Work
Symphony — AI Image Generation Studio
What Is Symphony?
Symphony is an AI image generation tool that thinks before it paints. A two-stage "Brain and Brush" pipeline where a vision-language model interprets and enriches your idea into a detailed, cinematic prompt before any image is rendered. You stay in control. The AI is your first AD — not your director.
Tagline: Get Symphonic. Stop prompting into the void. Start directing.
Status: Working prototype, live on web.
The Core Idea
Most image generators treat your prompt like a search query: type, hope, repeat. Symphony is different. Before a single pixel renders, The Brain reads your intent, enriches it with lighting, atmosphere, focal length, color grading, and cinematic detail — then hands you the expanded prompt to read, edit, or rewrite before anything generates. You always know exactly what's going into the image. You always have control.
Two-Stage Pipeline
Stage 1 — The Brain
- Model: Llama 3.2 Vision via Ollama
- Takes your simple intent and expands it into a rich, cinematic prompt
- Enrichment includes: focal length, color grading, depth of field, mood, atmosphere, lighting
- The expanded prompt appears in a "Poetic Enhancement" panel before generation — you can read it, edit it, or reject it entirely
Stage 2 — The Brush
- Model: FLUX.1-schnell by Black Forest Labs
- Four inference steps for fast, high-fidelity output
- Generation time: 15–45 seconds depending on hardware
Key Features
The Director's Chair
Iterative creative control with cinematographic presets:
- Go Wide — 14mm wide-angle, reveal the environment
- Close Up — macro, shallow depth of field, facial detail
- Dutch Angle — 15-degree tilt, cinematic tension
- Golden Hour — warm amber tones, long dramatic shadows
- Noir Light — high-contrast shadows, stark highlights
- Bird's Eye — overhead, straight down
Plus seed locking for visual continuity, an image strength slider from subtle refinement to full remix, and full iterative stacking.
Representation — Built Into the Architecture
Not bolted on. Built in from the foundation.
Diversity Mode — When enabled, any people in the scene are rendered with balanced ethnic representation: 25% East Asian, 25% Black/African, 25% Latin/Hispanic, 25% White/European. One toggle.
Noir Mode — All people are rendered as Black/African descent, with skin tone, features, and styling reflected naturally and respectfully. A deliberate creative tool for artists and storytellers centering Black narratives.
Both modes are mutually exclusive and tagged on every generated image so creative choices are always visible and legible.
Session Management
Every generation lives in a named session with full image history, favorites, and metadata. Public and private modes. Your creative work persists.
Tech Stack
- Brain: Llama 3.2 Vision (Ollama)
- Brush: FLUX.1-schnell (PyTorch, Black Forest Labs)
- Interface: Flask web server, browser-based UI
- Local: Apple Silicon Mac via MLX
- Cloud: Fal.ai or Railway for hosted deployment
- Storage: SQLite for image history and metadata
Deployment Options
- Local (Apple Silicon): Run entirely on your Mac via automated setup script
- Cloud GPU: AWS, GCP, RunPod, or similar
- Cloud API: Lightweight Flask server + Replicate/Fal.ai for generation — pay per image, no 24/7 server cost
Why Symphony Exists
Mario Moorhead built Symphony because he watched people sit down at creative tools and feel like the tool was designed for someone else — wrong defaults, wrong representation, wrong assumptions about intent. Symphony was built for creators who are tired of prompting into the void.
"The gap between what you imagined and what appears on screen is where the magic should happen — not the frustration."
Common questions
What is Symphony? Symphony is Blacksky's AI image generation studio. It uses a two-stage pipeline — a language model that enriches your idea first, then a diffusion model that renders it. You see and control the enriched prompt before anything generates.
How is it different from Midjourney or DALL-E? Transparency and control. Most tools take your prompt and generate — you have no idea what the AI interpreted. Symphony shows you the enriched prompt before rendering and lets you edit it. You're the director, not just a user hoping the AI guesses right.
What is Diversity Mode and Noir Mode? Diversity Mode renders any people in the scene with balanced ethnic representation across four groups. Noir Mode renders all people as Black/African descent — a deliberate tool for creators centering Black narratives. Both are built into the architecture, not added as filters.
Is Symphony available now? Yes, as a working prototype. Contact mario@blackskymedia.org for access or a demo.
What hardware does it need? It runs locally on Apple Silicon (M-series Mac) or in the cloud via Fal.ai or a GPU host. The cloud API option is the most accessible for most users.
What happened to the name Poet? Same product — the name is Symphony.