Everything You Need To Know About CivitAI (2024 Guide)

Updated On 26 March, 2024 

The ultimate tool to create stable diffusion images and videos with deep neural network algorithms, resulting in ultra-realistic, unimaginary arts – Civitai will blow your mind!

Today, I have something groundbreaking to discuss and that’s about CivitAI, a totally amusing AI-powered platform that lets you create beyond ultra-realistic art generation for free.

Various individual and independent artists counting those with or without level of experience are drawing incredible content.

Sharing few snippets of CivitAI art generation:

I got mad when I saw such types of art generations at first. Shouldn’t stop myself from trying and creating my first art generation on this platform.

This is also where I prepare this blog in detail that talks about its features including how it works and tips and tricks to get most from CivitAI.

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What Is CivitAI?

It is a free and open-source platform for exploring, generating, and sharing stable diffusion art generation with the help of several AI-powered models.

What can not be imagined can simply be created with Civitai.

For example; I thought of wood sculpture and tried to ai generated it through CivitAI stable diffusion.

I give this prompt “(wood sculpture minimalistic abstract scene with a gaucho with argentine poncho in nature), abstract, 3d render, strong, intricate details, (masterpiece) paper cut, woodfigurez” using Dreamshaper-8 model

Here’s what it generates for me…

Amazing… isn’t it!

I have created many arts and come to notice that “prompts” should be accurate and short as this helps the platform’s AI to understand and create it better for you.

Who & Why Developed CivitAI?

The groundbreaking platform, the tool is developed by Justin Maier; currently he is the Founder and CEO of CivitAI.

Maier developed this technology for the public in regard to competing with Midjourney’s limitations – in speed and styles.

Hopefully, the tool perform better and stimulate various technologies.

What Are The Technologies Behind Civitai?

CivitAI stable diffusion comprises various technologies that are associated with the steam of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning.

It’s being popular for stable diffusion art generation that uses generative AI models, deep neural networks, and pre-trained GPT models.

At most levels, it works similar to Midjourney AI so if you have familiar and used Midjourney before, it wouldn’t be hard for you to generate extra-ordinary images and videos.

How Does CivitAI Stable Diffusion Work?

It generates images based on prompt (GPT-based technology) and understands it with the help of deep learning algorithms.

The stronger your prompt would be, the more your results are surprising!

The basic structure of prompt used in CivitAi is look like this:

{Medium/+ opt. Mod/Main style} {Object/Subject} {Details} {Background} {Mods/Embeddings}

Medium: It narrates that what medium do you want to use? Painting, comics, 3D, photography, drawing? Or is there any specific style you want to get? Specified clearly.

For example: “a vivid sci-fi illustration, low camera angle, upper body” where “Illustration” is the Medium and “Vivid” is the Mod and “Scifi” the Main style!

Object/Subject: It could be a living human or a flying paper should be starting with “of”. For example; “of a female biker”

Details: It is important and cannot be ignored. Details include everything that should define your main motives more clearly.

For example; “a natural light, skintight bodysuit, biker helmet, riding speedy in night”

Background: This should be self-explanatory, define your background in simple terms. “Keep it short” is recommended.

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Getting Started With Civitai

Getting started is easy and straightforward. Users need to be signed in first to create custom art generation on Civitai. There are some formalities of preference and settings to be done to get the best use of art generation.

1. Click on the “Sign In” button and select your preferred method. Multiple sign in options available such as Discord, GitHub, Google, and Reddit. I have used Google for the sign in process.

Now the platform would ask you to accept terms and conditions in order to comply with community guidelines. Click on the “Accept” button to comply with their terms.

2. At the next step, you have to verify your account. Make sure your entered email address is correct and your username should be marked “tick” and then click on the “Save” button.

3. At this moment, you would be given settings to customize your preference that help you set up your profile and overall experience. Carefully proceed to setting up your personalization.

4. At last, the community will offer you 100 BUZZ (a kind of credit that is used to train models, tip an artist, get showcased, etc) as a gift. Click on the “Done” button to finish setting up your profile.

You now see the home interface! There are tons of images and videos to explore and get inspired from.

So, are you curious to create your custom art generation? Let’s learn how to create images and videos on the platform.

How To Create Stable Diffusion Image & Video In CivitAI?

There are two methods for creating images and videos in the this model.

• By editing and creating any existing art generations uploaded by the community members. (This method is great for learning.)
• By uploading and training your own model in the way you want with complete ownership. (This method can allow you to sell your creations for money.)

For now, I have only covered the first method in detail. Comment down if you want a detailed guide for the second method. I would be happy doing so

Creating Images In CivitAI

1. Pick an art generation of any member you want to edit. Open It to see art generation data.

2. Click on the “Start Creating” option at the bottom.

3. Choose your model for art generation. By default the member model is selected, change it if you want a new or a different model to test.

4. Upload additional resources in case you have downloaded or saved offline on your computer. If not, leave it blank by default.
5. In the prompt section, type your own prompt or customize the default one. Keep your prompt clear and strong. Entering the trigger word is optional.

6. In the negative prompt section, type in the words that you want to avoid being used in your image generation. Basically, it will signal the algorithm to work opposite.

7. Almost done! Select the aspect ratio from Square, Landscape, and Portrait. Also select the number of quantities for your image; maximum is 10.

8. Click on the “Generate” button. It will be in the queue, wait a few minutes and check your results.

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What Are The Models In CivitAI?

Talking about CivitAI’s models, there are oceans of different models on the platform embracing unique traits in the category of character design, styling background, and diffusion characters.

Well, it’s hard to say that this particular model is best for your work. But some of my recommended models for photorealistic stable diffusion includes:

• Realistic Vision V5.1 (Checkpoint merge)
• CyberRealistic (Checkpoint merge)
• AbsoluteReality (Checkpoint trained)
• Juggernaut XL (Checkpoint merge)
• epiCRealism (Checkpoint trained)

Use the CivitAI search engine to search for different models for your work. Also use the filter section to get results specific to your objectives.

How To Upload A Model In CivitAI?

So are you now hyped to upload your own model?

Uploading a model will publish your custom model to the public within the community. Let’s learn how you can publish your model on the platform.

There are four phases to go through to create and publish your model on the website. Underneath are briefly discussed.

1. Create your model

Tap on the “+” icon (next to the logo of the CivitAI) and choose the “Upload a model” option.

Give a name to your model, for example; Jenny.

Now, select the type of model from the list. If you don’t know your best match, choose “Checkpoint” as default.

After that, select the relevant category for your model. Think of your model’s best performance. For example, your model objective is producing alluring characters, select Character from the list.

Now provide tags for your model. Your tag should be in one word. For example, “Girl”, “Moody”, “Female” etc. You may also need to provide a short description of your model behavior.

The platform also asks you whether to use it for commercial purposes or not. Choose none if your model is not intended for business purposes.

Hit the “Next” button once you fill out everything!

2. Add version

After creating your model, the next step is adding a version to it. Basically, this process makes your model aware of the technology and community geeks by editing base model and base model type. The most basic model is SD 1.5 and SDXL family.

Add ‘trigger words’ to help your model know where it mostly trained on and provide better results. Or you can toggle off if it bothers you!

3. Upload files

Here you need to upload the model’s transmission data like a stable diffusion transcript that you have trained your model onto.

You can upload images in multiple formats up to 20 files, maximum of 50MB. And a video of max 4k resolution or 120 seconds in duration.

Once done, your post will live on the platform along with your model you’ve created.

CivitAI Pricing

The software is free to use and it doesn’t charge a fee. But you can support the community by becoming one of the community’s supporter tier or donate an amount of your choice.

Supporter tier works as a subscription model that renews every month. It costs $5.00 per month. It features the following benefits:

👉 Early access to new features
👉 Unique Supporter Tier badge
👉 Unique nameplate color
👉 Unique Discord role
👉 And, 5000 BUZZ each month

There are many users that have subscribed and taken advantage of supporter tier features.

Well, that’s all from my experience with the CivicAI website.

To conclude, civitai is good for individuals of any level of skills. With so much amazing art to inspire from, you get a seamless experience for your project and get worldwide recognition.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is CivitAI free?

Yes, CivitAI website is free and open-source thus gives flexibility in editing and sharing art generation including downloading feature.

Is the CivitAI model safe?

Not possibly because there are many users that draw NSFW content and so it's open-source. You may not have privacy in your hand for your work.

Is CivitAI available for mobile users?

Bad to say that CivitAI is not available for mobile platforms. In the near future, the platform may develop its mobile app for users.

Can I use CivitAI art generation on a different platform?

Yes, CivitAI art generations can be used for social sharing such as Instagram and YouTube but not limited to this.