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How to Create Midjourney Facial Expressions

Are you struggling with emotions and facial expressions in Midjourney?

Let’s face it, life is bland without emotions and you’d be surprised to see the unbelievable range your characters can have.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to inject passion and emotions into your character’s facial expressions.

Let’s dive right in.

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How to Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney

This guide is part of a larger series that covers character design in Midjourney.

If you haven’t read Parts 1 through 4 of our series, I strongly recommend you check them out.

Reading through all of the previous parts will provide valuable context on what I’m about to show you in this part of the series.

If you’ve already read all the previous parts, then I have good news for you.

This one is going to be a lot less technical than the previous one.

The actual process is still important, however, we’ll be spending a lot of time going through a wide range of expressions and emotions.

In fact, for the most part, the prompts will not change very much.

However, it’s still important that you pay attention to the way I use words.

And most of all, I think you’ll be quite surprised how nuanced your character’s expressions can get.

If you’d rather watch a video tutorial, then check out the YouTube video instead.

Key Points (tl;dr)
  • Midjourney covers the full range of facial expressions that we all know: Anger, disgust, fear, sadness, embarrassment, contempt, happiness, pride, and surprise.
  • The easiest way to give your character emotions is by simply describing the facial expression and adding it to your character prompt.
  • Bear in mind that “extreme” concepts tend to exaggerate all facial expressions in Midjourney.

Creating Our Character Concept

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 1
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 1

So let’s start off by fine-tuning our character concept for a close-up portrait because this is fairly crucial for Midjourney facial expressions.

I’m going to create a number of portrait shots of Carla from various different angles.

And I’m going to pick a total of 8 different images.

However, you don’t necessarily need to use that many, usually 2 or 3 will be enough.

So here’s the first prompt.

/imagine
frontal close up on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 1326887340

From this set of 4, I really like the top-right and bottom-right images.

I will react with the envelope icon to get the specific URLs of each image.

You might be wondering whether you need to upscale the images.

You can do that if you want to but from my experience, it’s not really necessary for this, at least not for Midjourney facial expressions.

Next, I’m going to re-roll the prompt.

/imagine
frontal close up on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 424665776

From this set, I’m only going to use the top-right image.

Once again, I’ll get the URL by reacting with the envelope icon.

Next, I’m going to make a slight change to the prompt.

/imagine
frontal close up on white background, frontal view, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 424665776

As you can see, I’ve added the words “frontal view”.

I honestly do not know whether it will help, but I really want to get Carla in a more frontal position.

Ok, so at least I got the top-left that fits that description and I’m going to keep that one.

I’m also going to keep the bottom-right one, cause I kind of like it.

So far, I’ve collected 5 image references.

I’m now going to re-roll the prompt.

/imagine
frontal close up on white background, frontal view, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 755951835

And from this set of 4, I will keep the top-right one because it’s a frontal shot.

So I’m still missing a shot of the back of the head.

Technically, we don’t really need this for today’s exercise.

But I know that a lot of people have trouble creating headshots where the character is looking away.

So let me show you how that’s done with the following prompt.

/imagine
headshot of back of head on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 366826437

The critical phrase here is “headshot of back of head”.

And as you can see, it works quite well.

So from this set of 4, we’ll keep the 2 top images and that gives us a total of 8 reference images.

But before we move on to creating Midjourney facial expressions, let’s finalize our character first.

Blending the Character

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 2
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 2

Now let’s see what happens if I simply blend together all 8 reference images.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw

So you might be wondering whether this is a genuine alternative to what I originally showed you in Part 1 of this series.

And yes, it absolutely is!

Ok, so next, you might think that you can simply add a simple text prompt like “smiling” and a get good image.

But that’s not how it works and let me prove it to you with this prompt.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw smiling --seed 4114252004

As you can see, even though these are nice images, they’re only remotely related to our character.

So why is that?

Well, it seems that the entire collection of image references is given about the same weight as the entire text prompt.

So we’re effectively blending a random “smiling” concept with our character reference.

That character reference doesn’t have sufficient weight and we can’t control it in version 4 of Midjourney.

So it’s crucial that you use these image references in combination with the original or at least a very similar text prompt.

Let’s add our original prompt:

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 1753958517

By the way, from here you can actually get different angle shots of your blended character.

All you need to do is change your text prompt to reflect different angles and positions.

But that’s not what we’re here to do.

We’re here to create Midjourney facial expressions.

So let’s start going through some emotions.

Creating Emotional Facial Expressions

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Smiling
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Smiling

So, by default, whenever you create portrait images, your character will tend to have an expression that is commonly found in portrait shots.

Some are neutral, some are flirty, and some are mysterious.

So how about we start by giving Carla a very simple smile?

Here’s what my prompt would look like.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, happy woman, woman with smile on her face, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2487997411

As you can see, I’ve replaced “beautiful woman” with “woman with smile on her face”.

And that’s literally all you need to do.

Here’s what she looks like.

Amazing what difference such a small change makes, isn’t it?

So let’s try to make that smile even bigger.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, extremely happy woman, woman with huge smile on her face, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2830008868

So this time I’ve replaced “woman with a smile on her face” with “extremely happy woman, woman with huge smile on her face”.

As you can see, these nuances make a big difference in Midjourney facial expressions.

However, it’s also important to note that whenever you use exaggerated concepts, such as “extreme”, it has a considerable effect on the character’s look.

In this case, Carla has much more pronounced cheeks.

It’s a little more obvious if we try to make Carla laugh.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman laughing out loud, extreme laughter, hilarity, amusement, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2821267819

In this example, I’ve replaced our expression with “woman laughing out loud, extreme laughter, hilarity, amusement”.

I think these images mostly speak for themselves.

But it’s great to see how much control we actually have over our character, isn’t it?

Let’s go one step further.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman laughing with open mouth, woman dying from laughter, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 183281587

This time I’ve used the expression “woman laughing with open mouth, woman dying from laughter”.

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Laughter
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Laughter

And once again, the nuance is clearly visible in this set of 4.

Not all of these facial expressions in Midjourney are easy to get right though.

Especially when there are different ways you might interpret them.

In this next example, I wanted to make Carla look ecstatic or euphoric.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, very excited woman, elated in excitement, ecstatic, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 1122679850

I used the expression “very excited woman, elated in excitement, ecstatic”.

And even though I’m more or less happy with the results, this may not be what everyone might have expected.

So let’s move on to the next one because there’s a lot more to come.

Let’s give Carla a flirty look.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman flirting with camera, extremely flirty woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 233671906

I used the expression “woman flirting with camera” and “extremely flirty woman”.

So in this example, you mostly see it in the position of the head, the eyes, and the very slight smile on her face.

Let’s move on to some more serious stuff.

I want Carla to have a stern and serious look on her face.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman with serious look on face, very stern woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 4023772690

I’ve used “woman with serious look on face, very stern woman”.

So even though I would have expected a bit more seriousness, her facial expression in Midjourney is very controlled and she’s clearly seizing something with her eyes.

Next, let’s create a pouty version of Carla.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman with pouty look on her face, woman with mopey facial expression, grouchy woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 917045636

This time I used “woman with pouty look on her face, woman with mopey facial expression grouchy woman”.

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Grouchiness
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Grouchiness

And sure enough, that’s exactly what got.

I personally think that “mopey” and “grouchy” did the trick.

We’re now going to move slowly toward some much stronger emotions.

Let’s start off with disgust and repulsion.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, disgusted woman, extreme repulsion, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2210534009

All I added was “disgusted woman, extreme repulsion”.

Personally, I was surprised at how well this one worked out, but I think it’s actually on point.

So how about anger and resentment?

Is that something Midjourney can give us as well?

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman full of anger and resentment, upset, frustration, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 1665788780

I replaced the expression with “woman full of anger and resentment, upset, frustration”.

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Rage
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Rage

And sure enough, that’s exactly what these images look like.

Carla isn’t quite yelling yet, but you can clearly see the resentment in her eyes.

Ok, I think you all know what’s coming next.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, very angry woman screaming her lungs out, pure anger, hate, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 519943377

I’ve used the very strong expression “very angry woman screaming her lungs out, pure anger, hate”.

As you can see, the images this produces are full of rage.

Now, after all that rage and anger, Carla has begun to feel a deep sadness inside of her.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, extremely depressed woman, deep sadness, full of sorrow, sad mood, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2737751562

This expression I use is “extremely depressed woman, deep sadness, full of sorrow, sad mood”.

And it’s quite obvious that this character has been through some traumatic events.

She isn’t crying, but we can do that too.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman crying with open mouth, in tears, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 4144037916

Simply change the expression to “woman crying with open mouth, in tears”.

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Crying
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 3 – Emotions: Crying

And this time, even though it’s difficult to identify the actual tears, it’s clear that she’s crying.

What bothers me about these images though, is that her eyes seem to have gone blank.

I’m not quite sure why that is.

Ok, almost done with the full range of emotions here.

Next up is fear.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman in fear, scared woman, shiver in fear, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 1804741927

I used “woman in fear, scared woman, shiver in fear”.

Now, to be honest, I’m not very happy with these.

The only one that more or less hits the mark is the bottom-left one.

I also can’t use the word “horror” because it has a tendency to make the character look like a zombie.

So here’s our last core emotion: Shock or Amazement

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, surprised woman, shock, amazement, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 2076010969

I used “surprised woman, shock, amazement”.

And while I think the expressions are pretty good, once again, I don’t know why Carla seems to be cross-eyed.

Anyway, so this covers the full range of emotions that you could reasonably want to use.

Of course, there will always be nuances, but this is the basic set of Midjourney facial expressions.

So does that mean that we’re done with this guide?

No, far from it.

I actually think that you’re going to particularly enjoy the remainder of the article.

You’ll be amazed at how far we can take this.

Creating More Lively Portraits

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 4
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 4

Alright, so let’s move on to some interesting stuff.

We’re now going to take what we’ve learned above and expand on it a bit by using multiprompts.

Just to be clear, the objective here is not to create a picture-perfect representation of our character.

Instead, I want to show you that this is not where it ends.

This is where the fun really starts.

So let’s create some more interesting portraits for 3 of the emotions I just showed you.

I’m going to start off with our example of a laughing Carla.

And we’re going to use a very simple multiprompt to do it.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman laughing with open mouth, woman dying from laughter, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: red-haired woman laughing with open mouth, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 965137294

As you can see, our prompt hasn’t fundamentally changed.

All I’ve is add a second segment that reads “red-haired woman laughing with open mouth, in the style of a Marvel comic book”.

And I’ve also added an aspect ratio of 2:3 for a more dramatic effect.

I think we can all agree that these have a really nice touch to them.

Let’s see what this looks like for anger.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, very angry woman screaming her lungs out, pure anger, hate, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: very angry red-haired woman screaming her lungs out, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 2056612293

Once again, I haven’t made many changes.

I’ve just used the original prompt and added a second segment that mirrors the core element of the Midjourney facial expression.

And what we get are images with a lot more creative vibe to them.

Let’s do one more.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/oupC3q5Dbiw https://s.mj.run/oZtD7WGPWtI https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/uLKHOYaGRnA https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw https://s.mj.run/7IsH6i4ueDw https://s.mj.run/971ZhqmFKAw portrait, woman crying with open mouth, in tears, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: woman crying with open mouth, in tears, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 2509021888

In this example, I even forgot to mention her hair color in the second segment.

And yet, these are obviously images of a deeply depressed woman.

So you might be wondering where I’m going with this.

Well, we’re going to need these images for the final part of this guide.

The grand finale.

Creating an Artistic Portrait

Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 5
Create Facial Expressions in Midjourney – Step 5

For this last step, I created a second character concept.

I started off by blending these 3 portraits together with my original core prompt.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/VluGWfFRI4I https://s.mj.run/3Ti5gL5f6WM https://s.mj.run/FkqaS9-lvTw frontal portrait on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, in the style of a Marvel comic book --seed 855566661

I’m trying to get a really clean frontal portrait of Carla.

From this set of 4, I’m going to keep the bottom-right one.

Next, I need a full-body shot of Carla as well.

glamour shot full body image on white background, beautiful woman, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book --ar 2:3 --seed 507822578

For this, I’m going to use the same prompt I used in Parts 3 and 4 of this series.

From these 4 images, I’ll use the bottom-right one.

And then I basically just replaced the head on the full body image with Carla’s portrait.

So why did I do this?

Well, I want to try to keep as much of her hairstyle as possible.

If I just the body shot as-is, then the images will always show Carla with long hair.

By replacing the head, I’m increasing the likelihood of getting a hairstyle with buns.

Let’s start with anger this time.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/QajNYY62Awc wide angle full body image on white background, very angry woman screaming her lungs out, pure anger, hate, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: extremely angry red-haired woman, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 3072093620

What I’ve done here is:

  • I’ve added the full body image reference
  • I’ve also used a wide angle full body shot
  • But the rest of the prompt is essentially the multiprompt we used earlier

So if you check out these images, these are typically referred to as a cowboy shot.

And they are already quite dynamic.

We even managed to inject some of the hairstyle from the reference image.

But here’s where the magic comes into play.

We’re now going to create a mash-up of one of these images and one of our creative headshots.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/lPH4kxSL5Ls https://s.mj.run/lSiHNn1TjCY wide angle full body image on white background, very angry woman screaming her lungs out, pure anger, hate, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: extremely angry red-haired woman, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 2137411640

We’ve only changed the reference images, not the text prompt.

Now check out these images.

I think it’s fair to say that these are on a whole nother level.

Let’s try doing this on some of the other examples.

We’ll start off by creating our cowboy shots for laughing Carla.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/QajNYY62Awc wide angle full body image on white background, woman laughing with open mouth, woman dying from laughter, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: red-haired woman laughing with open mouth, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 4190530719

Once again, the structure of the prompt is the same.

Only the Midjourney facial expressions are different.

From this set of 4 images, we’ll pick the top-left one.

From our portraits, we’ll use this one here.

And if we put it all together, then our prompt looks like this.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/5iNW741sfUA https://s.mj.run/oMUV_00VjgM wide angle full body image on white background, woman laughing with open mouth, woman dying from laughter, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: red-haired woman laughing with open mouth, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 193976891

And here’s our final set of images.

Quite an upgrade isn’t it?

Now, I’m not going to go through the entire process again.

But I do want to show you what I managed to get by putting these 2 images using the exact same steps.

/imagine
https://s.mj.run/3zDTQVnw5lo https://s.mj.run/-wuAHofyX3Q wide ngle full body image on white background, woman crying with open mouth, in tears, bright red braided bun hair, only red hair, wearing a leather jacket in gray color, wearing a white tank top under jacket, wearing beige pants on legs, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: woman crying with open mouth, in tears, in the style of a Marvel comic book:: --ar 2:3 --seed 1314576647

Quite shocking, isn’t it?

It just goes to show you that creating beautiful artwork in Midjourney isn’t as simple as entering a text prompt.

It’s not even as simple as combining an image prompt and a text prompt.

Or even applying multiprompts.

It’s a complex process of creating, adding, and re-using different ingredients to create a final piece.

Something that couldn’t have been done with a simple text prompt.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Before we close off this guide, let’s quickly address some of the most common questions related to facial expressions in Midjourney.

  • How do I control facial expressions in Midjourney?

    The best way to give your character a particular facial expression is to simply describe it in the text prompt. If you feel like the expression isn’t visible on your character’s face, then try using more “extreme” words or describe it in a different way.

  • What are common emotions and facial expressions in Midjourney?

    Anger, disgust, fear, sadness, embarrassment, contempt, happiness, pride, and surprise are all very common facial expressions that Midjourney is fully capable of integrating into your character.

Conclusion

This concludes Part 5 of this character design series and we hope you now have a better idea of how to use facial expressions in Midjourney.

In Part 6, we’re going to get a little more creative and start applying themes to our characters and scenes.

You won’t want to miss it.

Here at Tokenized, we want to help you learn as much as possible about the AI software industry. We help you navigate the world of tech and the digitalization of our society at large, including the tokenization of assets and services.

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