Latest info about Veronika Zemanová
Well that was cutting it close!!! I thought that we were heading for the first year ever that Veronika was not published in a single magazine …. but UK tabloid Weekend Sport spared us that anguish and published a nice little pic from Set 381 in the Dec. 15th issue:
Had to laugh …. I remember going to Vegas many years ago and recalling these guys standing on the street corners flicking the edges of the cards to create this clicking sound to try and attract you into taking one. They were cards advertising some “ladies for hire”.
I recently came across some of these cards featuring images of Veronika:
On these cards I that found, our Veronika was featured as “Danika, Branee and Demi” just to name a few. I can just imagine the disappointment of anyone falling for this scam figuring they would get anything remotely resembling Veronika if they decided to call the number. It’s actually criminal that Veronika’s images were used for this purpose if you ask us !!!!
Whenever new content was going to be posted on Veronika’s official website a “preview banner” announcing the upcoming addition was posted.
These were small Flash files providing an animated view of what was to come. Unfortunately support for browsers to playback Flash files expired a few years ago. This meant that all 129 Flash files needed to be converted to MP4 to permit the previews to be seen again. This proved to be a more difficult task until just a few weeks ago when “The Snipping Tool” which comes with Windows 11 was upgraded to capture screen video content instead of just a static image. Over the course a 2 days I managed to convert all the Flash files to MP4 and upgraded the Banner HTML to play the MP4’s directly.
Check out the link to find every preview banner posted from the years 2003 to 2009.
http://www.veronika-zemanova.info/Index/Veronika-Banners.html
Took a crack at creating an anime version of Veronika using Stable Diffusion … looks like there is a resemblance at least. It is quite interesting the power of Stable Diffusion’s AI engine to create these unique works of art!!!
Here’s wishing Veronika a safe and happy 48th Birthday today from all your ever devoted fans and the staff here at the website / forum / blog !!!!
Enjoy your special day amongst family and friends 🙂
I was introduced to the power of Stable Diffusion a few weeks ago when I saw works of art literally created out of thin air by simply “describing” what you wanted the content of the image to contain. I explored the power of this a little more and discovered that it was also able to create a likeness of anyone through the use of “embeddings” where you produce a file containing the necessary parameters needed to steer the Stable Diffusion algorithm in the direction to the desired subject. This got me thinking …. oh … we can get Veronika out retirement and create a “metaverse” version. I searching around, I had found that someone on one of the AI forums had already created a basic Veronika model I could start with. After about 1.5 hours of loading the Stable Diffusion AI software on my server and then about another 2 days of playing around with settings, I was able to come up with these 2 almost photo realistic “new” AI created pictures of Veronika:
The resemblance if almost perfect. Of course there is still work to do to better refine the model but certainly a very good start.
If anyone is interested in learning more about Stable Diffusion and how it works you can consult the following Wikipedia link on the topic: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_Diffusion
Most all photo-editing software available today will claim to include AI based upscaling as part of their repertoire. AI upscaling uses artificial intelligence algorithms to improve the resolution of an image by using pixel data from similar looking images that the software might have seen in past and then use that information to provide a more intelligent choice of what pixel content to fill in when the enlargement takes place, instead of using the more traditional bicubic interpolation approach to mathematically compute the missing pixel information based on the values of the neighbouring pixels. You can see that when using bicubic interpolation the data basically stays the same as you are simply using the neighbouring pixels to figure out what’s missing. Nothing which could improve the perceived quality has been done to the pixels per se.
Let’s see on the other hand some of the power of AI upscaling as applied to a nice portrait of Veronika …. in this case the upscaling has done a phenomenal job at improving the overall quality of the image as “faces” are likely easy things for the AI upscaling algorithms to handle as the software would have had many “faces” to draw data from.
You’ll see in this case the AI algorithms did a phenomenal job to enhance Veronika’s face. However, all is not always perfect we have discovered. We can only assume that if no AI useful data is available for the area of interest being enlarged then the algorithm appears to use “something” which more than often results in bizarre artifacts being generated. Here’s an example of the same area of Veronika’s feet which were enlarged using bicubic interpolation above but now using an AI algorithm …. we really can’t figure out if Veronika still has toes 😉
It appears that when faces are involved, the AI upscale results are great, but certain other features still require some fine tuning.
The Staff and all the Fans at www.VERONIKA-ZEMANOVA.info want to wish Veronika and her entire Family a wonderful and prosperous 2023!!!
Nothing like celebrating the start of new year with the release of the never before published photo shoot!!! I acquired this set of images when I purchased all remaining late J. Stephen Hicks 35mm slides from his wife a few years ago. I had hoped that there would have been several other unpublished sets among all the slides however the one which was included I hope you agree was very nice !!!!!
Interestingly enough the venue for this J.Stephen Hicks sets appears to be identical to that of Nicolas Sage’s Set 095.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish the fans of Veronika a very:
Merry Christmas, Veselé Vánoce, Frohe Weihnachten, Vrolijk Kerstfeest, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noël, Nollaig Chridheil, Wesołych Świąt, メリークリスマス, Buon Natale, Nollaig Shona Dhuit
In the event that Veronika herself does decide to come and visit here for a look this Holiday, I have prepared a little greeting card for her and her family from all her fans and the devoted staff here at the blog / website / forum.
As always, I want to thank all those who contributed some new material to the Veronika collection this past year …. it’s fans like you that make this place a great place to come and visit each day 😉