Face swap and animate images generated by Midjourney using InsightFaceSwap and Pika

5 min read • February 26, 2024

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Setup
    1. Useapi.net
    2. Midjourney
    3. InsightFaceSwap
    4. Pika
    5. Ngrok
  3. Preparing Midjourney Prompts
  4. Executing Prompts Using the Midjourney, InsightFaceSwap and Pika experimental API by useapi.net
    1. JavaScript
    2. Python
  5. Examples
  6. Conclusion

Introduction

This article covers multiple experimental APIs provided by useapi.net.

You will learn how you can easily generate and upscale images from your prompt(s) using Midjourney, apply face swap via InsightFaceSwap, and finally animate the result using Pika.

First, we will be generating images using the /imagine command from Midjourney and upscaling them with the /button command using the experimental Midjorney API.

Next, we will use the InsightFaceSwap Discord Bot by Picsi.Ai using the experimental InsightFaceSwap API to swap faces on the upscaled images mentioned above.

Finally, animation provided by the Pika Discord Bot will be applied to the face swapped images via the experimental Pika API.

Please check out the YouTube video showcasing the final results of these generations from this article.

This article explains how to use a webhook to retrieve generated results and how to structure a basic query to submit requests to the API. This approach is much more performant and consumes fewer resources.

Setup

We will use the experimental API provided by useapi.net to interact with Midjourney, InsightFaceSwap and Pika Discord bots.

Useapi.net

You need a monthly subscription to use the useapi.net experimental APIs mentioned in this article. Follow these steps to get started.

Midjourney

Naturally you’ll need a Discord account with an active Midjourney subscription. The $10 Basic Plan will suffice.

Follow these simple steps to obtain the following:

  • Discord server ID number, referred to in this article as server.
  • Discord channel ID number, referred to in this article as channel.
  • Discord token, referred to in this article as discord. Verify Discord access.
  • Once you have all the above, please create or update your Midjourney account information so that you no longer need to provide them with every API call.

InsightFaceSwap

The InsightFaceSwap setup is similar to Midjourney’s, please follow our instructions.

InsightFaceSwap allows users to swap faces from source images onto different target images. It offers free and paid subscriptions. Paid subscribers have access to a wide selection of extra features, such as HiFidelity Mode, ARTIFY, oldify/youngify, morphing multiple faces in one image, and many more.

You can add the InsightFaceSwap Discord bot to the same server and channel as the Midjourney bot to speed up and simplify the setup process. If you’re planning to use the free plan, you may want to consider setting up multiple Discord/InsightFaceSwap accounts so that you can execute more operations daily, since one account alone may not suffice.

Pika

The Pika Discord bot is currently free. The setup process is very similar to the ones above. Please refer to the Pika setup steps. Since you have already retrieved your Discord token during the Midjourney setup, you only need to identify the channel for Pika Direct Messages.

Useapi.net provides an easy way to experiment with all API endpoints without writing any code. Check the Try It section at the end of each document page, such as Midjourney’s jobs/imagine, InsightFaceSwap’s faceswap/swap, or Pika’s pika/animate.

For your convenience, we have published all the source code used in this article. You can choose between JavaScript and Python examples. Clone this repository locally and use it as a starting point for your experiments.

Ngrok

Follow official instructions to sign up for an ngrok account and copy your ngrok authtoken from your ngrok dashboard.

Preparing Midjourney Prompts

Let’s use ChatGPT to create a list of prompts. Here’s our ChatGPT prompt:

Create a simple JSON array of strings containing Midjourney prompts to generate the world’s most renowned portrait paintings.

The output will look something like this:

[
  "Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael",
  "Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci",
  …
  "Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) by Leonardo da Vinci"
]

An array of prompts generated by ChatGPT needs to be saved to a locally cloned prompts.json file.

Executing Prompts Using the Midjourney, InsightFaceSwap and Pika experimental API by useapi.net

Create a file locally in the same folder named example.sh with the following content:

JavaScript 

USEAPI_TOKEN="useapi API token" NGROK_AUTHTOKEN="ngrok authtoken" node ./example.js

Python 

USEAPI_TOKEN="useapi API token" NGROK_AUTHTOKEN="ngrok authtoken" python3 ./example.py

Execute it from the command line like this: ./example.sh and observe the magic of the experimental API.

The generated images and videos will be saved locally. You may proceed with the generation process within a Discord channel to further refine your creations. Alternatively, you can continue automate the process by using the jobs/button along with Pika or perhaps InsightFaceSwap, following the same process as demonstrated above.

Examples

Upscaled image generated by Midjourney.
Face swapped image generated by InsightFaceSwap from upscaled image above.
Video generated from face swapped image above using text + image animation by Pika.

We used Rick Astley as a source image for face swapping, feel free to change it per your liking.

Conclusion

Visit our Discord Server or Telegram Channel for any support questions and concerns.

We regularly post guides and tutorials on the YouTube Channel.

Check our GitHub repo with code examples.

Cross posted