revenue), some plans require you to be on Pro or Mega for commercial usage. Check current platform terms for exact thresholds and licensing details.
Relax mode allows you to generate large volumes of content for commercial projects provided you can tolerate delayed rendering. This is a great trade-off if you need lots of B-roll, backgrounds, or footage for longer projects.
Explore the Community and Learn from Prompts 🧭
One of the fastest ways to learn Midjourney is to study what other creators are doing. The Explore or Community section showcases top images and videos by day, week, and month. Click on any piece of work you like and you’ll often be able to view the full prompt that generated it. Reverse engineer that prompt and adapt it for your own themes.
What to look for when browsing community creations:
- How the author defined the subject (age, ethnicity, action, clothing).
- Which medium they used (oil painting, airbrush, stock photo, pixel art, etc.).
- Lighting and mood cues from the prompt (dramatic lighting, high contrast, foggy atmosphere).
- Shot type and composition (close-up, wide angle, macro, bird’s eye).
- Era or cultural context (Renaissance, 80s magazine, modern editorial).
Examples from community prompts you might encounter:
- “Airbrush painting of a human eye” — expected medium: airbrush; result: smooth gradients, illustrative detail.
- “Stock photo of a young woman in ski suit with goggles outside in a winter landscape” — expected medium: photo; result: photorealism with relevant props and clothing.
- “Vintage style blue and white pattern featuring woodland animals” — expected medium: ceramic pattern; result: stylized decorative motif.
Use community prompts to bootstrap your own prompt-writing. Import a prompt, tweak the subject, and pay attention to how small changes alter the result.
Writing Better Prompts: The Building Blocks ✍️
A great prompt is your most important tool. Treat it like writing a brief for an artist: be specific about what you want. Prompt components that matter most:
- Subject — Who or what is the focus? Age, ethnicity, species, clothing, pose, action.
- Medium — Oil painting, watercolor, digital illustration, photorealistic camera, macro photography, pixel art, paper craft, origami, etc.
- Lighting — Dramatic, soft, harsh, rim light, studio, natural, golden hour, high contrast.
- Mood/Tone — Cinematic, creepy, whimsical, melancholic, heroic, gritty.
- Shot Type — Close-up, wide shot, portrait, 3/4 view, bird’s eye, macro.
- Era/Style — Renaissance, 1980s editorial, futuristic, vaporwave, GQ magazine.
- Details — Colors, textures, background elements, camera lens, aperture, DOF (depth of field).
Sample refined prompt:
“Glamour shot of a female hippo, studio white background, dramatic rim lighting, high detail, glossy skin texture, studio medium format photography, 85mm portrait lens, high contrast —ar 1:1 —s 250”
Breaking that down: the core subject is a “female hippo,” the medium is “studio medium format photography,” lighting is “dramatic rim lighting,” and camera details and aspect ratio are appended as parameters. The more specific you are, the closer the output will be to your vision.
Midjourney Parameters That Matter ⚙️
After your main prompt text, Midjourney supports a set of parameters that give you precise control over the output. These parameters can dramatically affect composition, style, and repeatability.
Aspect Ratio: –aspect or –ar
This controls image proportions. Examples:
- –ar 16:9 — wide landscape (good for cinematic scenes and backgrounds)
- –ar 9:16 — vertical (perfect for phone wallpapers and reels)
- –ar 1:1 — square (social posts, profile images)
- –ar 3:4 or 4:3 — portrait variants
Syntax example appended to a prompt: “—ar 9:16”
Stylize: –stylize or –s
Stylize controls how strongly Midjourney applies its artistic flair. The higher the value, the more the model will push toward an artistic, Midjourney-ish look. Typical ranges:
- –s 0 — minimal stylization (more literal, often better for photorealism)
- –s 100 — small stylization
- –s 500 — default-ish artistic impression
- –s 1000 — heavy stylization (very artistic)
Chaos: –chaos or –c
Chaos controls variation and unpredictability. Values typically range from 0 to 100. Low chaos gives stable, predictable results; high chaos can yield surprising, experimental outputs. Use high chaos when you want unexpected creative jumps; use low chaos for reliable, repeatable images.
Raw Mode
Raw mode reduces the influence of the platform’s evolving house style and allows a broader, possibly more realistic output. It’s helpful when you want to escape the default “Midjourney look.”
Seed
The seed is a number that initializes randomness for an image generation. Using the same seed with the same prompt and parameters yields consistent results. When you want repeatability—e.g., consistent characters across multiple images—control the seed. Seed settings are essential for series work, branding, or character continuity.
Other parameters
- Speed/draft flags — control rendering speed and resource usage.
- Repeatability parameters — used with seeds to get consistent outputs across runs.
- Shortcuts — dash-dash s (stylize), dash-dash ar (aspect), dash-dash c (chaos).
Advanced Techniques: Personalize, Mood Boards, In/Out-Painting 🎨
Once you’re comfortable with basic prompts and parameters, explore advanced features that add consistency and context:
- Personalize — Toggle personalization and select images you like so Midjourney can build a profile of your preferences. This nudges results toward styles you favor over time.
- Mood Boards — Collect and curate a set of images to define a consistent aesthetic. Mood boards help maintain a visual language across multiple assets or scenes.
- In-painting — Edit parts of an existing image. Use in-painting to replace or refine a region without regenerating the entire scene.
- Out-painting — Expand an image outward. Want to “zoom out” and imagine the surrounding environment? Out-painting creates everything beyond your original canvas.
- Panning and Zooming — Useful for creating camera movement or sequential frames for animation and video work.
These features let you iterate not just on a single image but on whole sequences, themes, and consistent styles that are essential for campaign-level work or episodic content.
Using Midjourney in Discord and Other Tips 💬
Midjourney’s Discord integration provides a community-driven, versatile environment to generate images. Many creators prefer Discord for the social features, voting, and bot-driven commands.
- Use dedicated channels to submit prompts and view community results.
- Discord lets you run commands directly, attach reference images, and use bot-specific syntax to manage jobs.
- Community servers are great for real-time feedback, prompt examples, and inspiration.
Working in Discord can feel more collaborative: you can see trending prompts, spot stylistic patterns, and copy prompts or parameters directly into your own workflow.
A Practical Workflow: From Idea to Final Asset 🛠️
Here’s a pragmatic end-to-end workflow you can use for most Midjourney projects:
- Research & Inspiration — Browse community work, collect mood-board images, and identify styles you like.
- Draft Prompt — Write a detailed prompt including subject, medium, lighting, mood, and era. Add parameters like –ar and –s.
- Generate — Submit and review the four initial outputs.
- Iterate — Use V subtle or V strong to refine, adjust parameters like stylize or chaos, or change the seed for repeatability.
- Upscale — Once satisfied, upscale the final image for higher resolution and better detail.
- Outpaint or Inpaint — Expand or refine the composition as needed.
- Animate — If you need motion, use the Animate option with Low or High Motion settings and extend if you want a longer clip.
- Finalize — Download and post-process in your preferred image editor if necessary.
Tips for efficiency:
- Keep a library of prompt templates for common styles you use often.
- Document seeds and parameters for series consistency.
- Use relaxed mode for volume rendering when you don’t need instant feedback.
- Save and favourite strong community prompts to reverse engineer them later.
Common Problems and How to Fix Them 🔧
Even experienced users encounter artifacts or results that don’t match their intent. Here are common issues and practical fixes:
Strange anatomy or misplaced elements
Solution: Lower stylize (–s 0–100) for more literal interpretations or add clear subject descriptors like “realistic human anatomy” or “anatomically correct.” If hands or fingers are wrong, include “realistic hands” in the prompt or use in-painting to correct.
Text artifacts or weird symbols in images
Solution: Avoid prompts requesting readable text unless you also provide a reference image for exact typography. Use in-painting to place clean, programmatic overlays later if you need precise typography.
Unwanted stylistic house effects
Solution: Use raw mode to reduce the platform’s default aesthetic and increase control. Specify exact medium and camera details for photorealism.
Inconsistent characters across images
Solution: Lock a seed and include detailed physical descriptions (height, hair style, clothing, facial features). Generate multiple variants with the same seed and adjust subtly to craft consistent looks.
Too much chaos or unexpected results
Solution: Reduce –c or set chaos to a low number. If you want experimentation, increase it intentionally.
Ethics, Copyright, and Commercial Notes ⚖️
AI image generation raises important ethical and legal questions. The platform’s policy and licensing terms govern how generated assets can be used commercially. Key points to consider:
- Subscribers typically have broad commercial rights to their generated images, but always verify the exact license terms for your account tier.
- If you’re producing content commercially at scale or for clients, check whether your plan (Pro or Mega) is required—especially if your organization surpasses certain revenue thresholds.
- Be mindful of using recognizable public figures, copyrighted trademarks, or protected images in ways that could violate rights or platform policies.
- When reusing community prompts or referencing other creators’ images, acknowledge inspiration ethically—avoid passing off a derived style as someone else’s work without attribution if it’s sensitive.
Legal frameworks are evolving. Always consult the platform’s official policy pages for the most current guidance and, when in doubt for high-risk commercial use, obtain legal advice.
Resources and Next Steps 📚
To continue improving:
- Explore the platform’s community pages daily to track style trends and new prompt patterns.
- Create a personal prompt library with categories for photorealism, illustration, animation, and product shots.
- Experiment with seeds to build consistent characters and scenes. Document successful seeds and parameter combinations for repeatable pipelines.
- Try combining Midjourney outputs with post-production tools (Photoshop, Affinity, DaVinci Resolve) for color grading, compositing, and finishing touches.
If you plan to use Midjourney for business, set up workflows that include relaxed-mode batch rendering, seed documentation, version control for assets, and a post-production checklist to ensure quality and legal compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ❓
Q: How do I get started if I’ve never used an AI image tool before?
A: Start simple. Pick a single subject and a medium—e.g., “portrait of an elderly woman, film photography, soft golden hour lighting —ar 3:4.” Generate, review the four outputs, and iterate using V subtle. Explore community prompts to learn phrasing and common parameters.
Q: What’s the difference between Fast Mode and Relax Mode?
A: Fast Mode renders quickly and consumes included fast hours on your plan. Relax Mode queues jobs until GPU resources are available and usually does not consume fast hours. Relax Mode is ideal for high-volume or unlimited generation if you can accept delayed rendering.
Q: How can I make a subject look consistent across multiple images?
A: Use an exact, detailed description of the subject (gender, age, facial features, clothing), and lock the seed parameter for repeatability. Use the same prompt template and parameters each time, and iterate from a favorite generated image if needed.
Q: What are the best parameters for photorealistic images?
A: Try lower stylize values (–s 0–100), an appropriate aspect ratio (–ar 3:4, 4:5, or 16:9 depending on composition), and add camera details (lens, aperture, film type). Use raw mode if you want to reduce the platform’s house style.
Q: How long can animated clips be?
A: Midjourney’s animation system typically produces short clips (several seconds). You can use the extend option to lengthen clips beyond the initial output. For extended sequences or long-form content, you can render multiple clips and stitch them together in a video editor.
Q: Why does Midjourney sometimes create strange artifacts like extra fingers or odd faces?
A: These artifacts result from model limitations and training data gaps. Fixes include lower stylize, clearer subject constraints, using in-painting to correct areas, or manually editing the image in an editor.
Q: Can I use Midjourney images commercially?
A: Generally, subscribers are granted commercial usage rights, but license details depend on your plan and revenue thresholds. If your business exceeds high revenue tiers, Pro or Mega plans may be required—confirm with current platform terms.
Q: What is the best way to learn prompts fast?
A: Study top community prompts in Explore, copy interesting prompts into your drafts, and tweak one variable at a time—such as swapping “oil painting” for “airbrush” or changing lighting. Iteration and experimentation are the fastest teachers.
Final Thoughts ✨
Midjourney is a uniquely creative tool that blends technical parameters with artistic choices. The better you get at writing prompts and using parameters, the more control you’ll have over the output. Start with clear subject and medium descriptions, experiment with aspect ratios and stylize values, and use community prompts as reference points. For video and animated content, leverage the Animate function and relaxed mode for bulk rendering.
Most importantly, treat Midjourney as a collaborative partner—draft, iterate, and refine. Over time you’ll build a library of prompts, seeds, and styles that make generating consistent, high-quality imagery fast and reliable. Whether you’re producing single images, series for branding, or animated clips for storytelling, this tool can save vast amounts of time while unlocking creative possibilities that were previously expensive or labor-intensive.
Now go create. Document what works, keep a prompt notebook, and keep experimenting—your best images are often one or two iterations away.
