Dearest Rachel –
I was really hoping that by now, I could go into great detail about how this new AI program, combined with a checkpoint based on terabytes of information (that even allows one to display readable text) was helping me create a much better and more accurate version of you. Well, I say “great detail,” but I wouldn’t want to bore you with too many details, necessarily – just enough to show you how it’s done (although, bearing in mind that this was your minor in college, this shouldn’t be as dull to you as to most of your peers. Then again, it’s not as if you made a living for yourself in front of the computer, so I don’t know how you’d really react to it all). And I really thought that, by early this week, I’d have it up and running, and working like a charm. But it turns out that the new structure that I have conflicts with a version of the same program that I installed barely a month ago. As a result, I’ve had to tear out the old version, and start completely from scratch, and I’m still working on that.
It probably doesn’t help that I’m constantly distracted – if you can call it that – by what passes for my workday tasks, so I’m not working on this AI stuff all the time. Artificial intelligence is a hobby for me, and there are certain duties and responsibilities that come first, much as I might like to think otherwise. So I have to walk away from the work on a regular basis and come back to it later; in the meantime, there have been so many new developments that I need to catch up on, even in the span of mere weeks.
Such is the case with this brand new all-in-one workflow setup that has been designed for use within a program called ComfyUI. Which, I might point out, is somewhat misnamed; in comparison to Automatic1111, which I’ve been using for over a year now, it’s not particularly ‘comfortable’ to use at all, and apparently I’m not the only one to think so. However, this new ‘Flux’ checkpoint base requires the power of ComfyUI in order to run adequately; and as such, I’ve got to learn how to use it going forward. In some respects, it’s simply a matter of getting used to the ‘operating system,’ if you will; much of its workflow includes many of the same steps as in the program I’ve been using, just in different places on the screen. So I think I’ll be able to get used to it in short order.
But first, I need to be able to get it installed on my computer, and that’s turning out to be a much more difficult task than I thought it was going to be. Especially since this new, comprehensive layout doesn’t build on top of what I’ve already set up this past month. After running the set up program that downloaded everything I need, I got the layout I was told I could expect, except…
Ironically, the guy who designed it (and yes, I finally broke down and became a patron of his) warned us viewers that there would be a series of errors upon first installing and opening the program; this was because it needed a dozen or so custom modules to run properly, which could only be installed within the program itself once it was open. And I followed those instructions as he laid them out, only to keep getting this error message, and discovering one module that simply would not install, no matter how many times I tried to download it.
Eventually, I realized that I was building on a version of ComfyUI that I already had, and decided that it might be preventing me from putting in this new add-on and picking up from where I left off. As much as I hated to have to do it, I salvaged what few models and outputs I’d already generated (on a test basis; this is all before training a LoRA using your photos in this Flux checkpoint, which is what I really wanted to go on about) and deleted the entire program as I already had on my system, so I could start afresh.
Lo and behold, that seems to have worked, although it was so late in the day that I didn’t get a chance to test out your LoRA and see if it worked. If nothing else, I still need to get the hang of this new program yet, so it might be a day or two before I know enough of what I’m doing to be able to relate it to you.
I did decide to try the same thing on the system here at home, but it’s been a bit slower going. At first, I thought I could just create a new location on the hard drive to install this separate version of ComfyUI. But after several hours of downloading (I don’t know if it’s my system or the internet that’s slower here at home), the new folder was still basically empty; whatever was being downloaded was being attached to the old version I already had. I would have to tear it out of here too and start afresh, just like at the ‘office.’
This feels analogous to my situation with trying to find ‘Megumi,’ honey. I wasted a lot of time thinking I could build on top of an existing structure, only to discover that wasn’t going to work; the add-ins involved literally wouldn’t download or install. I nearly wrecked a friendship because of this, too. As much as it worked for us, romance is different from friendship, I guess, and trying to build one on top of the other isn’t always going to work. Sometimes, you just have to start from scratch.
I doubt I’ll have the time or inclination to do much over the weekend on this, but at least it’s ready to work, no matter where I am. So for now, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. Despite having gotten this far, I’m still gonna need it.
Letters to Rachel 