At the start of any project, it’s important to communicate ideas clearly. Creating visualizations is an effective way to convey concepts more precisely than words alone. This blog post explores various tools that help transform ideas into visuals.
We will explore what’s possible with locally hosted AIs and online AI services, and how they can bring your ideas to life – quickly, accurately and with impressive results.
Text-To-Image
Image generation is a great way to develop initial concepts. These images can be refined further using video and 3D modeling AIs to share your vision/idea in a more clear and faster manner.
To show what’s possible the following images showcase the capabilities of 3 different models:
- DALL-E [Tested in February 2025] (browser-based) https://openai.com/index/dall-e-3/
- Stable Large 3.5 (locally hosted) https://stability.ai/news/introducing-stable-diffusion-3-5
- Flux.1 Dev (locally hosted) https://huggingface.co/black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev
Prompt: “A hyper-realistic portrait of a middle-aged woman with freckles, wearing a soft yellow scarf, sitting in a sunlit café. Her curly auburn hair is slightly windswept, and the light catches her hazel eyes,
Prompt: “A futuristic city at night with towering skyscrapers covered in holographic advertisements and neon lights. Flying cars zip between the buildings, and pedestrians in sleek, glowing outfits walk along illuminated walkways above the bustling streets below.”
Prompt: A bustling medieval marketplace on a sunny day, filled with merchants selling vibrant textiles, fresh produce, and handmade pottery. People in period-accurate clothing interact, and a bard plays a lute while children gather around. In the background, a stone castle rises against the blue sky.
Prompt: A dreamlike scene of a floating island in the sky with waterfalls cascading into the clouds below. The island is covered in vibrant, oversized flowers and trees with golden leaves. A whimsical spiral staircase made of light connects the island to an ancient, ornate clock suspended in midair.”
Prompt: A dreamlike scene of a floating island in the sky with waterfalls cascading into the clouds below. The island is covered in vibrant, oversized flowers and trees with golden leaves. A whimsical spiral staircase made of light connects the island to an ancient, ornate clock suspended in midair.”
Video AI’s
Hailou & Runway Gen-3 Alpha are excellent for generating realistic and coherent footage. These tools do not require local installation and are easy to use for bringing images to life or generating unique videos via image or text prompts.
Here they are placed side by side using the same starting images as prompt.
Generating high-quality video with AI models hosted locally can be challenging. However, as the following examples show, there are still plenty of use cases where these models generate great results
- Stable Video: Best for adding movement to static environments, making them feel more dynamic.
- Deforum: Produces a unique style that conveys moods effectively. However, generating videos with very large models is time-consuming and results are heavily stylized.
3D models
Another way to enhance generated images is by creating 3D models. Tailoring image generation to work well with 3D model generation is recommended. This can be done by making sure that there aren’t a lot of objects in an image at the same time and by adding keywords like “3d model” in your text prompt.
Example video:
The following images were used as prompts when generating the 3d models:
- StableFast3D (locally hosted): Allows for rapid model generation, typically taking 3 to 20 seconds per model.
- Trellis (locally hosted): A more advanced local option, with higher generation times.
- Meshy (Online Service): Cloud-based tool for high-quality 3D model generation.
Although these models are not perfect, they are very useful building blocks and make it possible to create 3d scenes faster and cheaper than ever before possible.
Recommendations:
For Image Generation:
- Best for convenience: DALL·E (browser-based, high-quality)
- Best for local use: Stability AI or Flux AI (hardware-dependent)
For Video Generation:
- Best for ease of use: Hailou & Runway Gen-3 Alpha (cloud-based)
- Best for locally hosted AI: Stable Video (ideal for environmental animations)
- Best for artistic effects: Deforum (not ideal for realism but useful for creative visuals)
For 3D Model Generation:
- Best for ease of use: Meshy.AI (cloud-based, high-quality)
- Best for quick local generation: Stable Fast 3D (fast 3D model creation from images)
By combining these tools, users can refine their AI-generated content to better suit their projects.
