Yeah, I totally agree that the model matters a ton in AI art. Same prompt, switch the model, and you get two completely different results. There are so many Stable Diffusion model recommendations out there, it’s dizzying.
When I’m demoing for students, picking a base model is the biggest headache. Realistic, anime, illustration-style—each one has its own pitfalls. Wanted to ask in this thread: what models are you guys using regularly right now? Especially ones that are stable, easy to pick up, and not too demanding on hardware. Drop your thoughts in the comments—I need to update my lesson plans.
Yeah, the base model is the real foundation. If you pick the wrong one, no matter how many LoRAs you stack on top, it’s just gonna feel off.
For teaching purposes, I’d recommend picking something more versatile—don’t jump straight into niche models right off the bat.
Those recommendation lists are just for reference, you really gotta try stuff out yourself.
If your setup isn’t that beefy, go for the quantized version of SDXL first.
Anyone got a good realistic base model that doesn’t eat up too much VRAM? My student laptop can’t handle the big ones.
for a student rig, SD1.5 realism merge models are plenty, if SDXL can’t run don’t force it