Table of Content
AI is quickly becoming a collaborative partner rather than a threat to creativity. It can handle repetitive work, spark new ideas, and help polish your final output so you can spend more time on the “art” part of your art.
Below are five creative-friendly AI tools, what they do, what makes them special, and how much they cost, written in a practical, non‑technical way.
1. Midjourney
Midjourney is a generative image tool that lives inside Discord and turns text prompts into highly stylized, often surreal visuals. It is especially popular with concept artists, illustrators, and game designers for moodboards, character explorations, and quick visual experimentation.
What it does: Creates detailed images from prompts, supports style references, aspect ratios, and variations so you can iterate quickly on concepts.
Key creative features: Great at painterly, cinematic, and experimental looks; useful for idea exploration rather than final production artwork; prompt-based control to nudge style and composition.
Pricing (approx.): Plans typically start around $10/month for individual creators, with higher tiers adding more GPU time and commercial usage rights.
2. Adobe Firefly (inside Photoshop/Illustrator)
Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s generative AI engine integrated into tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, built specifically for commercial creative work. It is designed to feel like an extension of the Adobe workflow rather than a separate app.
What it does: Generates and extends images from text prompts, fills or removes objects in photos, and creates editable vector-style elements for layouts and illustrations.
Key creative features: Non-destructive edits inside existing Adobe files, content-style controls, and training data aimed at commercial-safe outputs, which matters for client work.
Pricing (approx.): Firefly access is bundled with many Adobe Creative Cloud plans; Photoshop plans with generative credits start from about $19.99/month in many regions.
3. Canva AI (Magic Studio)
Canva AI is a collection of AI tools inside Canva, aimed at designers, social media managers, and non-designers who need good-looking visuals fast. It combines layout templates with AI to speed up everything from social posts to pitch decks.
What it does: Generates images from text, rewrites and expands copy (Magic Write), removes backgrounds, resizes designs for different platforms, and helps auto-layout presentations.
Key creative features: Huge template library, drag-and-drop editor, plus AI that can start designs from a prompt and adapt them into multiple formats (posts, flyers, slides, etc.).
Pricing (approx.):
- Free plan: $0, with basic editor, templates, and limited AI uses.
- Pro: Around $120/year per user or about $15/month, with high AI limits, premium assets, and 1TB storage.
- Teams: Roughly $100/year per user (minimum seats), with pooled AI credits and collaboration features.
4. Notion AI
Notion AI adds an AI assistant into your notes, docs, and project spaces so writers, designers, and studios can organize both ideas and execution in one place. It’s especially useful for creative teams juggling briefs, scripts, and production timelines.
What it does: Summarizes meeting notes, drafts blog posts or scripts, creates task lists from text, answers questions about your workspace, and helps structure databases.
Key creative features: In-document rewriting, tone shifting, outlining, and Q&A on your own content—great for turning messy brain dumps into structured briefs or content plans.
Pricing (approx.):
- Free and Plus plans offer only limited AI trials.
- Full Notion AI access is included in the Business plan, starting around $20/user/month when billed annually, with AI fully integrated rather than as a separate add‑on.
5. Runway ML
Runway ML is a video and media-focused AI tool used by editors, filmmakers, and motion designers to experiment with generative video and smart video editing. It acts like a creative lab for moving images, not just stills.
What it does: Offers text-to-video and image-to-video generation, background removal in footage, style transfer, and other AI-enabled video effects.
Key creative features: Timeline-based editing with AI tools built in, quick green-screen-like removal, and experimental generative video for concept pieces, mood films, and social content.
Pricing (approx.): Has a limited free tier with starter credits; paid plans commonly begin around $12/month, adding more credits and higher-resolution exports for regular use.
Making These Tools Work Together
Used thoughtfully, these tools can form a powerful creative stack: Midjourney or Firefly for concept art, Canva AI for fast-ready assets, Notion AI to manage ideas and scripts, and Runway ML to bring visuals into motion. The key is to let AI handle the repetitive, exploratory, and formatting layers so your time and energy stay focused on taste, storytelling, and truly original decisions.
Post Comment
Be the first to post comment!
Related Articles
