{"id":17609,"date":"2024-10-23T21:50:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surreyborder.org.uk\/?p=17609"},"modified":"2024-10-31T16:37:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T16:37:08","slug":"black-forrest-labs-flux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surreyborder.org.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/23\/black-forrest-labs-flux\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Forest Labs – Flux1.0 \/ 1.1 image generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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How to generate your own high quality Ai images using Flux \u2013 Easily!<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Background<\/span><\/h3>

Black Forest Labs, a German based company, released FLUX on the 1st August this year. It was released without the usual build-up and hype that has sometimes accompanied other Ai launches. Flux is however a real game changer.<\/p>

Without doubt its launch put it head and shoulders above any of the competition for creating images, and already an improved version has just been released. Flux1.1 addressed limitations in user control, speed, and output refinement, meaning that the output more closely matches the text prompts, and is quicker. In Ai land, quicker usually also means less expensive.<\/p>

Why isn\u2019t Flux a standalone application?<\/span><\/h3>

Flux can\u2019t be downloaded directly onto a standard computer and run with an easy to use interface. Like many other Ai developments, it requires a platform<\/i> to run on. The reason for this is that Flux is the engine to make things work, and isn\u2019t intended as a standalone system. For example Flux is integrated into xAi\u2019s Grok-2, Elton Musk\u2019s rival to Chat-GPT, giving Grok an image generator in much the same way that Dall-E is part of OpenAi\u2019s Chat GPT.<\/p>

The <\/span>platform\u2019s<\/i><\/span> task is to act as an intermediary handling all the technical stuff; creating links to the servers; setting up the APIs, and so on, such that users only have to manage a simplified front end without the need to dig deep into the system or learn anything technical.<\/span><\/p>

A simple analogy is this; imagine Flux to be like a car engine \u2013 it\u2019s very high performance – but it\u2019s still only the engine. It requires a vehicle body and some custom tuning to use it effectively.<\/span><\/p>

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And that car body takes the form of a variety of different platforms \u2013 of which there are many different options. Best known are HuggingFace, Replicate, <\/span>AWS (Amazon SageMaker)<\/span>, and <\/span>Google Cloud AI (Vertex AI), but there are many more.<\/span><\/p>

To stick with the car analogy, Hugging Face is probably like a comfortable SUV, Replicate like a sports car, and both Amazon and Google very heavy duty trucks with giant wheels. <\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/a>A heavy duty truck is not the kind of vehicle that\u2019s of much use to us small video makers \u2013 there\u2019s a steep learning curve to control them, they are expensive to run for small jobs, and parking at the supermarket can be a problem!<\/span><\/p>

Part of the added value of these <\/span>platforms<\/i><\/span> is to tune the engine to some degree, so Flux outputs can be slightly different in the same way that engines might be tuned to perform differently in different vehicles.<\/span><\/p>

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Replicate\u2019s interface is really easy to use, and it was my choice of <\/span>platform<\/i><\/span> for Flux.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0It\u2019s straightforward, has good guides, and produces the type of output that I want. Whilst there is some flexibility in \u2018tuning\u2019 the style and type images, I\u2019m very happy with those that it produces without needing any extra tweaks. And I know that it still has the potential to allow me to create my own fine-tuning if I need to later.<\/span><\/p>

How to easily produce Flux images using Replicate.com<\/span><\/h3>

This is a very easy (non technical) guide to get started with any of the Flux models, and at the same time get access to many other utilities and Ai tools that are available on Replicate.<\/span><\/p>

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Firstly open replicate.com,<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0click \u2018Get started\u2019<\/span>, and then sign in to GitHub.<\/span><\/p>

If you don\u2019t have an account, simply create one:<\/span><\/p>

You\u2019ll need your email, create a password, create a username, choose email preference option, and finally verify your account. Then you are all set and will be returned to the Replicate page.<\/span><\/p>

Whilst it\u2019s possible to use Replicate without payment (some of the options are free), if you want to do anything useful you\u2019ll need to add a credit card to the account. You\u2019ll be prompted to add a payment method.<\/span><\/p>

How much does it cost and how am I invoiced?<\/span><\/h3>

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Each month you will only pay for what you use, so it\u2019s not a standing subscription. If you don\u2019t generate any output there is no charge. You are also encouraged to put a cap on your account to avoid any possible overspending. Mine is set at a miserly $5\/month, and so far it\u2019s been more than sufficient for the several hundred images I\u2019ve produced!<\/span><\/p>

In replicate, you\u2019ll see many other programs and utilities on the platform, don\u2019t be afraid to experiment. The estimated cost per image will appear at the top and bottom of the relevant page. Check it out before using the model you\u2019ve selected.<\/span><\/p>

Which Flux version is best to use to generate images?<\/span><\/h3>

Black Forest Labs launched 3 models on 1<\/span>st<\/span><\/sup> August2024:<\/span><\/p>