How to Make Stickers to Sell with AI Artificial Intelligence Midjourney App and Photoshop

Summary

The video explains how to create custom stickers using AI image generation software Midjourney and then clean up and edit the images in Photoshop. The presenter Anne first walks through signing up for Midjourney and creating a prompt to generate sticker images. She emphasizes using descriptive words like 'sticker', 'kawaii', 'cute', and 'vinyl' to inform the AI it's a 2D flat cartoon sticker. She shows generating images of a bee and a pony. When choosing a desired image, she upscales it on Midjourney then downloads and further upscales with BigJPG which is free. She then opens the image in Photoshop and uses the magic wand and selection tools to delete the background gray and replace it with white. Anne cleans up unwanted details by erasing and using the pen tool to create a path to cut out pieces. She inverses the selection to isolate the sticker image on its own layer with a transparent background. After cropping tightly, she resizes for high print resolution without pixelation. Finally Anne exports as a transparent PNG file ready for uploading to print-on-demand sites. However she cautions checking their terms about AI imagery first. Overall, the video teaches the full process from generating custom AI art prompts with Midjourney to cleaning up images in Photoshop in order to create printable stickers or other products. Key points are properly prompting Midjourney for the desired style of image, upscaling for print quality, using Photoshop tools to isolate the subject and create a transparent background, and exporting with high resolution. Anne also provides tips throughout for using the various software tools. The core message is that combining AI image generation with some editing can allow creating unique printable sticker designs.

Takeaways

• The process involves using MidJourney to generate AI art, then cleaning it up in Photoshop
• You need to join MidJourney and set up a Discord account to use it
• MidJourney has free and paid subscription plans, paid allows commercial use
• Create a separate Discord server for your MidJourney prompts
• Use descriptive words and parameters in prompts to get desired results
• Upscale images in an external site like BigJPG before bringing into Photoshop
• In Photoshop, remove the outer stroke and clean up the image
• Expand canvas and increase resolution to 300 dpi for high quality prints
• Save as a transparent PNG to upload to print-on-demand sites
• Check print-on-demand site guidelines before uploading AI art

Q & A

What is the first step in creating AI art for stickers?

The first step is to go to MidJourney.com and join the beta, then set up a Discord account to access MidJourney.

How can you use MidJourney for free?

MidJourney previously offered a free trial, but now requires a paid subscription. However, the basic $10 per month plan allows commercial use of images.

Why create a separate Discord server?

Creating a separate Discord server for your prompts keeps your MidJourney images organized and easier to find.

What parameters help customize your MidJourney prompts?

Using descriptive words, style parameters like '--s 250', and negative parameters like '--no text' will give you more control over the AI art MidJourney generates.

How can you upscale an image before Photoshop?

A free online tool like BigJPG can upscale MidJourney images to have higher resolution for bringing into Photoshop.

What are some key steps in Photoshop?

Key steps include removing the outer stroke, cleaning up the image, expanding canvas size, increasing resolution to 300 dpi, and saving as a transparent PNG.

Why save as a PNG instead of JPEG?

Saving as a PNG retains transparency which is needed for print-on-demand site requirements. JPEGs do not support transparency.

What resolution should you set in Photoshop?

For high quality prints, you should set the resolution to 300 dpi before exporting the PNG.

Where can you sell your finished AI art stickers?

Print-on-demand sites allow you to upload and sell your artwork on stickers, but check their guidelines regarding AI content first.

What potential issues exist around AI art?

There is some controversy and concern about uploading AI art to print-on-demand sites, so review their terms of service first.

Outlines

Intro to Making AI-Generated Stickers

The narrator introduces herself as Anne with Graphic Design How-To. She explains she will demonstrate how to use MidJourney to generate sticker images and clean them up in Photoshop for potential sale or other uses. She instructs viewers to join the MidJourney beta, create a Discord account if needed, and choose a subscription plan that allows commercial use of images.

Generating a Sticker Prompt in MidJourney

The narrator creates a new Discord server for her prompts. She adds the MidJourney bot and types a prompt to generate a cute bumblebee sticker, adding parameters to specify the vector art style. She shows the image results and explains the style parameter that determines how closely the images match the prompt vs. how artistic they are.

Upscaling and Cleaning up in Photoshop

The narrator upscales one of the images through MidJourney and BigJPG. She opens it in Photoshop, uses selection tools to delete the background, resizes for high print resolution, and exports as a transparent PNG. She notes she would clean up the image further before uploading for sale per terms of print-on-demand sites.

Keywords

💡MidJourney

MidJourney is an artificial intelligence system that generates images from text descriptions. In the video, it is used for creating sticker design images, which are then cleaned up and prepared for selling or printing. MidJourney allows users to create designs without professional drawing or design skills.

💡Prompt

A prompt is the text description input that the user provides to MidJourney AI to create an image. Prompts can include descriptions like "cute bumblebee on a flower" as well as artistic style parameters to control how the AI generates the image.

💡Style

Style refers to an artistic style parameter (“--s”) that controls how closely the image matches the prompt versus having an interpretive artistic style. A higher number gives more artistic yet less literal results. The presenter found that --s 250 gave good sticker results.

💡Upscale

Upscaling refers to enlarging the image resolution so it can be printed clearly without pixelation. The presenter used BigJPG.com to enlarge the AI images 4X to prepare them for printing or selling on print-on-demand websites.

💡Transparent Background

A transparent background allows images to be overlaid on different colored backgrounds. The presenter removed the background in Photoshop and exported the final image as a transparent PNG for selling printable stickers.

💡Print-on-Demand

Print-on-demand refers to services that manufacture and ship products like stickers only when a customer places an order. The video focused on preparing AI artworks specifically for uploading and selling on such services.

💡Controversy

There is some controversy around selling AI-generated images regarding originality and copyright issues. The presenter cautions checking the terms of print-on-demand sites before uploading AI artworks.

💡Discord

Discord is the platform where MidJourney AI is accessed by joining specific servers. The presenter created a custom Discord server just for her own MidJourney prompts to keep them organized.

💡Parameters

Parameters are parts of the prompt text that control what appears or does not appear in the generated image. Examples included “--no text” to exclude text and “kawaii” to specify a cute Japanese art style.

💡Photoshop

Photoshop refers to Adobe Photoshop software used to edit, refine and prepare the raw AI-generated images for commercial use. Steps included removing backgrounds, expanding canvases, and smoothing outlines.

Highlights

MidJourney is used to generate AI sticker designs.

Upscaling with BigJPG makes images large enough for print.

Higher style settings in MidJourney produce more artistic images.

Vector images like SVG are better for print than raster images.

Expanding selections in Photoshop helps remove backgrounds.

Using Paths in Photoshop allows precise editing of images.

Cropping in Photoshop removes extra pixels outside the main subject.

Setting PPI to 300 prevents blurriness when printing large.

Transparent PNG format maintains transparency for print.

AI designs should be checked against print site's terms first.

Discord servers keep prompts organized from other users.

Upscaling produces larger, printable versions of MidJourney images.

Photoshop cleans up AI images for selling or distribution.

Prompt parameters like "--no text" exclude unwanted elements.

Adjusting style settings changes how closely MidJourney matches prompts.

Transcripts

Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How-To, and  today I'm going to show you how to make stickers  

using artificial intelligence – MidJourney,  to be specific – and then I'll show you how  

to clean up the images that MidJourney  gives you in Photoshop, so that you could  

potentially sell them or do whatever you wanted  with them. All right, let's get started! [Music] 

So the first step is to go  out to MidJourney.com/home,  

and you'll see this screen. You'll  want to join the beta right down here,  

and then mine says "invite invalid" because I  just did this a second ago, but yours should  

say "accept invite," so go ahead and click that.  I'm going to go ahead and continue to Discord,  

and if you don't have a Discord account, you'll  have to set one up. So you'll come down here  

to Register and make a new one with your email  and phone number. If you already have a Discord  

account, you can sign in, and I'll just go ahead  and do that now because I already have one. 

Now, when I was doing research for this video,  MidJourney didn't have a free trial anymore.  

If you're not able to get a free trial, you're  going to have to pay, which is a little expensive,  

but you can do a ten dollar per month plan, and  everything that each of these plans includes is  

right down here, and you can just pause the  video to see what you get with each plan.  

I do want to mention that with any of the paid  plans, you are able to use it for commercial use,  

meaning that you can sell the images  you make on your website, for example. 

So now I'm in Discord, I'm going to click on  the MidJourney server over here, and then I'm  

going to scroll down, and now you can choose  a newbies room. I'm going to go to Newbies 33,  

and here I can look at other people's  prompts and what they've made,  

and I can also type my own prompt in here.  So to do that, you can click down here in the  

bar and type “/” (and that's the same key as  the question mark), and then type "imagine,"  

space, and then you can type your prompt. Now, you can just type it here in Newbies 33  

or wherever you happen to be, but I like  to create a new server for my prompts,  

and that way you can just see your prompts  instead of everyone's prompts. It can be a  

little hard to find your own if you put it in one  of these servers, so I'm going to come over here  

and add a server (that's the plus button). I'll  create my own and choose "For me and my friends,"  

and then I'm just going to call this "Anne's  server," and I'll create it. And here it is. 

Now I'm going to go back to MidJourney.  Then you can scroll through,  

and most of them have this MidJourney bot  right here. I'll click that, and I'm going  

to choose "Add to server." I'll come down here  and select the server I just made and continue,  

and then I'll scroll down and choose "Authorize."  And then we'll have to do the "I am human" thing  

and "Authorize." So now I can go into that server,  and the MidJourney bot should be here. Then I can  

do /imagine (space) and type my prompt. Now, when I'm making sticker prompts,  

first I enter "sticker," and then we  can do descriptive words like "kawaii."  

"Kawaii" is a Japanese word, and it means "cute.” So, you could also put "cute" in here and then I'm  

going to describe what I want to see, which is a  bumblebee on a flower. I want it to be colorful,  

and then I'm going to enter a bunch of  sticker-type words like "Contour,” “die-cut  

sticker," "vinyl sticker," "flat image,” “2D," and  there are two types of images: raster and vector.  

Raster is like a photograph, it has little  pixels in it. The vector is made with math,  

so it's much more fluid and cartoony. And so,  using that term, MidJourney will know that you  

want a cartoon-style. SVG stands for scalable  vector graphics, it's kind of like JPEG except  

it's for vectors. And then, “white background”  and “simple.” I usually add parameters to my  

stickers if I don't want to see something, so  "--no" everything after the word "no" will make  

MidJourney NOT give me these things. So, if  I don't want text, I'll just put "--no text."  

Let's try that. Okay, and here's what we’ve got.  Now, you might notice this "--s 250," and that is  

a stylize parameter. If you have a low number  here, it'll produce images that closely match  

a prompt but are less artistic. And if you have  a high number, you're going to get more artistic  

images that maybe don't match the prompt as well.  Now, I didn't type this in, it just showed up,  

and that is because it's in my settings set  up that way. So, I'm going to hit /settings,  

and I'll hit enter or return twice, and here is  where the style is set. So, if I put it on style  

high, that will give me the --s 250 right here.  You can see it right here. If I change to very  

high, that'll change it to --s 750. For stickers,  I found that style high is very good, so the "--s  

250." I'm going to dismiss this and now I'll try  another one. I want a little pony with a tutu, and  

these are the four variations that MidJourney gave  me. Now, I'm really liking this one, and you'll  

see these buttons under here, these correspond to  these, so this is 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you click U1,  

you're going to get an upscaled version of this.  The "U" means upscaled and then Versions. If I  

click V1, I'll get four different versions of  this image, and they'll be slightly different. So,  

let's go ahead and upscale this. The reason you  would want to upscale is that if you use this  

size, it will not print very well, it's too small,  and it'll be blurry. So, you need to have a much  

larger image, especially if you're putting this  on a print-on-demand website. Some of the stickers  

and other things they offer are really huge, so  it needs to be large enough to print well. Okay,  

and here is the upscaled image. I'm going to click  this, and then I'll choose "Open in browser,"  

and now I'm going to right-click it and "Save  image as," and I'll just save it on my desktop.  

Now we need to make it even bigger, and to  do that, we'll need to go to an external  

site that just does upscaling. The one that  I like is called "Big JPEG," and you can just  

go to https://bigjpg.com/ and this is totally  free. So the first step, we're going to select  

the image we just downloaded. I put that on my  desktop, so here it is. And then I'll click Start  

for the image type I want: artwork, because this  is a more vector look. If you have a pixely one,  

you'll want photo. And then for upscaling,  I'm going to choose 4X. If you want 8 or 16,  

you have to pay for that, I think. And then  for noise reduction, I'll choose Medium, and  

I'll say Okay. And it'll take some time. Okay, so  now it's ready to download. I'll just click that,  

and it will go into my downloads. Now we'll bring  it into Photoshop and clean it up. I'm going to  

click and drag it onto my Photoshop icon. Now,  on most print-on-demand websites, they add this  

white outline for you, so you'll want to actually  get rid of that unless they specifically want you  

to add it on. But I definitely like that it's  there because it makes it very easy to select  

what I don't need. So I'm going to hit W on my  keyboard to get my magic wand tool, and I'm just  

going to select this gray out here. I want to  make sure that contiguous right here is selected,  

and you can see I've got all this gray, but  it didn't get this. So I'm just going to go  

ahead and choose Select > Modify > Expand,  and we'll put this out at about 10 pixels,  

and we'll say okay. And that got it somewhat.  It looks like I need to go a little further,  

so I'll do Select > Modify > Expand, and this  time I'll go with 40 pixels. That should put us  

into the white somewhat. Okay, and it did. I'm  going to expand it even more, maybe another 30.  

Okay, so now we have... if I zoom out, you  can see we've got all the gray out here,  

and we're cutting into that white outline,  which is what we want. Now I'm going to  

hit D on my keyboard to get a black foreground  color and a white background, and then I'll hit  

delete. Now I'll choose that background color of  white. You can also just choose white down here.  

Okay, and that pretty much did it. I see a few  little spots I need to clean up. I'll hit E to  

get to my eraser tool. I'm going to make my  brush a little bit smaller. I'm doing that by  

holding Ctrl+Option and dragging to the right and  left. On a PC, you can right-click and hold Alt,  

I believe, and then drag to the right  and left to increase or decrease your  

brush size. I'm just going to get rid of  these, maybe smooth this out a little bit. 

When you zoom in really  close, it looks pretty nice,  

so the upscalers did a good job. I don't like this  eyelash right here. It doesn't look quite right,  

so I'm going to use my pen tool. I'm going to  come up here and make sure this is on “Path.”  

I want to just cut this off right about here.  So I'm going to start up here, click once,  

and I'm just going to click and drag  to get the shape I want eventually.  

Hold Option or Alt and click that to get rid of  that handle, and then I'll just click all the way  

out here because I want that gone too, and then  I'll complete the shape. I'll come over here to  

my Paths panel, and I'm just going to double-click  this, rename it, and so now I have path one here,  

and then I can hold Command and click  that to select it [CTRL click on pc]. Now,  

if I click back on my layers, I can see I only  have the one layer. So when I hit delete here  

and I fill it with white, it should just cut out  that piece, but it did the opposite which I don't  

want. So I'm going to undo with Command + Z or  Control + Z. I'm going to hit Shift + Command + I  

to get the inverse of my selection (that's  Shift + Control + I on a PC), and then I'll do  

it again. I'll hit delete and choose white, and  now it looks good like it should look. I'll hit  

Command + D or Ctrl + D so I don't have that  selection anymore, and then I'm just going to  

go ahead and come around and just kind of clean  this up. And I'll do this one with my brush tool.  

Now, if you're not getting the color you  want, hit X to switch your foreground and  

background (that's these two), so if you hit  X, this is what's going to happen over here.  

Okay, so it's looking pretty good. I'm going to  hit W again (that's my magic wand). I'm just going  

to click. I can see a couple of little dots here,  so I'm going to increase my tolerance to about 50.  

I'll hit Command + D or Ctrl + D to deselect,  and then I'll try again with my magic wand,  

and it looks like I have everything. I can see  some little places I missed, but the magic wand  

tool has selected those too, and then I'll hit  delete on my keyboard and fill with white. Now,  

I'm going to inverse my selection with  Shift + Ctrl + I or Shift + Command + I,  

so now I only have the pony selected. I'll  hit Command + J or Ctrl + J to put it on  

a new layer with no background. I'm going to  go ahead and throw my background layer away,  

and now we can see we have a transparent  background. I'm going to delete the extra  

pixels outside of the pony, and to do that, I'm  going to just crop. So I'll hit C on my keyboard  

to get the crop handles up, and then I'll hold  Option or Alt and just bring this pretty close,  

and I'll also bring the sides in. That looks  pretty good. I'll hit Enter or Return to commit  

the changes. Okay, so let's see how big this  is going to be. I'll go to Image > Image Size,  

and now I'm going to change this to inches.  I don't want to resample the artwork,  

so now when I change this to 300, it will update  my width and height. So this is going to be able  

to print at 9.6 by 11.8 inches at a really  nice resolution. It's not going to be blurry  

or anything like that, and so this is perfect.  And I'll say okay, and now I'll save this as a  

transparent PNG. So we'll go to File > Export  > Export As, and I'll change my format to PNG.  

Make sure transparency is checked, and then  Export, and I'll just save it to my desktop.  

So now we're done. Now I can upload this  to print-on-demand sites, and honestly,  

I'd probably clean it up a little more if I was  actually going to do that, like I don't like how  

the outline looks here. I don't like what's going  on over here or here, but after you get it all the  

way you want it, it would be ready to upload. Now,  I do want to mention that before you upload to  

print-on-demand sites, make sure that they accept  artificial intelligence designs because there's a  

little bit of controversy surrounding it right  now, and you don't want to break any of their  

terms and conditions. Alright, I hope this video  is helpful for you. If you want to see more videos  

like this, just hit the Subscribe button and the  little bell next to it, and you'll be notified  

every time a new video comes out. Alright,  I'll see you in the next video. Thank you!!