Need help getting started with Opendream AI art tools

General
1

I’m trying to create unique images with Opendream AI Art but I’m confused by the settings and prompt options. My results look low quality and not like the examples I’ve seen online. Can someone explain how to write better prompts and choose the right settings in Opendream so I can get sharper, more professional AI artwork?

2

Yeah, Opendream (and most AI art tools) kinda suck at first until you wrangle the prompts and settings a bit. Here’s a quick breakdown so your stuff stops looking like mush.

1. Start with structure, not vibes
Instead of:

“cool fantasy art of a dragon”

Try:

“highly detailed digital painting of a red dragon perched on a cliff, cinematic lighting, sharp focus, 4k, artstation, fantasy concept art, dramatic sky”

Pattern that works well:

  • Subject: what is it
  • Scene: where / what it’s doing
  • Style: “digital painting / watercolor / anime / 3d render / photorealistic”
  • Quality tags: “highly detailed, sharp focus, 4k, ultra high resolution, intricate details”
  • Style refs: “artstation, studio ghibli style, pixar style, greg rutkowski style” (depends on what’s allowed)

2. Use negative prompts (super important)
If Opendream has a “negative prompt” field, throw junk in there like:

“blurry, low quality, distorted, extra limbs, extra fingers, watermark, text, logo, jpeg artifacts, deformed face, wonky eyes, mutation, grainy”

This alone can clean things up a lot.

3. Resolution & steps

  • Don’t start extremely big. Try something like 512x768 or 768x768 first.
  • If there is a “steps” slider, 20–30 is usually fine for most models. Too low = mushy, too high can get weird or slow.
  • If there’s a “quality” or “cfg scale” control:
    • Lower values = more random, less tied to your prompt
    • Higher values = more literal to your prompt but can look stiff
    • Try around 6–10 if it exists, then adjust.

4. One style at a time
New users overload the prompt:

“anime realistic oil painting 3d render pixel art cyberpunk watercolor”

That just confuses the model. Pick 1 or 2:

“cinematic digital painting, dark fantasy, high contrast lighting”

5. Use references from images you like
Find an AI image you like and reverse engineer the prompt style:

  • Notice word order: often “medium + subject + environment + mood + quality tags”
  • Borrow phrasing like “dramatic lighting, volumetric light, rim lighting, depth of field, bokeh background”

6. Iterate instead of rerolling randomly

  • Make an image
  • Slightly tweak the prompt, not everything at once
  • Change just 1 variable: steps, cfg, or a couple of words
  • If your tool has seeds, reuse a seed you like & refine from there

7. Typical “good base” prompts to test
Try something like and see how it behaves:

“portrait of a young woman in a futuristic city, cyberpunk, neon lights, detailed face, sharp focus, 4k, digital painting, artstation, dramatic lighting, depth of field”

Negative:

“blurry, lowres, low quality, distorted face, extra limbs, cropped, watermark, text”

If that still looks bad, the issue might be:

  • The model you picked (try a different one)
  • The resolution (too low / weird ratio)
  • Extremely low steps or crazy cfg

8. Don’t chase the gallery too hard
Most of the “example” images you see online:

  • Are heavily cherry picked
  • Often upscaled in a second tool
  • Sometimes lightly edited in Photoshop

So if your raw output looks 70% as good, you’re actually in the right ballpark.

If you want, post one of your prompts + a sample image result next time and people can tell you exactly what to tweak.

3

Couple of extra angles to add on top of what @hoshikuzu already covered, focusing less on “what words to type” and more on how to actually control Opendream so it stops spitting out potato art.

1. Check which model you’re actually using
This part trips more ppl than they realize.

  • If Opendream lets you pick different models (e.g. “realistic,” “anime,” “illustration,” “SD 1.5,” “SDXL,” etc.), that choice matters more than fancy adjectives.
  • Don’t mix expectations:
    • Want realistic people? Use a photoreal / realistic model.
    • Want stylized anime? Use an anime-ish model.
      Trying to force a cartoony model to make crisp photography just gives you blurry uncanny mush no matter how “perfect” your prompt is.

2. Aspect ratio & composition actually matter
Low quality feel often comes from weird framing.

  • Portraits: try something like 512x768 or 832x1216 (tall).
  • Landscapes / scenery: 768x512 or 1216x832 (wide).
  • Square: only if you really want a centered “poster” look.

If your subject keeps getting cropped or half missing, your aspect ratio might be fighting the composition.

3. Don’t spam “ultra high quality” like a slot machine
I sort of disagree a bit with stuffing tons of “4k, 8k, ultra ultra high res, insanely detailed, masterpiece” everywhere.
The model already “knows” how its training images look. Overdoing quality tags can:

  • Make images look over-sharpened or noisy
  • Push the style into that weird overbaked AI look

Try this:

  • One or two quality tags max: “highly detailed, sharp focus” is usually enough.
  • Use the rest of your prompt for content and mood instead of 20 synonyms for “good.”

4. Be explicit about composition & camera
Instead of only telling the model what to draw, tell it how to frame it:

Examples:

  • “medium shot portrait, subject centered, looking at camera”
  • “wide angle shot of a city street at night, from eye level”
  • “top-down view of a cozy bedroom, soft lighting”

These types of phrases help Opendream avoid weird cropping or random camera angles.

5. Don’t change 10 things at once
You mentioned confusion with settings. Easiest way to learn them:

  • Pick ONE simple test prompt you keep reusing like:
    “portrait of a woman in a forest, soft lighting, detailed, digital painting”
  • Then do small experiments:
    • Run that same prompt at different cfg scales and compare.
    • Then keep cfg fixed and test different steps.
    • Then keep both fixed and try different resolutions.

Make a little mental note:

  • “At cfg 5 images get dreamy/loose”
  • “At cfg 10 it follows the prompt hard but faces get stiff”
    This is way faster than trying a new wild prompt every time and guessing what broke.

6. Stop mixing too many art styles & artists
While I agree with @hoshikuzu on not overloading styles, I’d go even stricter: early on, use zero artist names and just pick a single medium.

Example starter formats:

  • “digital painting of [subject] in [place], [lighting style], [color palette]”
  • “cinematic photo of [subject], [lens type like 35mm], [time of day], [lighting]”

Once you’re getting clean, consistent output, then clone a look from a specific artist or add “artstation” etc.

7. Use Opendream’s strengths, not just prompts
Depending on the version you’re using, check if it has:

  • Image-to-image:

    • Sketch something badly or grab a rough stock photo
    • Use a prompt like “fantasy oil painting” on top of it
    • Keep strength moderately low so it respects the structure
      This can instantly boost “quality” because the composition is already handled.

  • Upscaler / face fixer:

    • If your images look okay zoomed out but crusty up close, run them through an upscaler or face restoration if Opendream has that.
    • A lot of those “online examples” are exactly that: decent base image, then upscaled/cleaned.

8. Build a tiny personal “prompt template”
Instead of starting from scratch, make yourself a skeleton:

[medium] of [main subject], [camera/composition], [environment], [lighting], [color/mood], [1–2 quality tags]

Then just fill in the blanks. Example:

digital painting of a knight standing on a rainy battlefield, medium shot, misty mountains in the background, dramatic storm lighting, muted color palette, highly detailed, sharp focus

Use that same structure for a while until it feels natural.

9. Diagnose what “low quality” actually means
When something looks bad, try to be specific:

  • Is it blurry?
  • Are faces messed up?
  • Is it messy composition?
  • Colors too muddy?
  • Weird anatomy?

Then target the issue:

  • Blurry: increase steps a bit, add “sharp focus,” check resolution.
  • Bad faces: closer framing, face-fix option if available, simpler lighting.
  • Messy composition: more explicit camera/composition words, different aspect ratio.
  • Muddy colors: add “vibrant colors,” “high contrast,” or specify palette like “warm oranges and cool blues.”

If you want super concrete feedback, post one of your exact prompts + a result and describe what feels low quality about it. Much easier to suggest tweaks once there’s something to tear apart.

4

You already got solid prompt + settings theory from @espritlibre and @hoshikuzu, so I’ll focus on workflow and how to actually get from “meh” to “this looks like the examples.”

1. Stop generating from scratch every time

New users hammer “generate” with a new prompt each time. Instead:

  1. Pick one decent result, even if it’s only 50% right.
  2. Use that as your base and:
    • Run image‑to‑image with small prompt tweaks.
    • Only change 1–2 words at a time.
    • Slightly adjust strength / cfg each run.

You’ll learn much faster how Opendream AI Art responds than by spamming totally new prompts.

2. Use “prompt surgery” instead of long poems

I disagree a bit with stuffing every cool adjective in at once. Overpacked prompts confuse the model. Do “surgery”:

  • Start simple:
    digital painting of a dragon flying over a city at night, detailed, sharp focus
  • Then add only one new idea per test:
    • “neon lights”
    • then “cinematic lighting”
    • then “rainy atmosphere”

Compare outputs. If one word wrecks the image, cut it. This is way more controlled than writing a paragraph and hoping.

3. Treat prompt parts like sliders

Think of your prompt in blocks:

  • Subject: dragon, knight, spaceship
  • Environment: forest, city, desert
  • Mood: dark, cozy, bright, horror
  • Lighting: soft, dramatic, backlit, rim lighting
  • Detail: highly detailed, painterly, minimalistic

When your result is low quality, do not rewrite the whole thing. Swap just one block.

Example:

  • “cozy” to “dramatic” completely changes mood.
  • “soft lighting” to “hard lighting” improves clarity if things feel muddy.

4. Use bad results as clues, not failures

Instead of “this sucks,” ask why:

  • Blobby / unclear shapes
    → Usually too low steps or too vague subject.
    → Add clearer subject words like “full body,” “close up portrait,” “wide shot.”

  • Faces warped
    → Too far from camera, too busy scene, or too strong style.
    → Make the prompt more about the face:
    “close up portrait, face centered, looking at viewer”
    → If Opendream has face fix, use it only on the final picks.

  • Background noisy
    → You might be overusing “intricate” / “insanely detailed.”
    → Try “simple background” or “clean background” to let the subject pop.

5. Make a tiny personal “style preset” library

You do not need a new prompt from scratch every time. Build 3–4 reusable “style shells” and just swap the subject.

Example shells:

  1. Cinematic fantasy painting
    digital painting, cinematic lighting, high contrast, detailed, soft brushwork

  2. Soft anime portrait
    anime style, pastel colors, soft shading, clean lineart, detailed eyes

  3. Moody photo
    cinematic photo, 35mm lens, shallow depth of field, dramatic lighting, high detail

Then:

[shell] of [subject] in [place]

This consistency alone will help you climb toward “gallery level.”

6. Zoom out first, then chase detail

A trap I see: people zoom in to 100% and judge pores and eyelashes on a 768x768 render. Those showcase images you see online are often:

  • Generated at medium size
  • Clean composition and lighting
  • Then upscaled / sharpened in a second pass

With Opendream AI Art, try this flow:

  1. Generate at a moderate size (like 768 on the long side).
  2. Only look zoomed out: ask “Is the silhouette strong? Is the lighting readable?”
  3. When composition works, then:
    • Upscale in Opendream if available or another tool.
    • Optionally run a light enhancement / face fix.

That is how you get that “polished” look instead of cranking detail words in the initial prompt.

7. Pros & cons of relying on Opendream this way

Pros

  • Good training ground: You learn Stable Diffusion‑style behavior that transfers to other tools.
  • You can build repeatable workflows: prompt shells, seeds, and image‑to‑image mean consistent styles over time.
  • Lots of control: composition keywords, cfg scale, steps all give you fine‑grained tuning once you understand them.

Cons

  • Learning curve: Until you build your own presets and habits, everything feels random.
  • UI can tempt you to over‑tweak: Too many knobs at once leads to confusion and “why did this break.”
  • Depends heavily on the base model quality: If the model behind Opendream is older or weaker, you will hit a ceiling vs newer engines.

Compared to what @espritlibre and @hoshikuzu laid out, I lean more on “minimal prompt, controlled experiments” rather than heavy descriptive prompts right away. Their advice on models, ratios, and negative prompts is spot on though. Think of their posts as your “what all the buttons do” and this as the “how to practice so you get good fast.”

If you post one specific prompt + one image and say “I want this but more , less [Y],” it gets much easier to suggest exact phrasing changes.