Fooocus Wildcards are Amazing! Here's How to Use Them

Let's talk about Fooocus wildcards and their ability to make your results more random and unexpected.

Fooocus Wildcards are Amazing! Here's How to Use Them

Exploring wildcards in image generation prompts opens up a world of creativity and surprise. This special tool will transform your results into unique and intriguing images. You'll learn about what wildcards are, why they're beneficial, and how they can add an element of fun to your image creation.

What are Fooocus Wildcards?

In the context of image generation prompts, wildcards are a bit different. They are placeholders or variables you can use in your prompts. When you use a wildcard, it allows the image generator to insert a random or unexpected element from the wildcard text file in that place. For example, if you're asking for an image of a "wallpaper design using shapes" and use a wildcard for the shapes, the generator might surprise you with different types of shapes or designs each time. It adds a layer of creativity and variation, making each result unique and sometimes unexpected.

Wildcards are also useful when you want to explore a range of possibilities. For instance, if you're not sure what kind of character you want in a scene, a wildcard can provide various options and help you decide which one fits best. This can be particularly helpful for artists, designers, or anyone in a creative field looking for inspiration.

How do Wildcards work in Fooocus?

It's pretty simple. Wildcards are stored in the Fooocus > wildcards folder. By default, Fooocus comes with 6 wildcard files. You can also create your own wildcard files and place them here.

Wildcard files contain a list of words in plain text that will be randomly selected and inserted into your prompts. To use these wildcards, insert the name of the wildcard into your prompt with 2 underscores in front and behind the name of the file. See the examples below that use the Fooocus default wildcards.

Here are some fun prompts you can try in Fooocus that will work using the default wildcard files. You can use any model and both standard and turbo will work.

A dark colorful splashing paint background wallpaper in __color__ and __extended-color__ gradient colors.

For wallpaper art, I like to only use the "Fooocus V2, Fooocus Enhance and SAI Fantasy Art" styles with a guidance scale of 2-3 to get more vibrant colors. I recommend using the 1280x768 aspect ratio then later upscaling it to a larger size using something like Gigapixel. You can also try using the upscaling tool built into Fooocus but keep in mind it does alter the image slightly.

A wallpaper design of space with stars, planets and galaxies in __color__ and __extended-color__ gradient colors.

The unpredictability of wildcards makes creating images more fun and can lead to unexpected, creative ideas that you might not have thought of on your own. It's a simple way to explore new possibilities and add a twist to your images.

An abstract paper cut landscape scene background wallpaper with simple shapes of __color__ and __extended-color__ gradient colors.

Let your imagination run... wildcard! 😊 You can start to see how this method of image generation can spark new creative ideas and help you boost your art generation. Okay, one last one!

A beautiful __color__ throat hummingbird sitting on a small branch with small __extended-color__ flowers.

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