Remember when Midjourney was just a simple Discord bot? These days, they’re dreaming bigger — way bigger. Like, “let’s create an entire universe with prompts” bigger.
See, here’s the thing about AI art: for all its controversy, there are some spaces where it just makes sense. Think concept artists needing quick iterations, or storytellers wanting to visualize their worlds without breaking the bank. That’s where Patchwork comes in — Midjourney’s ambitious new tool that promises to change how we approach visual storytelling.
But is Patchwork actually worth your time? Or is it just another Midjourney feature that we’ll forget in a couple of months?
What is Midjourney Patchwork?
We all know what Midjourney is, so I won’t waste a lot of time talking about it. But in case you don’t, Midjourney is an AI image generation model that currently has more than 21 million active users. Starting out as a simple Discord bot, they eventually grew to have their own platform and introduce many new features. You can read our full review of their latest model here.
So, now that we got that out of the way, what is Patchwork?
Midjourney is calling Patchwork an “infinite canvas.” It’s their attempt at creating a storytelling tool that combines multiple LLMs and Midjourney, allowing users to assemble visuals and maintain a general style. Simply put, Patchwork gives you the power to create worlds using prompts.
Source: Midjourney
How To Use Midjourney Patchwork?
There’s no one way of using Patchwork. The best way I could describe it is like playing an open-world game — sure, you can follow guides, but at the end of the day, you’re better off exploring and picking up things along the way.
So, instead of a traditional step-by-step guide, here’s a rundown of everything you can do with Patchwork:
The Beginning
Once you “create a world,” you’re going to be asked two things: the setting of your world (the premise of your story) and a general style (or the theme of your story). This will establish how your world will look like.
The Toolbox
So, we’ll talk about this more when we get to the demo, but once you have your world, Patchwork directs you to an empty canvas with a toolbox. This will let you create, edit, or editorialize everything in your world. Here’s a quick rundown of everything in this toolbox:
- Character: Creates an image of a character.
- Event: Creates a depiction of a certain event.
- Place: Creates a setting within your world.
- Prop: Creates an object within your story.
- Faction: Creates a general theme for a group of characters.
- Note: Attaches a textbox (containing information, storylines, or writer’s notes) to a block to help with storytelling.
- Image: Allows you to upload a third-party image.
- Portal: Makes a portal in your canvas that leads to another canvas.
Creating My Own World With Patchwork
Before I proceed: I need to come clean with something. As much as I love Midjourney, using Patchwork is probably one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done. When I try to log in, 95% of the time, I’m hit with a Gateway Error. When I successfully sign in, I’m often disconnected from the server.
I almost quit so many times. I know that this version of Patchwork is just a research preview (and that they’re aware of this issue, just that it’s a lower priority for them as they focus on releasing Midjourney V7), but I wish they’ve put some more effort into the UX.
Still, I eventually managed to log in without any disconnections. So, here’s my experience using Patchwork.
Worldbuilding with Patchwork
Even at times when I didn’t disconnect, Patchwork wasn’t really generating images as fast as I hoped. I spent two days trying to review this tool, and more than three-quarters of those was wasted on this:
But I’m getting side-tracked.
So, back to the world I was trying to create: a modern take on sorcerers — a story where they’re forced into hiding after getting hunted by the government and bounty hunters. We have our protagonist, a novice sorceress. An antagonist, a powerful sorcerer who operates in the shadows by controlling the government. And our setting: 23rd century New York City, which is now a mix of futuristic dystopia and spaghetti westerns.
First, I wanted to create four characters: the protagonist, the antagonist, the mentor (sort of like Obi-Wan Kenobi), and an anti-hero (so, in this case, our own Boba Fett).
When you select “Character” in the toolbox, a block appears wherein you have to enter the name of your character and their description.
Once you’ve typed in the name and description, you can press the description box and select the paint logo, automatically creating four depictions of the character. The one you pick will also serve as the main avatar of the block.
So, I went ahead and created all the other characters as well.
The process was largely the same for props, events, and places — you create, name, and define them and generate images using the paint button. So, I quickly populated my world with everything I could think of. This is the result:
It’s barebones, but after multiple server disconnections, the experience was actually pretty fun and immersive. The style remained somewhat consistent throughout too. Would I do this again or expand my world? Definitely, but only if Midjourney fixes the problem.
Pros & Cons of Midjourney Patchwork
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Here’s The Deal
I said it earlier, but I’ve never been more frustrated trying a product than with Midjourney’s Patchwork. It took me two days just to get an uninterrupted session.
For what it’s worth: although it may seem that Patchwork was rushed and has a lower priority in their timeline, they still have big plans for this tool. Midjourney’s ultimate goal is for the users to be able to import creations from Patchwork to other storytelling apps — something that I believe would be amazing for storyboarding.
But beyond that, I found Patchwork to be a great next step for Midjourney. I’ve seen other reviews whose bottom line is a question: is there even a need for Patchwork? And my answer to that is, not necessarily, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be made. I actually like it when platforms expand and introduce new things.
Put it this way. As someone who’s 50-50 on AI art, there’s two spaces that I wholeheartedly welcome the idea: concept creation and tabletop RPGs. With Patchwork, storyboarding for someone without any art experience can become easy. It also gives hobbyists running a D&D or Dread game an expansive canvas to create their world and share it with their players.
Server issues aside, this was a blast and I can’t wait to try Patchwork once they officially roll it out as a feature. If you have a Midjourney account and lots of patience, I suggest you give it a try as well. Have fun!
