Newcomers to Midjourney have no idea how good they have it now.
That's not to say we weren't impressed by Midjourney V1. We were spellbound when V1 first came out.
It's just that the difference between Midjourney V1 (Feb 2022) and Midjourney V6 (Dec 2023) is night and day.
Let's take a walk through AI image generation history by comparing every single Midjourney version. We'll also give some context around what was happening with the product and community on every release.
Midjourney also has an anime model called Niji Journey.
There are only 2 versions out so far, Niji 4 and Niji 5, which were each released following their corresponding Midjourney version.
Niji V5 features multiple styles (a style is an alternate version of the same model that has been trained to produce a particular aesthetic). Here's what Niji's versions and styles look like:
Timeline of Midjourney Versions
Midjourney is an absolute juggernaut today with millions of Discord users. This wasn't always the case though. Let's start from the very beginning.
- Midjourney V1: Februrary 2022
Midjourney initial onboarding begins: Midjourney is released to a selected group of 500 users, who are allowed to invite another 500 users for a total of 1000 users. David Holz, Midjourney founder, asks users to share their images on social media. - Midjourney V2: April 12, 2022
Upscaling and Variation buttons are released along with the new model. With community feedback, the Midjourney team hones down on a concrete pricing plan (prior to this point users have been generating for free), and switches to a paid beta. From this point on the waitlist starts to grow. - Midjourney V3: July 25, 2022
Midjourney V3 is released along with the --stylize and --quality parameters. The Midjourney Discord grows to one million users, surpassing the Fortnite and Minecraft Discord servers. - Midjourney V4: November 5, 2022
Midjourney V4 brings an unprecedented level of quality, far beyond what any existing Stable Diffusion model can produce. Midjourney's continues to explode in growth through viral social media images. - Midjourney V5: March 15, 2023
Midjourney V5 continues the quality and versatility upgrades of the previous version.- Midjourney V5.1: May 3, 2023
- Midjourney V5.2: June 23, 2023
- Midjourney V6: December 21, 2023
After 9 months of development, Midjourney V6 is released. It brings outstanding improvements in image quality, and encourage simpler prompts. Prompt understanding is greatly improved.
Here's the timeline for Niji Journey, Midjourney's special anime model:
- Niji V4: December 21, 2023
Midjourney releases their anime model to very positive reception. The anime model is far ahead of alternatives at the time, which include the open source models NAI Diffusion, Anything V4, and Waifu Diffusion. - Niji V5 --style original: April 3, 2023
Midjourney releases the next version of Niji, setting a precendent for a corresponding Niji version every model release.- Niji V5 --style expressive: April 10, 2023 Midjourney team announces they will be
- Niji V5 --style cute: April 17, 2023
- Niji V5 --style scenic: April 24, 2023
- Niji V5 Default style: May 27, 2023
Comparison
Lets compare a character design using the same prompt and seed across all versions.
Prompt:
dungeons and dragons, female knight, of the rolling plains, full body, dark azure, victorian genre paintings, serene face, realistic depiction of light, golden light --seed 5
Midjourney V1
Midjourney V1 (Feb 2022) came out a long time before Stable Diffuion v1.4 (August 2022).
It looks wonky to us today, but at the time people were massively impressed by the cohesion and quality of these images.
Midjourney V2
The character has a more realistic form; the artifacts still create a "psychedelic", dreamlike quality.
Midjourney worked differently at this point: you produced low detail images in the initial grid, and when you Remastered them Midjourney will greatly improve the details and quality.
Midjourney V3
This model was a big step up: lighting and shadows are greatly improved, and it seemed like Midjourney could handle real illustration tasks for the first time.
Midjourney still has the Remaster feature at this point.
Midjourney V4
This model changed everything: at the time of release it was the highest quality model out there and could handle subject matter that other models couldn't, like logos and web design.
Midjourney V5
Continues the trend of V4: the sense of realism is improved, and Midjourney continues to focus on the things that make the image more aesthetic.
Midjourney V5.1
Pushed the aesthetics even further.
Midjourney V5.2
Pushed the aesthetics even farther. Character-wise, the designs are more cohesive while having better facial details.
Midjourney V6
This is not the fairest comparison because Midjourney V6 requires a new prompting style, but I love what's happening here. The generation is responding to parts of the prompt that were not apparent before like "genre painting" and "golden light".
Environment Comparison
Let's compare an environment now. We'll use an architectural prompt:
large interior by Kengo Kuma, Harmonious blend of natural elements and modern design, an eco-friendly structure, pools and falling water --seed 10293
Midjourney V1
Getting lots of interesting textures here without too much dimensionality.
Midjourney V2
I really like this one.
You get a sense of the space and it looks like a concept you would actually come across in the architectural design process.
This leads me to an interesting point: a newer shinier model might not necessarily be better and some of the most creative possibilities will come out of the older models.
Midjourney V3
You can see how Midjourney V3 is big step up in proper lighting and reflections, which matter a lot in making it look more realistic.
Midjourney V4
The first "realistic" model, where generations move from concepts to looking more like photographs and renders.
Like I've said, for this one I actually like the older versions. Even though this one is objectively "nicer" it's harder to get creative results.
Midjourney V5
Continues the trend of V4: the sense of realism is improved, and Midjourney continues to focus on the things that make the image more aesthetic.
Midjourney V5.1
Pushed the aesthetics even further. Just look at that water!
Midjourney V5.2
Pushed the aesthetics even farther. Water reflections continue to improve, and and handle more details than before, as evidenced in the trees.
Midjourney V6
I'm enjoying this version a lot. Previous versions produced what look like architectural renderings, but this one looks like it's coming from a AAA game.
Img2img Comparison
One of the bigger changes has also been Midjourney's image-to-image generation capabilities.
Below is the image that we'll use to generate new images, and the prompt.
vintage photo, girl smoking cigarette, irina nordsol kuzmina, a hazy memory, pixiv --ar 2:3
Midjourney V1
In line with what we see from V1, Midjourney pieces together concepts without much cohesion.
Midjourney V2
These results are truly horrifying. Notice the switch from black and white photos to the sepia and retro tones.
Midjourney V3
Starting to improve but still deep in uncanny valley. I'd say Midjourney V3 mastered this look.
Midjourney V4
With the big step that is V4, I think the most interesting part of about this one is how it weighs the "vintage"word stronger than the other models do. Word strength is actually something you can analyze now.
Midjourney V5
Even though the quality of these is slightly better, prefer the look of V4 more here.
Midjourney V5.1
New aesthetic system. You can see the model is more opinionated, and the results are less varied.
Midjourney V5.2
Pushed the aesthetics even farther. One of the changes announced was a high variation mode.
Midjourney V6
Both coherence to the original image and quality are greatly improved.
And that's the history of Midjourney, summarized in a few comparisons!
I'll sound old when I say this, but young children growing up now will think that this was always the norm... and we'll say no well these images are actually incredible!
Which is your favorite version of Midjourney? Let me know in the comments below!
