Gigi & Oakley - Creating a Picture of Both My Dogs in DALL-E

Just for fun, I thought it would be awesome to create an AI-generated image featuring my two crazy, wonderful pups, Gigi and Oakley.

I used DALL-E for this because the chat interface makes it so easy to build on your prompts and refine the results as you go.

Starting With Oakley

I started with Oakley, our Great Pyrenees, and gave this prompt in ChatGPT: "Please create an illustration of my pet in a 2D animation style. He's a spacedog, flying through flowers. Here's a picture of him." Then I attached the first image of Oakley into the chat. ChatGPT (DALL-E) came back with the second image below, and I have to say, it’s pretty fun to see how it captured his personality!

Creating Gigi

Next up was Gigi (who may be part goat)! I decided to create separate images of each dog so I could make adjustments more easily if needed, but honestly, I didn’t have to tweak much. Working with one subject at a time made it simpler to fine-tune the details. For Gigi's prompt, I kept it simple—I just typed, "Same for this one" and attached her picture (first image below). The AI generated the second image, and once again, it really captured her unique vibe!

Bringing Them Together

Once I had both dogs generated in separate images, I asked ChatGPT to "put the two dogs together in the same picture." I played around by regenerating the response a couple of times until I found one I really liked (see the first picture below). After that, I typed in prompts like "similar" to get more images with a consistent background and feel.

Then I decided to switch things up. I asked, "They are no longer space dogs and are just enjoying normal dog life. Please have them laying together in front of a fireplace." That gave me the second image below. Since they were out of their spacedog suits, it was super easy to place them in different scenes, like "have them chasing butterflies," "on a car ride looking out the window," or "playing at the beach." The possibilities were endless!

Final Thoughts

While I'm a big fan of Midjourney for creating AI images—especially when I want highly specific results—I found DALL-E and ChatGPT to be perfect for a project like this. The conversational, iterative process made it easy to experiment and refine the images as I went along. Because one prompt builds on the next within the same chat, it felt much more intuitive to create cohesive images featuring both of my pups. For a more flexible, creative flow, especially when you're trying to bring an evolving idea to life, DALL-E really shines.