Maze of the Week #71 - Old Stone Butter Church Maze

Maze of the Week #71 is of the Old Stone Butter Church on Comiaken Hill on the southern portion of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is on private land (Cowichan Tribe), so if you would like to visit you need to get permission. If you do you will find a wonderful structure in equally impressive surroundings. Built in 1870, but abandoned just 10 years later, the structure is still going strong.

Photo: I suggest you click through a large collection of photo content from Toad Hollow Photography.

The Maze: I went with black and white…and then decided to go full color. I think that was the right decision although both look good IMO.

Old Stone Butter Church Maze

And here is the full color preferred version:

I hope you enjoy the maze. If you want to solve it - a maze download is available.

Coming next month: More religious buildings

A temple maze - Bagan Temple

A church maze - Old Stone Butter Church (this maze)

A mosque maze

A church maze

A church maze

Can AI Generate Mazes? We Tested 12 AI Art Generators to Find Out

Welcome to the 14th in a series of posts where I will test AI image generators and see how they handle making maze art. I have asked the same 10 prompts from 12 different websites. Today we compare the best from each prompt and see who does AI text to maze image the best. If you need to catch-up here is the series so far:

An exploration into Al Image Maze Generation

Making mazes with AI: DallE2

Making mazes with AI: Stable Diffusion

Making mazes with AI: Craiyon

Making mazes with AI: Dream by Wombo

Making mazes with AI: Nightcafe

Making mazes with AI: StarryAI

Making mazes with AI: DeepAI

Making mazes with AI: Canva

Making mazes with AI: AI Image Generator

Making mazes with AI: ToolBaz

Making mazes with AI: Photosonic

Making mazes with AI: Bing AI Maze Generator

Making Maze Art with AI

Welcome to the finals of my maze making AI challenge. For the finals I will pick the 4 best images from the 12 sites. It is subjective, but there are a few that we could all agree do not make the cut. I will pick 4 finalists, then rank them. At the end I will rank all the sites based on how they did. You can do your own ranking if you would like.

Prompt 1 - Make a medium difficulty maze of the Eiffel Tower in black and white with arrows at the start and finish.

The finalists are Stable Diffusion; StarryAI; Photosonic, and Bing AI. I should say that all of the generations were good for this prompt. My rank 1 - StarryAI wins for having the needle included and a maze and the cool viewpoint. 2 - Bing AI a strong second with the interesting maze, 3 - Stable Diffusion, 4 - Photosonic.

Prompt 2 - Draw a medium difficulty large maze of the Empire State Building with the start and goal embedded in the structure

There was a real struggle showing the needle of the building in these generations. Also, including a maze seemed to be difficult for the AI. Our finalists are StarryAI, Nightcafe, Stable Diffusion, and BingAI. My order 1 - Stable Diffusion (because it has the needle and the maze), 2 Bing AI - very cool concept ! 3 - StarryAI because at least it looks mazelike in black and white, and 4 - Nightcafe.

Prompt 3 - Draw a difficult maze of the White House pixel art style

Most AI could do pixel style and my finalists did it best. If I had said make a grid instead of a maze these would be much better. My finalists are Photosonic, Stable Diffusion, Dream by Wombo and Canva. I order them 1 - Stable Diffusion, 2 - Photosonic, and 3 - Dream by Wombo who almost got the building right and correctly included the flag…but that yard ! 4 - Canva who did a 3/4 of a great white house but forgot the maze.

Prompt 4 - Draw a difficult maze that looks like a drawing of a famous building in sketch style

4 different looking finalists. Canva, Nightcafe, Stable Diffusion and StarryAI made the grade. I want to give a special shoutout to StarryAI who had 4 different outputs that were all very interesting. As far as the other AI generators they typically made a simple maze, some with doors to signify a building. Not very good. My order is 1 - Nightcafe for the great fantasy looking castle in color, 2 - Stable Diffusion, because it has a maze in front of a column building and 3 - Canva, cool building in black and white that looks kind of famous. 4- StarryAI - love it, but doesn’t look like any famous building I have ever seen.

Prompt 5 - Draw a maze in the style of doyoumaze.com of a skyscraper in NYC

None of these used my style (that is good news for me !). Finalists are Dream by Wombo, StarryAI DeepAI, Stable Diffusion. I think the first 2 are very close…I think I will make the order as it is shown.

Prompt 6 - Draw a maze in the style of Sean C Jackson of a scene from a large outdoor market

I want to say that the output of this prompt was varied and interesting. I went with a more famous maze artist to test if the AI would get it (they generally did not). Finalists are Canva, Dream by Wombo, Nightcafe and Bing AI. Because it was closest to what I asked for 1 - Bing AI 2 - Canva, then 3 - Nightcafe because it includes mazes and is situated at the correct SCJ angle. 4 - Dream by Wombo - nice market…no maze.

Prompt 7 - Make a maze of a slice of an orange in color

This prompt was poorly written by me I guess. Lots of garbage output IMO. Our finalists are ToolBaz, Dall-E, Nightcafe and Bing AI. These made the cut because they include mazes and oranges. I do not feel strongly about the order after Bing AI…how about ToolBaz, Dall-E, Nightcafe ?

Prompt 8 - Make a maze integrated on top of a photograph of a king sitting on his throne looking cantankerous beside his beautiful queen

Using the term photo made this interesting. I also got a lot of horror blurred faces generated. Overall I was not impressed with these results. StarryAI, Dream by Wombo,Dall-E and Bing AI are our finalists. 1 - StarryAI because he looks like a deformed James Bond character, 2 - Dream by Wombo because the king looks like the most interesting man in the world, 3 - Bing AI for that king and 4 - Dall-E for including the queen as instructed.

Prompt 9 - Make a solvable maze that is very large and very difficult to solve because it is so complex

This was interesting from an output perspective. If an AI could shine with making makes this is where it would have come out. I wanted to see a large maze generated and a few actually delivered. We have Canva, Nightcafe and StarryAI, Dream by Wombo. For me 1 - Nightcafe - this fantasy labyrinth around a castle would have been a great output for #4 above (which Nightcafe won anyway !), 2 - StarryAI - if you could read the labels this would be better, but the maze is doable, and 3 - Canva because it looks like a complicated maze, but if you really attempt it…uh not so much. 4 - Dream by Wombo - just a solid 3D maze.

Prompt 10 - Make a 3d render of a red and blue glossy cube maze

This was a prompt that many AI generators exceled at creating interesting images for. For most I generated 4 images and had trouble picking the best among them..so I bent the rules here and picked a top 5. StarryAI, Nightcafe, ToolBaz, Canva, and Dall-E from top to bottom left to right. Ranking is tough, but I’ll go 1 - Dall-E for so many nice options, 2 - ToolBaz - it’s a small maze but make it bigger and I want to solve it, 3 - Canva - a crisper version of 4 - StarryAI, and 5 - Nightcafe.

That does it. Let’s tabulate our results and see how everyone did. I will go with a 4,3,2,1 scoring system, with half points for 5th place on the last prompt…time to make a spreadsheet. And here it is:

Congratulations to StarryAI, Bing AI, Nightcafe and Stable Diffusion with the highest scores. This fits with what I found. And it seems like we have 3 sections in the results: The 4 best AI generators, the 4 middle class, and the 4 poor performers. I would say these findings are only for making maze art. Each generator can do wonderful things with the right prompt.

To remind you about the top 4:

StarryAI : You must sign in to use the site and you receive 5 credits per day for free. Each generation will generate 4 images and cost a credit (If you want 8 variations that will cost 3 credits). There are 6 styles to choose from, no style, Fantasy, Portrait, 3D Art, Wooltize and Anime. You may also upload a photo to give the AI “something to start with”.

Bing AI Image Generator: Sign in using your Microsoft account. Using the site is free to create images. Powered by DallE, but when I used it seemed to do a better job than DallE did with the prompts (I do not know why).

Nightcafe : You get 5 free daily credits to create with. Each prompt, or generation will generate only 1 image. It features 4 different style algorithms to use.

Stable Diffusion : You can try the site without signing in. Each prompt, or generation will generate 4 image options. There appears to be no limit to use for free.

I would also mention that 5th place Dream by Wombo only generates 1 image at a time vs. most other sites generating 4. I thought it was consistently strong despite being at a disadvantage. How did you score the sites?

The final blog post in the series is next:

What I learned using AI to make maze art

Making mazes with AI: Bing AI Image Generator

Welcome to the 13th in a series of posts where I will test AI image generators and see how they handle making maze art. I will be asking 10 prompts and seeing what gets generated. My goal is to evaluate different AI image sites against each other to see how they perform. In my first post I discussed the project, and today we start with the first site evaluation: Bing AI Image Generator which is powered by DallE. Here is the series so far:

An exploration into Al Image Maze Generation

Making mazes with AI: DallE2

Making mazes with AI: Stable Diffusion

Making mazes with AI: Craiyon

Making mazes with AI: Dream by Wombo

Making mazes with AI: Nightcafe

Making mazes with AI: StarryAI

Making mazes with AI: DeepAI

Making mazes with AI: Canva

Making mazes with AI: AI Image Generator

Making mazes with AI: ToolBaz

Making mazes with AI: Photosonic

Making Maze Art with BING AI Image generator

You can access the website here. You must sign in to your Microsoft account. As of this post there is no limit to the number of prompts you can ask for, and it is free to use. Each prompt, or generation from will generate 4 image options. For this exercise I chose the one closest to what I had asked for, or the most interesting.

Prompt 1 - Make a medium difficulty maze of the Eiffel Tower in black and white with arrows at the start and finish

I see the Eiffel Tower. This is a really cool interpretation for a maze. The other options were more traditional, but this one is so interesting ! I even see an arrow of some sort at the top above the tower.

Prompt 2 - Draw a medium difficulty large maze of the Empire State Building with the start and goal embedded in the structure

Wow. Such an interesting take on a maze of the ESB. All 4 options were good.

Prompt 3 - Draw a difficult maze of the White House pixel art style

It is pixel art style. It has a white house in the center of the image but not really the White House.

Prompt 4 - Draw a difficult maze that looks like a drawing of a famous building in sketch style

This IS a sketch of a building maze, just not a famous building. Still I like how it came out !

Prompt 5 - Draw a maze in the style of doyoumaze.com of a skyscraper in NYC

None of the 4 was in my style (in fact each had a different style to it), but this is the closest. Could easily be for the Empire State Building prompt above.

Prompt 6 - Draw a maze in the style of Sean C Jackson of a scene from a large outdoor market

This is really good. The style is a bit off but it captured what was asked for better than anything.

Prompt 7 - Make a maze of a slice of an orange in color

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I think this is it !

Prompt 8 - Make a maze integrated on top of a photograph of a king sitting on his throne looking cantankerous beside his beautiful queen

Weird. Be specific in what you are asking for !

Prompt 9 - Make a solvable maze that is very large and very difficult to solve because it is so complex

I like the idea of this guy lost in a maze where he is so tall he should be able to see his way out ? Am I wrong about this ?

Prompt 10 - Make a 3d render of a red and blue glossy cube maze

4 shown because all were interesting and none was better than another. None are a maze. Glossy or Shiny ?

How did Bing AI Image Generator do ? I think it had a strong showing. I expect it do do well against the other AI’s. It showed it can use a variety of styles and never got tripped up completely with any of the prompts. I will use this again for sure !

Coming next: Comparison of the 12 AI generating websites

Twisty Little Paths: Creating New Types of Experimental Mazes

I spent an entire month making Experimental Mazes were I came up with 11 different types of mazes. Each type had at least one daily maze posted on the site and some of these experiments had up to 5 different versions. Today I want to pull each of these new maze creations together and review them, see how I did, what worked and get some feedback from you.

Part 1 - Perspective Arrow Maze

This idea is pretty simple: Arrow Maze + a change in perspective. I did 5 different versions and below is my favorite example. A typical Arrow Maze is flat and I thought adding some perspective would be interesting. I enjoyed making this and getting the maze aligned as I made it in sections.

Perspective Arrow Maze

Part 2 - Multi Arrow Maze

This idea is connected Arrow Mazes. Day 1 is Arrow Maze 1 you solve normally. Day 2 adds Maze 2 (the upper left corner). The solver starts in the same place, but tries to reach the Day 2 Goal in Maze 2. This continues each day. Day 3 adds Maze 3 and a new GOAL. By day 5 you have 5 Arrow Mazes combined into one. Can you solve each maze in order ? Good Luck. To clarify, landing on a corner of the center arrow maze opens up the new maze section to you.

Multi Arrow Maze

Part 3 - Color Grid and Grid Maze Combo

Another combination maze, this one featuring a color grid maze and a grid maze. Since the Color Grid is already “gridded” this made it easy to create a 2-in-1 maze. Solve the 2 mazes in any order. In this case the start and goal is the same for each maze type.

Color Grid and Grid Maze Combo

Part 4 - Folded Grid Maze

A Grid Maze that has the appearance of being a folded piece of paper based on changing the perspectives on a few sections. I did 2 versions. Easy to make. Looks more interesting than a regular grid maze, but is nothing earth shattering.

Folded Grid Maze

Part 5 - Layered Grid Maze

A Grid Maze that uses multiple layers to give the maze a more interesting look. Honestly, this is not very experimental in hindsight. It looks marginally more interesting, but at the end of the day is still just a grid maze.

Layered Grid Maze

Part 6 - Arrow and Grid Maze Combo

Another 2-in-1 maze experiment. This one combines the Arrow and Grid Mazes. I made it to be solved Arrow Maze first, then Grid Maze after, returning to the original start, but you can technically solve in either order. I like the idea of the start of one is the goal of the other. I did 4 different mazes of this type.

Arrow Maze Grid Maze Combo

Part 7 - The Sectional Maze

A Sectional Maze uses lightly connected sections and weaving pathways to travel throughout the maze. Nothing too crazy, but a new type of maze for me. Maybe the newest portion is the one way pathways between sections. I feel like this is a small version of something much larger and more interesting.

Sectional Maze

Part 8 - Standard Perspective Maze

A standard maze where I have played with the perspective. I think this is the least appealing maze I made playing with perspective. Boring in this example and possibly boring in most examples. When I originally thought of it I was thinking it would look like a folded piece of paper. This particular example is also a Kids maze.

Standard Perspective Maze

Part 9 - Stacked Grid Maze

A Grid Maze (blue) inside a grid maze (black). Day 1 included only the black walls, while Day 2 uses both black and blue to create the walls. I stopped after 2 days as the solution stays generally the same on day 2 in this version.

Stacked Grid Maze

Part 10 - Pipes and Arrow Maze Combo

Another 2-in-1 maze that combines Pipe Mazes and Arrow Mazes. These can be solved in any order. I looks a bit odd but these are 2 of my favorite maze types. I will say as a designer this maze type takes a long time to make. If I could make this faster I would make more.

Pipes and Arrow Maze Combo

Part 11 - Stacked Standard Maze

5 Mazes in 1. Each Day for 5 days I added a new layer to solve. Each smaller arrow adds a new layer of walls to impede you. So the maze starts with black walls only. The next maze on day 2 uses black and grey walls. Then + Blue, + Red, and finally + Green. I thought this was a fun idea. But the actual execution is tough on the eyes and not as enjoyable to solve as I thought. I wonder if wider spacing for all maze pathways would improve it.

Stacked standard maze

The odd sizes mean I did not make these mazes into a traditional free downloadable book, but I did gather them into a 31 page booklet. It is not recommended for printing. The download is 392Kb and is best used on screen.

Are there some mazes you like that should be continued and explored ? Send me a request.