Meet Flux 1.1 Pro: The Best AI Image Generator You Can’t Run

Black Forest Labs, the studio behind the Fluxfamily of AI picture mills, introduced final week the discharge of Flux 1.1 [Pro]. This comes simply two months after the discharge of its authentic household of fashions together with Flux 1 Professional (a closed supply mannequin with industry-leading capabilities), Flux 1 Dev (a noncommercial, open supply mannequin) and Flux Schnell (a completely open supply mannequin).

The Flux fashions marked a significant leap in generative AI expertise with their textual content technology capabilities, immediate adherence and total picture high quality. Even the smaller fashions, Flux Dev and Flux Schnell, generated outcomes on par with generations from MidJourney, and means higher than the outputs supplied by SD3, Stability’s a lot anticipated evolution over SDXL, which turned out to be considerably underwhelming.

The brand new mannequin has already made a mark, securing the highest Elo rating within the Synthetic Evaluation picture enviornment—a number one benchmarking platform for AI fashions. It has outperformed each different text-to-image mannequin in the marketplace whereas being nearly as quick as its smallest mannequin.

The graph under reveals the Elo rating (picture high quality) on the Y axis and the technology speeds on the X axis. MidJourney fanatics might discover that their mannequin will not be represented—it’s so sluggish it’s actually off the chart. Nonetheless, its Elo Rating sits someplace round 1100 factors, slightly below Ideogram V2.

The brand new Flux Professional stands out by way of pricing, with Flux1.1 Professional costing $0.04 per picture—decrease than many different fashions in the marketplace, together with the unique Flux1 Professional. This pricing construction makes it a robust competitor over different paid companies like MidJourney and Ideogram, which price $96 and $84 a yr every. The MidJourney and Ideogram choices are additionally slower and provide a better price per token.

Sadly, Flux1.1 Professional can’t be run domestically. In contrast to its much less highly effective open supply counterparts, such because the FLUX1 [Dev] and FLUX1 [Schnell] fashions, this new professional model is a closed supply mannequin, limiting customers to entry it via platforms like Collectively AI, Replicate, Fal AI, and Freepik. It can’t be nice tuned or customized.

For these contemplating attempting the mannequin, a few of these platforms provide just a few credit free of charge generations, however as soon as these are depleted, the perfect service in keeping with our personal standards is Freepik. That is as a result of its Mystic workflow dramatically enhances generations with greater particulars and higher aesthetics.

There are not any bulletins concerning an open supply 1.1 model of the FLUX1 [Dev] or FLUX1 [Schnell] fashions, however it’s clear that Black Forest Labs is focusing its efforts on nice fashions for picture and video creators.

Arms-On Testing and Assessment

We tried the brand new Flux mannequin and the outcomes had been passable. It isn’t a generational leap—just like the transfer from SDXL from Flux—however it’s actually a welcomed improve.

It’s total very life like, has nice textual content technology capabilities and may be very artistic in creative duties and kinds. It’s a good, versatile mannequin that gives quick generations with out compromising high quality.

Realism

Immediate: “Polaroid picture with VSCO filter, 1990, girl, evening, flash picture, blonde, younger face, lovely shadows, tropical vegetation, inside an residence, DSLR, digicam flash, holding a handwritten signal on a pocket book saying ‘Verification for Decrypt October 7, 2024.’ The lady is doing the peace signal together with her different hand.”

The mannequin excels at producing life like photographs, bettering upon the airbrushed look of the preliminary Flux fashions. Whereas not excellent, the outcomes are extremely convincing, particularly with correct prompting. At first look, these photographs—each generated with Flux 1.1 Professional—might go for actual with out nitpicking small particulars.

The lettering is according to the immediate, and hand rendering has improved, although it isn’t fairly excellent. It is necessary to notice that these will not be hand-picked samples however the first two generations. When working with generative AI, the perfect outcomes usually come after a number of generations and edits.

The lighting is according to a digicam flash, specializing in the topic with out illuminating the entire room. The VSCO filter enhances realism, and immediate adherence is great.

Evaluating Flux 1.1 to Flux 1 reveals that the generations are fairly comparable by way of realism at first look. Nonetheless, utilizing the identical immediate, the brand new mannequin produces a extra pure pose and a extra constant physique. For instance, Flux 1 generated what might look like an extra leg, which Flux 1.1 prevented. This enchancment has extra to do with accuracy than total life like aesthetic.

Immediate Adherence

Immediate: “A white cat taking part in the piano, carrying sun shades and a hat, carrying purple Hawaiian fashion, full physique shot in opposition to a grey studio background with lighting parts and a pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling, business video screengrab. The wall has the textual content ‘Emerge by Decrypt'”

Flux 1.1 takes immediate adherence a step additional in comparison with Flux 1 Professional, efficiently incorporating extra parts into the scene with out lacking the mark. Our first immediate for Flux 1 did not embrace the lighting parts or the pterodactyl. Moreover, the brand new technology is extra life like and feels extra pure.

Spatial Consciousness

Immediate: “A canine standing on prime of a TV exhibiting the phrase ‘Decrypt’ on the display. On the left there’s a girl in a enterprise swimsuit holding a coin, on the correct there’s a robotic standing on prime of a primary assist field. The general surroundings is surreal.”

When it comes to spatial consciousness, Flux 1.1 and Flux 1 are comparable. Each generated all parts with out points. Nonetheless, Flux 1.1 Professional appears superior when contemplating further particulars. As an illustration, there’s much less immediate spilling (when the mannequin takes parts from the immediate and makes use of them in different areas). Within the Flux 1.1 technology, the girl holds one coin with no seen further cash, whereas Flux 1 generated a stash of cash subsequent to the canine. Furthermore, the error with the extra hand in Flux 1 Professional is not current within the newer mannequin, and the surreal fashion is healthier represented within the Flux 1.1 technology.

Conclusion

Flux 1.1 Professional is total extra constant and logical in its generations. If you cannot run a neighborhood mannequin, it is an excellent competitor. It understands pure language, making it appropriate for novices, although this is not its main power. MidJourney tends to be extra artistic whereas enhancing poor prompts.

Nonetheless, Flux 1.1 Professional is cheaper, quicker, and usually higher in high quality than any present mannequin, doubtlessly making it the best choice for these searching for good immediate adherence, high quality, and textual content technology capabilities.

For these prepared to pay for the mannequin, any of the present choices does the job. We preferred the service supplied by Fal.AI as a result of it offers extra management than the others. Nonetheless, Freepik appears to be the best choice for many who desire a extra professional expertise. Whereas barely dearer, it is considerably extra versatile, providing not solely picture technology companies but additionally further options like picture upscaling, outpainting, draft-to-image generations, a background remover, and a library of content material for experimentation.