( Not my Model )

https://civitai.com/models/1750992/sophos-realism?modelVersionId=1981654

Sophos Realism

Long time lurker, first time poster. I recently set out to create an Illustrious-based model that blends realism, Danbooru prompt comprehension, and character comprehension. I think this model achieved that goal enough to merit seeing the light of day, so here it is.

Suggested Uses

You can use this model more or less like you would use an Illustrious anime model, but the results look realistic. It understands danbooru tags and does a decent job of realistically rendering popular fictitious characters. It's pretty good at realism too, just generally speaking. If you want a more realistic edge to the finished photo, try using this model to get the generation started and then switch to your favorite SDXL realism model for refinement of those fine details.

Usage Tips

• Add Emphasis to Tags : You will have to add more emphasis than you might normally use to trigger the effect of certain danbooru tags for unrealistic things that you wouldn't normally see in real photos. In short, if it doesn't work at first, try upping the weight until it does (hopefully).

• Boost Character Details : For characters, it helps to add some of their defining characteristics and also add more weight to the character name to guide the effect. For example, "aerith gainsborough" is okay, but "(aerith gainsborough:1.2), green eyes, single braid, pink ribbon in hair" is going to be even better. You don't really need to do that most of the time for the Illustrious anime models, but it helps with this one.

• Use Concept/Chracter LoRAs : LoRAs are your friend. If a particular character or concept isn't well represented in the danbooru dataset, the effect of the trigger word might be too weak. Search Civit for a LoRA that can help. Odds are you'll find one... or dozens. Don't be afraid to apply those LoRAs at a lower weight. Sometimes a little dab will do ya.

• 👉 Use Recommended LoRAs: See below! This model thrives on two LoRAs in particular.

⚠️ NSFW Note ⚠️

This model will do NSFW very nicely. It didn't lose any of that Illustrious potency, that's for sure. Please be responsible with what you do with it.

Note on Sample Images

I may have "cherry picked" my sample images. I haven't heard anyone give a robust definition for what that means in this context, so I'll just tell you the approach I took and you can decide for yourself whether my results are valid:

• What you see is what you get in terms of the prompts and the LoRAs. No extra tricks, no targeted inpainting, no hidden loras for characters (if I used one, you'll see it in the prompt), no controlnets, nothing like that. Just hi-res fix upscale and ADetailer to sharpen the faces. Those are widely-available, well-known techniques, so I felt justified in using them.

• I generated the images until I hit on the first one that felt good enough. Some of them were one-shots, but I definitely didn't one-shot the more complex compositions. If that's cherry picking, then guilty as charged, and I would simply say in my defense that I see no other way to use these tools. In my humble opinion, iterative prompt refinement and luck is required to get good results from any diffusion model.

• The results you see are highly dependent on the LoRAs that I am recommending below. The model is still pretty good without them, but the LoRAs bring out the magic. I would have merged them in except I think there's so much value in being able to control their strength.

Recommended Prompts

Positive

8k UHD, (absurdres:1.2), (masterpiece:1.2), (best quality:1.2), (realistic:1.2), (intricate details:1.2), (film grain:1.2)

Negative

(text, logo, username, signature:1.2), photoshop, doll, (silicone:1.1), fake, filter, airbrush, 3d max, colourless, impassive, shaders, (anime eyes:1.2), (glossy skin:1.2), (plastic skin:1.2), cartoon proportions, illustration, digital art, simplified, abstract, (unrealistic:1.2), impressionistic, (lowres:1.2), (bad anatomy:1.2), (bad hands:1.2), (missing fingers:1.2), (worst quality:1.2), (low quality:1.2), (cartoon:1.1), (anime:1.1), drawing, sketch, (artificial:1.1)

Note : I think you could prune quite a few of those tags out of the negative prompt and still get perfectly fine results. More experimenting is needed.

Embeddings

In my testing, this model works fine with popular positive/negative embeddings like Realism_Illustrious_Negative_Embedding and Realism_Illustrious_Positive_Embedding . Give them a try if that's your thing.

👉 LoRAs 👈

LoRA

The LoRAs are the secret sauce for this model. This LoRA combination really juices the model and makes it shine. They are a must for getting the results you see in the example images.

• dark (dramatic chiaroscuro lighting)

• Stabilizer IL/NAI

You can go as easy or hard on the dark LoRA as you want depending on your needs, but ~0.4 is a fine setting for general purpose use cases to enhance any image.

The Stabilizer LoRA adds a little extra creativity and prompt adherence. Good values seem to be in the 0.1 - 0.4 range. If you go much higher than that, you'll get artifacts. I think ~0.2 is the sweet spot for general purpose usage.

<lora:illustriousXLv01_stabilizer_v1.185c:0.2> <lora:dark:0.4>

Other LoRA Compatibility

Generally speaking, any LoRA that works with the Illustrious anime models should work just fine on this model, although depending on the effect, it may not translate over nicely to the realism style. However, I've been pleasantly surprised with the results so far! Pretty much any Illustrious or SDXL LoRA, and even some Pony LoRAs, should work. Just remember that your mileage may vary.

Sampler Settings

Samplers

Play around with your favorites, but here's what tends to work for me:

• DPM++ SDE, ~30-40 steps: Takes a while, but good results if you're patient

• DPM++ 2M, 40-50 steps: A tried-and-true classic. Works great.

• ER SDE, 30-50 steps: A newcomer that is my go-to these days.

CFG

I use 3.5 CFG with Mahiro CFG in reForge. If you use regular CFG, try it in the 4 - 5 range, or use whatever works best for you.

Clip Skip

You can do either clip skip 1 or clip skip 2. The difference is very slight, but I think I lean towards preferring clip skip 2.

Scheduler

I like the Phi scheduler if you have it available, otherwise you can't go wrong with SGM Uniform, Beta, or Karras. Ultimately use whatever works best for you.

Merge Details

Credit goes where credit is due. This merge wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of the people who finetune the base models. Please join me in saying thank you to these fine creators. 🙏

Illustrious Models

• CyberIllustrious v5 : A very good Illustrious realism finetune. Good skin realism.

• JedpointReal v3 : Another quality Illustrious realism finetune. Good character/prompt adherence.

• JANKU v4 : Great Illustrious anime model.

• MAGIC_ILL v2 : Another Illustrious anime model that I like.

• Nova Anime XL v8 : Another favorite Illustrious anime model. (No particular reason for v8 over v9)

SDXL Models

• Jib Mix Realistic XL v18 : The gold standard for realism. So beautiful. I love v18. Thanks, Jib!

• LUSTIFY! OLT: Another great SDXL finetune. It helps preserve NSFW qualities, I think.

The approach I took was to grab the clip from the anime models, which I had already merged together, and apply that onto a merge of CyberIllustrious with JedpointReal. Then I did an add difference merge onto that, applying a merge of Jib Mix and LUSTIFY at low weight and mostly targeting the output blocks. After much experimentation with that general formula, I found a recipe that managed to keep most of the Illustrious prompt comprehension while acquiring enough realism to make it feel worthwhile. Then I slapped on those two LoRAs, which I was already using on the anime models, and momma mia , I think I fell in love. I hope you fall in love with it too. 💘

Donations

It didn't cost me anything but time to do this, but if you're so inclined, I have a Kofi page . Thanks!