There is currently no better text-to-image AI model for making illustrations than Dall-E 3. While Midjourney is superior when it comes to photorealistic images, Dall-E 3 shines the brightest when you instruct it to create illustrations. In today's article, I'm going to show you how to write Dall-E 3 prompts for anime.
The term "anime" is used to describe all animated works in Japan regardless of their origin or style. However, other parts of the world use the word to describe a style of animation that originated in Japan.
Although I don't really watch anime shows or read manga, I'm very fond of this art style and have used it a lot while interacting with text-to-image models. With this article, I aim to show you how to write prompts that you can use to create images of both characters and landscapes in an anime style.
How to Write Dall-E 3 Prompts for Anime
The most important thing to remember is that a text-to-image model like Dall-E 3 can perfectly understand and apply a specific art style that you mention in your prompt to an image. That's why your first step when writing prompts like this should be to include a keyword such as "anime art style" so that you provide the model with a clear instruction.
It's up to you to decide for each prompt whether you want the image to focus on characters or a landscape. Keep in mind that you can always choose a certain aspect ratio that you want the image to feature. You can do this by ending your prompt with the instruction "aspect ratio x:y" with x and y representing the width and height, respectively.
There is no right or wrong way to write prompts, per se. You should simply describe what you want to see in an image in as much detail as you want. It's a good idea not to make your prompts too long though because that might confuse the generative AI model and cause it to create an image that's not completely true to your description.
Let's say that you want to create an anime character. Some of the useful information that you could put in your prompts includes:
- A basic description of the character, including gender, build, age, facial features, etc.
- A set of features that are unique to the character. For instance, they might hold a powerful weapon that you should describe in detail. They might also have a peculiar aura shining around them.
- Objects that should be featured in the background of an image. Describing the background in your prompt will help make your image stand out.
- The overall aesthetic of the image. There are many different keywords that you can use to apply a certain aesthetic to the generated result. If you want a fantasy-themed image, you should mention that in your prompt.
These aren't rules that you must follow in every prompt. They're just useful tips that you can use if you want to consistently get great results when you're making images with Dall-E 3.
What I like about Dall-E 3 is that you can write instructions in a conversational manner. This is thanks to the fact that the Dall-E 3 tool is directly infused into the ChatGPT 4 large language model. However, I think that you'll get the best results when you write advanced prompts. You'll see exactly what I mean by advanced prompts in the next section of the article.
12 Dall-E 3 Prompt Examples for Anime
So far, I've created images in an anime style using a few different text-to-image AI models. If you'd like to compare the results for each model, I suggest that you also check out my Midjourney prompts for anime as well as the Stable Diffusion version of the article.
prompt #1: anime style image, young warrior with cascading silver hair, wielding a dual-bladed energy staff amidst a storm of electric currents, exuding the essence of lightning, aspect ratio 3:4
Wow, there is a lot going on in this image. Before I comment on it, I just want to note that the 3:4 aspect ratio can be a great choice when you're writing prompts for characters. Although I personally prefer the default 1:1 aspect ratio, sometimes I use this one as well.
If you've read some of my other Dall-E 3 articles, you already know that I think this model is currently the best there is when it comes to creating illustrations. It really shines in that regard, and when it comes to images in an anime style it's no different. This image looks like it was made by a professional designer, and the generative AI model created it in less than 15 seconds.
I really appreciate the coherence of this text-to-image model. It follows every instruction in the prompt. The storm of electric currents is perfectly captured here. I feel like this could easily be a character in a video game or animated TV show.
prompt #2: anime style image, a stoic figure with emerald-green eyes, adorned in ancient armor, gripping a mystical bow and positioned atop an ancient stone circle.
The previous image was quite chaotic (in a good way), so I wanted to switch it up for the next prompt and create something more serene. In this instance, I wanted to create a character of a stoic figure.
What I love here is that although I mentioned that the character should be positioned atop an ancient stone circle (and she is), this detail doesn't take up too much space in the image. It's just a subtle detail that makes the overall design better. However, the full focus is still on the character.
prompt #3: anime style image, mysterious figure draped in a cloak of midnight blue, face concealed by an otherworldly mask, manipulating the threads of time with an arcane hourglass
Have you ever wondered why generative AI models sometimes have trouble generating hands? It's because hands can be in countless different positions. Since these models were trained on a huge number of images, it's difficult for them to "understand '' what their hands should look like. I included this image in the article despite the error to let you know that this is a normal occurrence. If you want to fix it, you can simply run the prompt several more times until you get a perfect result.
The mask this character is wearing is both mystical and scary. I love the combination of colors featured here, as well as the cosmic background. The hourglass also features a meticulous design.
prompt #4: anime style image, dystopian cityscape reclaimed by nature, with twisted vines embracing skyscrapers, and a lone wanderer traversing the melancholic remnants of a forgotten civilization, aspect ratio 16:9
I sometimes think about what the future of our planet will be like. We've been on a path of constant progress for several decades, but there is always a possibility that something bad will happen. We've built so many major cities that it would be impossible to maintain them without a large number of people living in them.
In the event of an apocalyptic event, I imagine that big cities would end up looking something like you see in the image above. Nature always reclaims everything and is far more powerful than humans.
prompt #5: anime style image, battle-scarred veteran with mismatched eyes, clad in technologically enhanced exo-armor, standing defiantly amidst the ruins of a war-torn city, symbolizing the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity
I was inspired by the previous prompt so I decided to continue thinking in that direction. The previous image was how I imagined the far future following an apocalyptic event. This one is more about the apocalyptic event itself.
The main character here looks incredible. It kind of reminds me of an anime version of the Terminator movies. I hope we don't ever reach a point where humans go to war with advanced technology.
prompt #6: anime style image, elven archer with emerald-green hair, perched atop a colossal tree, drawing a bow imbued with the essence of the ancient forest, serving as a guardian of the natural world
Considering that the Lord of the Rings film series are some of my favorite movies of all time, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Legolas character inspired me to write this prompt. However, I wanted to change some details so that it wouldn't be too obvious.
Instead of the blond hair, I decided to give this character green hair. I also made sure to include keywords like "ancient forest" and "natural world" in the prompt to ensure that the background fits the theme of the image perfectly.
prompt #7: anime style image, a crystalline canyon bathed in the soft glow of twilight, where luminescent plants cast an otherworldly radiance, creating an ethereal spectacle, aspect ratio 16:9
Nearly all of the images I made for this article so far focused on characters, so it's only right that I write a few prompts for landscapes now. I want to mention once again just how great Dall-E 3 is when it comes to creating illustrated images.
There are many crystals in this image, and all of them look amazing. If you were to write this same prompt a year ago, you wouldn't get nearly as much detail from generative AI models as you do now. What excites me is that the people who are working on these models say that they can be improved even more. I'm genuinely excited about the future of this technology.
prompt #8: anime style image, an ancient temple hidden within a bioluminescent cave, with walls adorned in shimmering crystals that illuminate the sacred space with a mystical glow, aspect ratio 16:9
I liked the crystals in the previous image so much that I decided to feature them in another image. But this time, I wanted the primary focus of this image to be something different. This is the type of scene that I'd expect to see in an RPG with a fantasy setting.
Imagine you stumble upon an ancient temple hidden deep within a cave. I would instantly walk inside and explore everything.
prompt #9: anime style image, a parallel dimension where time and space intertwine, featuring floating islands of fractured reality and pathways leading to different epochs, encapsulating the essence of temporal flux, aspect ratio 16:9
This is quite an abstract image. I love science fiction so it felt right to write a prompt like this. I wonder if parallel dimensions exist. I feel like that's a question that we might never be able to answer. But it's always fun to think about.
prompt #10: anime style image, techno-shaman with bioluminescent tribal markings, communing with the spirit of a digital jungle, where neon vines and virtual creatures coalesce in a harmonious blend of nature and technology, aspect ratio 3:4
This is a stunning character. The moment I saw this image it immediately exceeded my expectations. It's far better than I imagined. I feel like people are so caught up in technology nowadays that we forget how powerful nature is. I think that people in the past took much more time to appreciate nature.
Perhaps in the future society as a whole will once again realize that there is nothing more powerful than nature and we'll find a way to blend both technology and the natural world.
prompt #11: anime style image, cyborg mercenary with cybernetic limbs and a visor that glows with a fierce red intensity, navigating a dystopian wasteland overrun by rogue AI
Alright, this is the third dystopian image that I made for this article and I promise it's going to be the last one. This one loosely reminds me of some characters you'd find in the Fallout video game series. If we ever reach a point in the future where cyborg mercenaries like this exist, I hope I'll be long gone by then. I wouldn't like to encounter something like this in the middle of the street.
prompt #12: anime style image, a celestial garden atop a mountain peak, where vibrant celestial flowers bloom under the light of a comet-studded sky, embodying the beauty of the cosmic heavens, aspect ratio 16:9
I didn't want to end the article on a scary note, so I made sure to create a calm and serene image for you. Although I didn't specify a color palette that should be used here, this is kind of what I expected to see. I love the fact that the Dall-E 3 model has a good understanding of what colors to use depending on the overall theme of the image.
Final Thoughts
I often scroll through social media platforms to see what AI artists from all over the world are creating with text-to-image tools like Dall-E 3. This is a great way to remain inspired because you'll see so many beautiful ideas.
I have noticed that many AI artists love creating images using the anime style. It seems to be one of the most popular styles that are used. And that's exactly why I decided to write this article. My goal is to help you learn how to make stunning anime characters and landscapes using nothing except words.
Although Dall-E 3 is purely a text-to-image model, I want to note that some AI tools enable you to transform text into videos. One of my favorite tools like this is called Runway Gen-2. In fact, in Runway Gen-2 you can even use an image you created with Dall-E 3 as your prompt and turn it into an animated video.
