Okay, let’s talk about this little project I did, the one I called “the rock in a dress”. Sounds a bit silly, I know, but stick with me.
Getting Started
So, the idea just popped into my head. Don’t even remember exactly why, maybe saw some meme online or something. But I thought, “Huh, wonder what that would actually look like?” You know, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, big tough guy, wearing a dress. The contrast just seemed funny. Decided I’d try and make an image of it.
First thing, I figured I’d use one of those AI image generator things. Everyone’s talking about them, right? Seemed like the easiest way. Didn’t want to spend hours messing around in Photoshop – honestly, my skills there are pretty basic.
So, I opened up one of the popular AI tools. Won’t name names, they’re all pretty similar anyway. Had a bunch of free credits, so why not?
The Process (and the headaches)
I started simple. Typed in something like: “Dwayne The Rock Johnson wearing a beautiful evening dress”. Hit generate. Waited a bit. What came back was… well, it was weird. Like, the AI kinda got the idea, but it looked distorted. Muscles bulging through satin in ways that just looked wrong, or the face was kinda melted. Not quite right.
Okay, round two. I thought maybe I needed to be more specific. I tried things like:
- “The Rock wearing a simple red sundress, smiling”
- “Photo of Dwayne Johnson awkwardly posing in a flowing gown”
- Adding negative prompts like “no extra limbs, realistic face, detailed dress”
Honestly, it was hit or miss. Mostly miss. Sometimes the dress looked painted on. Sometimes The Rock looked like a weird action figure. Sometimes the background was bizarre. The AI seemed confused, like it couldn’t quite handle putting those two concepts together convincingly. It was frustrating. You think it’s just typing words, but getting something good? Takes a lot of tries.
I spent maybe an hour just tweaking words, changing the style settings (like asking for ‘photorealistic’ vs ‘cinematic’ vs ‘illustration’), trying different poses. Felt like I was arguing with a very stubborn, slightly stupid robot artist.
Why Even Bother?
Now you might be asking, why spend time on this? Fair question. Truth is, I was kind of stuck in a rut. Remember that project I mentioned last month? The big one that totally stalled out? Yeah, that one. Hit a massive wall, couldn’t figure out the next step. Felt completely blocked.
Needed a distraction, something totally different. Something low-stakes where it didn’t matter if it worked or not. Making silly pictures of The Rock in a dress seemed about as low-stakes as it gets. It was just something to do, to get my brain working on a different track for a bit. Wasn’t trying to make a statement or anything. Just trying to unstick myself by doing something absurd.
It’s funny how sometimes the dumbest little side quests are the things that help you clear your head, you know? Better than just staring at the code that wasn’t working, anyway.
The Result
After fiddling around way more than I expected, I finally got a couple of images that were… okay. Not perfect, AI still has that slightly plastic, weird-hands look sometimes. But one of them actually looked kinda funny, captured that weird juxtaposition I was thinking of. The Rock, looking serious, in a surprisingly floral dress. It worked, kinda.
So yeah, that’s the story. “The rock in a dress”. Started as a whim, turned into a frustrating little battle with an AI, but ended up being a decent distraction. Got the picture. Didn’t solve my big project problem directly, but hey, felt good to actually finish something, even if it was just this silly thing.