TASK: Use AI text prompts to create an image of a traditional ranch house

I am using a free trial of cgDream.ai that comes with 100 credits per day. Since each of my text prompts costs 20 credits to process, this limits me to 5 per day. Then I have to wait for credits to reset the next day ... or, I can purchase one of several payment plans.

These can be enticing. There are processing queues -- which may be lengthy -- on free trials, while paid plans promise faster access.

I also have two basic questions:

1. If I run the same prompt repeatedly, do I get the same result each time?
2. If yes, then are prompts stored so I can retrieve the same result later?

Just to save you time, the answer to both questions is "NO".

But check out the prompts below to see what AI did produce. The first two are the same prompt, processed on different days. Red highlights areas that AI neglected.

ccgdream.ai prompt:
Display exterior of a three-bedroom ranch house with grey aluminum siding, a black garage door, black shutters. Garage door should be made up of four panels with a window horizontally on the right side of each panel. Front door should be dark blue with a side glass panel the same height as the door. There should be a small porch with a single step to ground. Put a black wrought iron rail on the porch to step.

Day 1

How did AI do?

Not bad. But it has flaws and I wasn't explicit enough. The image is missing windows on the garage door, and the porch has two rails instead of one. I expected to see the entire width of the house with garage on right side and did not expect windows on the front door.

Day 2

Not the same

The answer to both questions is "NO". The same prompt will deliver different results each time and the prompts are not saved, at least not in the trial version.

ccgdream.ai prompt:
Display total front exterior of a three-bedroom ranch house with grey aluminum siding, a black garage door, black shutters. Garage is on right side of house. Garage door should be made up of four panels with a window in each panel, running vertically on the right side of door. Front door should be baby blue with a side glass panel the same height as the door. Glass panel is only to left of front door. No windows on the door. There should be a small porch with a single step to ground. Put a single black wrought iron rail on the porch to step.

2nd Attempt

Each prompt is new and unique; has no relevance to previous prompts. This alters methodology. We don't need to "remove" something that appeared in a previous prompt, but we do need to be more specific about what is NOT there.

Front panel is on wrong side of door, as are door handle and lock. This could be cause of misinterpretation of "left".

3nd Attempt

Color requests like "light blue" are not sufficient, based on these results. Use web hex color values (ie, #66ccff). And none of the images have positioned the garage door windows correctly. Image on 3rd attempt has two steps instead of one.

ccgdream.ai prompt:
Standing on street, facing house, display entire front exterior of three-bedroom ranch house with grey aluminum siding, a black garage door, black shutters. Garage is two-car and is on right side of house. Garage door made up of four panels. Each panel has one window, aligning vertically on the right side of the panel. Front door color is #66ccff with a side glass panel the same height as the door. Glass panel is only on left side of front door and has stained glass insert instead of clear glass. No windows on the door. There is small porch with one single step to ground. Put a single black wrought iron rail on the porch. Keep same style on exterior light fixtures. Make house numbers large, 96pt, position vertically next to garage door.

Reference Photo Guide

This is a photoshop image of the current actual house exterior. This was uploaded as "upload reference image to guide generation". We'll see if giving AI a visual starting has more effect. I also tried to be more explicit with fewer extraneous words in the prompt.

1st Attempt with Reference

cdDream.ai has several imports available. Believe I will try as "reference structure" next time, as the result totally altered the roof line. There is no guidebook attached, so trial-and-error approach seems the best way to figure out what each option does. But this comes at a cost. Importing this reference image with text prompt costs 44 credits. Have to wait til tomorrow or use today's remaining 40 credits on something else.

Conclusion

Each prompt is NEW ... at least for cgDream.ai

I admit, I am disappointed there is no retention of consecutive prompts. This feature was possible in ChatGPT. I had hoped for the ability to tweak images repeatedly. And, to retrieve a previous prompt and get the same result to appear.

My goal was to have a base image of the house with the ability try out different designs on the front .. altering colors, types of windows, doors, garage treatments. In my next post, I'll import a photo of the house and then see how prompts work against that image.

For the short term, we'll have use other programs or professionals to finish the job. AI output is just a concept start ... at least for today.

Something that makes me want to talk back to videos:
I've been watching youtube where people ask for imaginary creatures -- a lion dressed in armor strutting in front of a motorcycle. They get so excited to see that lion riding a motorcycle, they forget their original request and accept the AI result.

Don't stop! That's not what you requested!