Parade

Parade is an AI image-making app I’m designing and building. Language can describe an element’s appearance, but its position, scale, and relationship to other elements are often easier to work out directly. With Parade, creators can arrange and explore variations of a scene without having to describe the entire image in advance.

Explore one layer at a time

Each layer has its own prompt, so creators can explore an element’s appearance while keeping the surrounding layers unchanged. Render settings are available to control how closely generation follows the drawing — from preserving its shape to rethinking its construction. This separates two decisions that a single scene-wide prompt can entangle: what an element looks like and how it fits into the image.

Compose directly

The distance between two objects, a deliberate overlap, or an area of empty space can define an image. Parade makes these decisions tangible: sketch an element where it belongs, then move, resize, and arrange it on the canvas. Prompts describe its appearance; direct manipulation establishes its place in the composition.

Shape the scene with lighting and compositing

Once the objects are arranged, lighting and compositing tools help bring them into a shared scene. Creators can adjust the direction and mood of the light, then use scene instructions to guide shadows, contact between objects, and the overall atmosphere. They can also choose how much freedom the model has to reinterpret the arrangement. The generated composite is saved as a separate output, leaving the layers available for further adjustments.

Translating creative intent into prompts

The controls are only part of the design. Behind each generation, Parade combines the drawing, the layer’s description, and its settings with instructions about what to preserve and what to reinterpret. I’m refining these prompts against actual outputs, looking for where the model follows the intended shape, placement, and style — and where it drifts. Separate instructions for compositing address lighting and relationships between elements.

Testing the workflow

I’m developing Parade through ongoing experiments with drawing, prompting, and composition, using the app and its generated results to refine the interactions and backend prompt engineering.