The Art of Mazes: A Collection of AI Created Mazes and Labyrinths - Part 2

May 23, 2023

In Part 1 of this series I exclusively used StarryAI to create over 30 maze and labyrinth images. Today, in Part 2 I will use 5 other AI text to image generators to create a variety of interesting images of mazes and labyrinths.

For all images I include the Al text to image generator I used and prompt that I used. I hope you enjoy the creations and they inspire your own creations!

AI Image Generator - A labyrinth designed by Piet Mondrian in his traditional bright red bright yellow and bright blue colors

Not quite what I was looking for, but I like the way it came out anyway.

Craiyon - Fantasy labyrinth by MC Escher

A tried and true prompt I like to use for labyrinths, MC Escher. Not what I expected but nice to look at anyway.

Craiyon - A maze made of pipes

I love pipe mazes. I love to make them and have considered making a full book of 100 of them for Amazon. Maybe someday. Until then I get to create them here. Interesting that the pipes are green.

Craiyon - A maze made of numbers and letters from many different alphabets

The output looks like letters from an Asian alphabet or two, possibly Korean...maybe a speaker of Korean sees something interesting here ? Either way, htis concept of making walls out of letters is one that could be cool. Also a hidden message maze would be cool.

Dream by Wombo - a maze inside a maze inside a maze spectral style

I wonder about the building or tent (what is it?) in the background. What could be in there that needs just a large labyrinth to protect it ?

Dream by Wombo - a maze inside a maze inside a maze steampunk style

When you find a prompt that works, tweak it a bit and keep going. I wanted this to be more steam-punky if that makes sense to you and less like a painting. I think with some work this prompt could be epic.

Dream by Wombo - a maze inside a maze inside a maze surreal style

3 in a row and the best of the 3. That labyrinth goes on for miles and miles into the landscape.

Dream by Wombo - middle ages labyrinth in a city

At first I thought there were 3 labyrinths but this is designed as 1. This is on the outskirts of the city in the background on the right. Imagine this as the main plaza in a city.

StableDiffusion - a fantasy maze at sunset overlooking the horizon

This looks like it might be a real hedge maze but placed near a wat in Asia. I think this could be made into something great with some adjustments !

StableDiffusion - A maze in the city of Gotham, highly detailed

If this was an actual maze with that amount of detail it would be epic. As much as I want to take this and make it myself, this looks like something that would take a significant amount of time.

StableDiffusion - Pablo Picasso hedge maze

Full disclosure I have tried this prompt many times with many sites and they usually lead to disappointment. This is the best output.

ToolBaz - a large labyrinth in a valley carved into the stone with a tower in the center, fantasy painting style

I just like it. It looks like a stone maze covered in some moss. possibly with some trees spread around throughout.

ToolBaz - a large room with a maze on the ceiling

If I ever open a maze museum I want this to be the ceiling.

ToolBaz - assorted prompts, see descriptions.

ToolBaz has some suggestions based on the prompts you write and these are a few that came up based on mine, made by them, all excellent. This is one of the great features of the site.

ToolBaz - assorted prompts, see descriptions.

I hope you enjoyed this exploration using AI to create maze and labyrinth images. Happy mazing !

Maze of the Week #73 - Hallgrímskirkja Church Maze

May 22, 2023

Maze of the Week #73 continues our run of religious building mazes with the Hallgrímskirkja Church, a Lutheran church located in Reykjavík, Iceland. It is the tallest church in Iceland and was completed in 1986. You can read about the church on Wikipedia or plan a visit on the church website. Or just watch this video to see everything:

Photo: from flickr, Bex Walton

The Maze: Because of the unique shape of the building I was compelled to add shadows to the maze. Any picture with light seems to have some sort of shadow present so I went for it.

Hallgrímskirkja Church Maze in color — Hallgrímskirkja Church Maze - in color

I hope you enjoy the maze. Maze download is available

Month Review: One last religious building

A temple maze - Bagan Temple

A church maze - Old Stone Butter Church

A mosque maze - KAFD Grand Mosque

A church maze - Hallgrímskirkja Church (this maze)

A church maze

The Art of Mazes: A Collection of AI-Created Mazes and Labyrinths

May 20, 2023

I spent an entire month creating and reviewing AI text to image generators. You can read the 15 part series here (link is to Part 1 of the 15) where I look at 12 different AI’s and see how they do generating the same prompts. I learned which sites I liked the most and after playing around I learned how to write better prompts. While sites cannot actually make solvable mazes (yet), they can make wonderful looking scenes and objects with maze and labyrinth themes. Today I am going to share with you the 15 different prompts and 31 total images that I created using StarryAI. In Part 2 I will use other AI text to image generators to create images.

For all images I include the prompt that I used. These prompts are shown in order and you can see how I got better with my asks as I went along !

StarryAI - A 3D hedge maze shown from above in the garden

The hedges are a bit too perfect. Imagine a gardener being that good and nature cooperating with perfect consistent green throughout the plants. I like the building in the background. Notice the maze is not actually a passable maze.

StarryAI - Hedge maze in the style of MC Escher

I find that even if a prompt is not followed well it can still produce interesting outputs. This is an example of that. Not really hedge or MC Escher IMO. I like the mazelike structure moving off into the distance.

StarryAI - MC Escher Fantasy Labyrinth

I find that long and detailed prompts work well, but sometimes so do short ones where the AI fills in it’s own blanks and uses it’s own creativity. This looks much more like MC Escher than the prompt above!

StarryAI - Labyrinth, Concept Art

And here I went ultra-simple prompt and got 4 interesting outputs. These are not places I would want to go into without a map and a guide.

StarryAI - Labyrinth, Concept Art

StarryAI - Comic Book maze

What this looks like to me, despite the prompt given is a maze of cubicles on the floor of an endless office building. For those of you who sit an a cubicle this is some clown level horror. No thanks.

StarryAI - Office Cubicles make a maze

And 2 minutes later I wanted to see what would happen if I put that prompt in…not perfect but so terrifying.

StarryAI - A Labyrinth in the City of Metropolis

Again, not really what I asked for, but cool looking anyway. If you are flexible with what is generated you get some really interesting images like this one !

StarryAI - A Labyrinth in the City of Gotham

You can see how my mind works base on the prompts. I was looking for a dark moody feel using Gotham. I had to include all 4 because i liked them so much !

StarryAI - A Labyrinth in the City of Gotham

StarryAI - A Labyrinth, Dan Mumford style

I went simple here and did not note anything particular. Once again less was more with 4 nice images generated !

StarryAI - A Labyrinth, Dan Mumford style

StarryAI - A battle between evil demons in hell taking place in a maze, Fantasy Art, Hyper detailed.

Just what I was looking for. Not a place you want to be.

StarryAI - A battle between evil demons in hell taking place in a maze, Fantasy Art, Hyper detailed.

StarryAI - A Medieval Labyrinth, Johan Grenier style

The second one what what I expected, but the first, the circular one shown from above it very interesting. Let’s say you are in a movie and you come upon this hole in the forest with labyrinth pathways leading down into the darkness. I think we have the start of a fantasy/adventure quest or maybe a horror movie on our hands.

StarryAI - A Medieval Labyrinth, Johan Grenier style

StarryAI - A Labyrinth in ancient Japan, Victo Ngai style

Perfect styling a colors IMO.

StarryAI - A Labyrinth constructed from natural materials

3 of the 4 generations were interesting to me.

StarryAI - A Labyrinth constructed from natural materials

StarryAI - MC Escher Labyrinth in 3D on another planet

I went back to MCE to see what I could finagle from the AI. And this one the one I like the best. It makes me want to make a maze based on this concept

StarryAI - Fantasy Labyrinth, hyper detailed, digital painting

I absolutely love these !

StarryAI - Fantasy Labyrinth, hyper detailed, digital painting

I hope you enjoyed this exploration of using StarryAI to create maze and labyrinth images. Come back for Part 2 where I use other AI’s to generate cool images !

How to Draw a Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

May 18, 2023

I have previously shown how to make a Square Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth and today I will show you step by step how to make the circular version. Let’s look at the 2 side by side and compare them.

The interesting thing about these is that they are so different. The square version has 2 entrances and 2 goals, while the circular has one of each. Obviously there is also the overall shape and corner shapes apparent in the individual names.

When I made my circular version I noticed that it did not fit into the typical labyrinth making process. I have a potential usable seed pattern, but each step is more complex than normal. I also noticed that the labyrinth is a series of (mostly) vertical straight lines and half and quarter circles. Let’s explore this with a diagram I made to show what makes up the labyrinth and compare it to the 7 circuit classical labyrinth:

Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth: Everything in red is a straight line. Everything is black is either a half circle or a quarter circle. This is a right handed labyrinth (first turn is to the right).

Classical Labyrinth: Everything in red is a straight line (basically just the seed portion minus the dots). However the black portions are not perfect circles. When you make this labyrinth you are connecting points with curved lines. This is a left handed labyrinth (first turn is to the left). This can be made right handed, but left handed is typical.

Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth seed pattern ?

I trial and errored the making of this labyrinth. It is complicated. So, while it is not ideal, I am going to use this very large seed pattern. Otherwise, each step is complicated. So the most difficult part of this is creating the seed pattern correctly. Smooth sailing from there !

For this labyrinth I will be drawing each step in red on top of a completed labyrinth with thin lines to show you where that step is located in relation to the completed labyrinth. After each step the previous steps lines change to black from red.

Step 1: Draw the starting seed pattern.

I included the grid in this example to show you how to draw this seed pattern. It is the most complicated I have ever used. Start with a plus sign. The horizontal is 8 units long, while the vertical line is 6.5 units long, 3 units below and 3.5 units above that line. At the end of each side of the horizontal line draw a 4 unit vertical line. Beside the left line you just made add 4 lines to the left, all 4 units long. Make sure they are equidistant apart. On the right side do the same thing but with only 3 additional lines instead of 4. Now you can fit 3 vertical lines on the right side, 2 grids long and aligned t the top of the just made 4 grid lines. Moving to the left side you will do the same thing with 1 exception, the line just to the left of the top of the plus sign should aligh with it at the top (1.5 grids instead of 2). Next under the horizontal line, aligned to each end you will draw three 2 unit long horizontal lines ( 6 total lines). And finally the last line of this complicated seed is a horizontal line on the left side, aligned with the previously 3 on the left but draw 3 grids long instead of 2.

Step 2: Draw the Goal

Between the two short lines in the center draw and arch to connect them. Teh top of the arch should align with the top of the vertical lines on its left and right.

Hopi Tapuat Mother Child Birth Circular Labyrinth step 2 — Step 2 - Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

Steps 3-9: Create the top arches

These are all the same maneuver and so they get bunched into 1 explanatory step. Create a semi circle to connect the top of the end of the next inner line on the left to the line on the right. The peak should align to the peak of the goal. Essentially you do this 7 times to create the top of the labyrinth ! Shown here as a rainbow; start with purple, then blue, etc.

Hopi Tapuat Mother Child Birth Circular Labyrinth steps 3-9 — Steps 3 - 9 - Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

Steps 10/11: Connect the internal turns

You should have 2 empty spaces to fill in the center of the labyrinth on either side below the goal, each has 3 vertical lines. Take the end of the 2 outside lines on each side and connect them with an upside down arch. Shown in red and blue below.

Hopi Tapuat Mother Child Birth Circular Labyrinth steps 10 & 11 — Steps 10/11 - Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

Steps 12-15: Draw the left corners

On the bottom left connect the end of each vertical line with the end of each horizontal line working you way from inside out. Each of these is a quarter of a circle, or arch. In order, red, blue, green, yellow below.

Hopi Tapuat Mother Child Birth Circular Labyrinth steps 12-15 — Step 12-15 - Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

Steps 16-18: Draw the right corners

Same as above but on the right side, and only 3 times, shown as red, blue and green below.

Hopi Tapuat Mother Child Birth Circular Labyrinth steps 16-18 — Step 16-18 - Circular Hopi Tapu'at Labyrinth

Steps 19 - 21: Close the outer pathways

On the bottom left you should have 3 horizontal lines of the same length (the southernmost line is slightly longer). Connect the 1st and third with a semi-circle to create a turnback pathway (shown below in red). Do the same thing on the right side opposite (in blue). And our final step is completing the labyrinth by connecting the bottom of the plus sign with the end of the horizontal line on the left with a quarter circle (shown in green).