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The latest viral sensation to sweep social media is the AI yearbook photo trend. Powered by the EPIK app, users can create realistic simulated yearbook photos as if they were college students in the 1990s. With its combination of cutting-edge technology and nostalgic fun, this innovative app has become extremely popular for creating shareable images. In this article, we explore the capabilities of EPIK’s AI yearbook maker, provide tips for taking great photos, and explore why this trend is resonating so strongly.
What is EPIK
EPIK, which stands for “Excellent Pictures Ink”, is an AI photo editing app launched in 2022. It became famous thanks to the AI Yearbook feature that generates convincing portrait photos in retro style. The app asks you to upload 8 to 12 selfies and then uses AI to process them into a simulated yearbook photo, complete with backdrops, props, hairstyles and clothing to match the 1990s senior portrait aesthetic.
The results are often remarkably realistic, making your modern selfies a blast from the past. It’s a new way to see yourself decades younger while sparking nostalgia for the iconic style of ’90s senior photos. The app handles customizations like adding pop hairstyles, vintage outfits, and retro background templates.
See more: How to Create an AI Yearbook Online for Free?
EPIK’s AI yearbook functionality quickly went viral, helped by celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Garner and Kate Beckinsale sharing their photos on social media. It’s now one of the most popular ways people use AI-powered editing to put a new spin on personal photos.
How to take your AI yearbook photo
Do you want to join the AI yearbook trend? Here’s a step-by-step guide to using the EPIK app to generate your own compelling portrait:
1. Download the app
EPIK is available as a free download for iOS and Android. Launching the app will take you directly to the AI Yearbook creator.
2. Upload selfies
Use the prompts to upload 8-12 recent selfies. Vary expressions and angles for best results. Well-lit, high-quality shots work best.
3. Choose Settings
Select your gender and then choose a processing time. A faster turnaround costs $5-10. Standard lasts 24 hours.
4. Wait for processing
EPIK’s AI analyzes your selfies, combines them and generates multiple yearbook photo options. This takes 1-24 hours.
5. View and select photos
Once done, the app displays the AI-generated images. Scroll through all the options and choose your favorites.
6. Edit and export
Enhance your selections with filters and frames. Once you’re happy, export your final images to share!
Once these steps are complete, you’ll have realistic, AI-powered approximations of your younger self, ready to share with friends or post online!
Tips for great AI yearbook results
Do you look your best in those AI creations? Keep these tips in mind when taking and choosing selfies:
- Use quality lighting and focus: the better the source, the better the end result.
- Vary angles and expressions to provide more data for the AI. Smile, frown, profile – make sure there’s variety!
- Show your entire head and face centered in the frame. Cutting off parts of your face can affect the quality of AI processing.
- Add both portrait and landscape photos.
- For group photos, have all subjects follow the same tips. Consistent, high-quality input produces the best AI recreations.
- Browse all AI-generated options before exporting your favorite. Sometimes less expected ones look the best!
- Get creative with editing filters and frames to find your perfect styling.
Follow these best practices when creating your entry photos and you’ll get your most compelling AI yearbook performances!
The allure of the AI yearbook trend
So why has this app struck such a chord, with millions of people sharing their AI-powered transformations? A few key factors contribute to the fascination:
Nostalgia
Yearbook style portraits evoke a strong nostalgia for the fashion and culture of the 80s/90s. We feel sentimental for big bangs, neon clothes, quirky backgrounds and the low-fi photography style. Seeing ourselves translated into this aesthetic reminds us of beloved coming-of-age films and TV.
Curiosity
On a technological level, we are curious about what AI can do with our photos. It is impressive how convincingly appropriate outfits, hairstyles and backgrounds are added. Thanks to advanced image processing, the simulations feel remarkably lifelike and personalized.
Novelty
The AI yearbook trend simply offers something new and different in smartphone selfies. After years of posting selfies and portraits in similar styles, this app offers a way to creatively transform photos that evoke novelty and engagement.
Humour
Seeing ourselves or friends translated into 80s/90s style can also be a big laugh, because the aesthetic sensibilities were so different. The humor provides great entertainment and inspires people to take and share their AI yearbook photos.
EPIK’s app uses all these elements – nostalgia, curiosity, novelty and humor – to increase its viral popularity. And all this is achieved by demonstrating the impressive capabilities of modern AI.
The creative potential of AI
The EPIK app offers a glimpse into the future of AI-assisted photography. As machine learning algorithms become more sophisticated, they can convincingly modify photos in creative new ways that traditional editing can’t achieve.
Some examples of AI’s growing creative potential include:
- Stylization – Change image styles, such as making a photo look painted. Apps like Deep Art Effects demonstrate this capability.
- Time travel – Place people in historical photos or locations far in the past or future, such as with EPIK’s yearbook filter.
- Edit face – Accurate editing of facial features and attributes, powered by AI analysis of human faces. FaceApp was a pioneer in these effects.
- Photo animation – Using AI to animate photos and turn them into short videos adds movement to otherwise static images.
- Generate image – AI can now create photos from scratch based on text prompts without any original images, as pioneered by systems like DALL-E 2.
While filters and editing tools were once limited in scope, AI is vastly expanding the possibilities with photos. This captures users’ attention by enabling photos that were previously impossible. expect more viral photo trends in the coming years, powered by AI-powered editing and generation.
The future of AI photo technology
EPIK offers just the first glimpse of how AI algorithms will transform smartphone photography. Here are some near-future possibilities we’re likely to see:
- Instant stylization – Apply different rendering styles, such as pencil sketch, oil painting, or abstract art, in real time when you take photos.
- Contextual filters – AI detects photo subjects and environments and suggests intelligent filters adapted to the content of each photo.
- Lifelike image generation – Take realistic photos by simply typing descriptions, with new AI systems that exceed the quality of DALL-E 2.
- Seamless photo editing – Complex edits, such as deleting objects or changing facial expressions, are performed invisibly instead of clearly edited.
- Automatic subtitles – AI analyzes images and automatically generates funny captions tailored to the content of each photo.
While it’s still early days, we’re already getting a sense of how much AI can enhance creativity and self-expression using just our smartphone cameras. As technology improves, more groundbreaking ways to manipulate and generate photos will emerge.
Conclusion
The creator of EPIK’s AI Yearbook gave us both a viral trend to enjoy and a taste of AI’s potential to transform photography. It showed how machine learning can take the most mundane of photos – selfies – into creatively reimagined images that deliver novelty, laughter and nostalgia.
As smartphone camera quality improves and AI algorithms become more robust, we can expect to see more apps using AI to reinvent personal photos. This offers new creative possibilities for self-expression and sharing moments with friends and family.
So collect some quality selfies, fire up EPIK’s AI yearbook maker and watch your digital doppelgänger dressed in 90s finest. The results are sure to amuse and amaze you as you catch a glimpse of the AI-enhanced future of photography!