So's, first I gotta make some excuses. I finally passed whatever this bronchitis thing was in February, but between the start of 2026 and now, I've had a world ending fight at home, food poisoning (twice!), and a week long kidney stone, and don't even ask about work. Things are quiet TODAY, so you get this article!
You might have seen I posted an OC model, Lithia, I wanna explain why that one was fairly easy for me and why OCs in general I think are going to be easier. I'm still planning on doing every lora I already promised (last year!), but as far as amount of effort, my OCs are probably less, and I'll get to that in a second after a tee up story.
Well, see that pic on that article? That's supposed to be a Skyrim OC, Ji'ara Khanan, but whether I get him how he looks or some simplified cartoony version with the details off, really depends on the model, the prompts I use, and how civitai's feeling any given day. I mean, thats how it is. One of the reasons I haven't been posting big pic posts like I used to, besides it taking alot out of me is I find the further I go along the less tolerant I am of defects. Sixth fingers, off eyes (alot of off eyes), nonsense clothes, even just a face that's only 80-90% of what I wanted, I'm not satisfied with those anymore. Some people will post whatever they gen, but I'm finally getting to the point where I gotta toss those 9 not quites and if I only have one good pic, thats whats worth posting. We already passed the "better than nothing" threshhold, ya know? I need to get over myself I guess but its the same thing as writing. Some stuff you finish out and just think, its not ready for prime time.
Anyways, Sora 1 was quite good while it lasted (its gone for good now and I have no interest in videos), all I ever wanted out of AI was an ability to use a reference I give it without making everything a d-cup blonde, and to handle more than one character at a time, and Sora 1 could mostly do that. I managed to save out some 30 gbs worth of work before it went under, and what I'm getting at is, thats plenty to do a lora of any of my OCs. What I gen from Civitai, when I'm lucky, is a good starting point, but I think I've gone as far as I can with prompts and other people's loras. Some 600 blue to get more accurate OCs would be well worth it, I blow that easy just trying to gen something that isn't a mutant. Not to mention I'm pretty happy with most of the styles I wound up using over on sora.
Another thing, you may notice, I really only do niche stuff. Yes, when somebody posts the 90th Sonya Blade lora or such, I come running, I won't deny it, but I don't see the point in competing in a saturated market. I'd rather get that one out of 100 guy who remembers some obscure corner of the internet or gaming history. Look, I never said I was good at business!
So, my short term plan, besides getting well, is blow some of this blue buzz on my OC loras because really I already have the samples, ya never know, maybe somebody will be really into orc nudes, that'd keep me afloat! Right now I still have more yellow buzz than blue thanks to some very kind donations, but hey, I can always use more, those showcases cost me a bit. I think there's NOTHING more annoying than posting a lora and not sharing at least a few prompts, I think people do it because they know we'll burn more yellow flailing.
Some of these will run into the same challenges AI always does, you know, sticking human features on a khajiit, getting crossed up with a very pretty guy who dresses like a girl, orcs that either look like She-Hulk or something out of Frank Miller's Warhammer. But Lithia was a good test, I figure it can handle a mechnical android, eh, 75% of the time on the low end lets call it, loras will help with these other issues.