Michael Limberger
Need me? Email mike@limberger.ca
AI
The Models
Four cousins, four looks
Four Illustrious-based SDXL models, all tested on Apple Silicon. Same foundation, totally different looks.
Settings at a glance
| Setting | Bridgetoons | Cyberreal | Realism | Arthemy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Style | Comic book | Photographic | Realistic | Western |
| Base | Illustrious | Illustrious | Illustrious | Illustrious |
| Clip Skip | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| CFG Scale | 6.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| Steps | 38 | 35 | 27 | 45 |
| Sampler | euler_karras | dpm++_karras | dpm++_karras | euler_karras |
| Resolution | 672x1200 | 832x1216 | 896x1152 | 1024x1344 |
| Hires Fix | YES | NO | NO | YES |
Hires Fix, when it is on
Hires Fix is a second pass: generate small, upscale, add detail. We only enable it on Bridgetoons and Arthemy in this table.
| Setting | Bridgetoons | Arthemy |
|---|---|---|
| Upscale | 2.0x | 2.0x |
| Upscaler | Lanczos | Lanczos |
| Hires Steps | 15 | 15 |
| Denoise | 0.3 | 0.2 |
Bridgetoons, the comic book workhorse
Bold lines, punchy colors, comic book aesthetic. Hires fix is on, so it handles full body shots well.
Style: American comic book. Triggers: VERY AWA, COMICBOOK STYLE.
euler_karras at 38 steps gives clean linework. CFG 6.0 balances prompt adherence with natural color. 0.3 denoise on hires adds detail without changing composition.
Cyberrealistic, the photographer
Makes images that look like actual photographs. Editorial quality with realistic skin textures and natural lighting. Keep CFG low or it over-processes.
Style: photorealistic and editorial. Triggers: masterpiece, best quality, realistic.
dpm++_karras is sharp, good for photo detail. Low CFG (4.5) gives a natural, not artificial look. No hires fix: it caused artifacts on Apple Silicon.
Realism
Similar vibe to Cyberrealistic with a slightly different rendering approach. Very low CFG for maximum natural appearance.
Style: realistic with an artistic touch. Triggers: masterpiece, best quality, realistic.
dpm++_karras for sharp detail. Very low CFG (4.0) for the most natural results. 27 steps: this model converges faster than the others. No hires fix. Cleaner without it on Apple Silicon.
Arthemy, the western illustrator
Western comic and graphic novel style with hatching, flat colors, and bold composition. Needs the most steps to fully render its detailed linework. Largest base resolution of the bunch.
Style: western comics, graphic novel. Triggers: western comics (style), linear hatching, flat color.
euler_karras handles the hatching well. 45 steps needed: complex style takes longer to converge. Low denoise (0.2) on hires preserves the linework. Largest resolution (1024x1344) for detailed illustrations.
Full body, or not
Bridgetoons can do full body. Hires fix adds eye detail. Arthemy can too: hires fix plus a large base resolution.
Cyberrealistic and Realism: stick to cowboy shot or tighter. No hires fix, so eyes suffer at distance.
Without hires fix, full body shots do not have enough pixels for clean eye rendering. You get asymmetrical or blurry eyes.
Why hires is off on two of them
On Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Macs), hires fix can cause impressionist blur patches, scan line artifacts, and color banding.
Cyberrealistic and Realism looked better without hires fix on Mac. Bridgetoons and Arthemy handle it well.
If you are on NVIDIA hardware, you might be able to enable hires fix on all models. Test and see.