Buckle up

Hive we about to go to the strange dimension. I'm not gonna say this will make sense if you read the previous parts first, but it will make more sense LOL

Previously on the Fleshmelt Project

Part 1: Fleshy Red Mother & the PhotoBash
Part 2: Disparate influences

Mawr Red Flesh

After assimilating my Fungus Forest art & kelp photography into the growing mass of fleshy art, I layered the AI generated kelp style layer back over the last generation (6th generation) of the fleshy red photobash. I used a soft light blend mode so the shapes are still mostly that of the fleshy red photobash mutation, but the kelp tentacles layered over gives it a more 3d feel.

Kelp Style x 6th Gen Redflesh

7th Gen Redflesh

I used the above Kelp X 6th Gen Redflesh as the base image for another AI style transfer run, using the original fleshy red mother (see Pt.1) as the style image. This is the 7th AI style transfer generation using the fleshy red mother as style image. Raw DeepStyle output:

I painted on top of the above in PhotoShop to bring out some shapes I wanted to emphasize, and played around with the contrasts resulting in this:

8th Gen Redflesh

I used the above image painted on top of the 7th gen redflesh as a new base image for the 8th generation of AI style transfer using the original fleshy red mother as style image. Raw AI DeepStyle output:

Queen of the Demonweb Pits

Next I wanted to bring in one of my favorite previous photography / AI style transfer art pieces as the style image in an AI style transfer run using the above 8th gen redflesh as the base image.
Here is the Queen of the Demonweb Pits style image - this started life as photography of the rootball of my first legal marijuana grow (Girl Scout Cookies strain) and I heavily mutated it through many generations of style transfer in a separate project.

Raw AI DeepStyle output using the 8th Gen Redflesh as base image X Queen of the Demonweb Pits as style image:

For now let's set aside that result (later on in the project I create some animated elements from the above but that is a ways down the road still).

Even Mawr Red Flesh

I painted on top of the 8th Gen Redflesh result and used that as the base image for a 9th generation of style transfer using the original fleshy red mother as style image (here is the raw DeepStyle output):

Skull Fetus

After the 9th generation of AI style transfer mutation of the original photobash using the fleshy red mother as style image, I decided to start pushing the project in new directions. Painting on top of the 9th gen redflesh result in PhotoShop I roughed out a skull and embryo scene. The fetus is a real human fetus photo from Wiki Commons licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic so attributing it to the original photograph as such and I am releasing the images in this series that feature the fetus under the same license.

Skull & Fetus Quick Paint on top of 9th Gen Redflesh:

1st Gen Redflesh Skull Embryo

I used the above Skull Embryo painting as base image in AI style transfer, still using the original fleshy red mother as style image. DeepStyle output with fetus layered back on top:

Mawr Skull Fetus

I played around with this for several generations of painting on top of style transfer result, then running another generation of style transfer using the fleshy red mother as style image. I ended up making the skull more toothsome :) Some steps along the way:

I pushed this direction until I finally arrived at the post cover image I shared way back there at the beginning of the post :)

Stay Weird Hive

Until next time - when I start pushing this project in another new direction with a quick paint on top of the skull fetus. We're just getting started :)