Project · An AI image generation system I built for ecommerce

Real products. Generated worlds. Same result every time.

tldr; I designed and built a system that turns one written product brief into consistent, production-ready ecommerce imagery, running the latest AI image models through their APIs. The system, not any single image, is the portfolio piece.

Every image on this page came out of that system: a product lock written once and pasted verbatim into every prompt, reference plates attached to every generation, a realism block that rotates exactly one human flaw, and a log that records every prompt, ratio, attempt and pick by ID. An automated runner I wrote sends each brief to the newest image models over their APIs and files the result under its ID, so the full set of 90 came back in under two hours with one person at the controls. The products are fictional and fully generated so nothing here trades on a brand I did not shoot for. Every image had a stated job before it was made.

90finals kept from 94 generations

< 2 hrsfor the full set, 1 operator, automated runner

3 × 6products held across 6 environments each

5aspect ratios, copy zones planned first

~20 sper image, latest image models via API

01 Consistency

One product, six worlds, three times

The primary problem in production AI imagery is not one good image, it is the tenth one matching the first. Each row is one generated reference plate carried into 6 scenes by attaching the plate and repeating the product lock word for word. Shape, label, colour and scale hold across the row.

Fragrance

glass, amber liquid, black wood cap, cream label

Perfume bottle on a white studio backdrop — **A01**Studio white · 1:1

Perfume bottle on a marble counter in morning light — **A02**Marble morning · 3:4

Perfume bottle on black slate under one hard light — **A03**Dark stone · 3:4

Perfume bottle on a concrete ledge in afternoon sun — **A04**Outdoor concrete · 3:4

Hand holding the perfume bottle — **A05**In the hand · 3:4

Perfume bottle on a home shelf among objects — **A06**Home shelf · 16:9

Footwear

knit upper, grey suede overlays, gum outsole

Sneaker on a white studio backdrop — **A07**Studio white · 1:1

Sneaker on a marble counter — **A08**Marble morning · 3:4

Sneaker on black slate — **A09**Dark stone · 3:4

Sneaker on a concrete ledge — **A10**Outdoor concrete · 3:4

Hand holding the sneaker — **A11**In the hand · 3:4

Sneaker on a wooden shelf — **A12**Home shelf · 16:9

Skincare

frosted glass jar, brushed aluminium lid, sage band

Skincare jar on marble — **A14**Marble morning · 3:4

Skincare jar on black slate — **A15**Dark stone · 3:4

Skincare jar on a concrete ledge — **A16**Outdoor concrete · 3:4

Hand holding the skincare jar — **A17**In the hand · 3:4

Skincare jar on a wooden shelf — **A18**Home shelf · 16:9

02 Placements

The copy zone stays empty until the type arrives

Hero, feed, story and sale creative are briefed with the zone first. The render leaves it plain and evenly lit, the focal point sits where the crop will keep it, and the headline, price and call to action are placed afterwards. Top row: raw renders with the zone reserved. Bottom row: finished creative.

Zone reserved

raw renders, nothing added

Site hero with product right and empty wall left — **E01**Site hero, left zone · 16:9

Mobile hero with empty wall above the product — **E02**Mobile hero, zone above · 3:4

Feed ad with product low and empty top third — **E03**Feed ad, top third · 1:1

Story ad with product in the middle third — **E04**Story, top and bottom · 9:16

Sale creative with one red accent — **E05**Sale, single red accent · 3:4

Black Friday dark set with bottom zone in shadow — **E06**Black Friday, bottom zone · 1:1

Finished creative

headline, price, CTA placed where the render left room

Homepage hero for fragrance with headline — **H01**Homepage hero · Fragrance · 16:9

Homepage hero for footwear with headline — **H02**Homepage hero · Footwear · 16:9

Sale ad for the sneaker — **H04**Meta feed, end of season · 1:1

Story ad for the fragrance on dark — **H05**Story ad, launch · 9:16

Review ad for skincare with quote — **H06**Review ad · Skincare · 1:1

Collection tile for fragrance — **H10**Collection tile · Fragrance · 1:1

Collection tile for footwear — **H11**Collection tile · Footwear · 1:1

03 Category heroes

Product page conversion across categories

Same system, different materials: glass, foil, denim, leather, steel. Each brief named the surface, the light and the one detail the shopper needs to see.

Serum dropper with a drop about to fall — **B01**Serum dropper · 3:4

Perfume bottle on a black mirror with smoke — **B03**Fragrance on mirror · 3:4

Chocolate bar snapped in two — **B06**Chocolate, macro · 1:1

Stack of folded jeans — **B08**Denim stack · 1:1

Tan leather tote on a stool — **B10**Leather tote · 3:4

Steel watch on a wrist — **B13**Watch on wrist · 3:4

04 Lifestyle

The customer sees their own life

People with real skin, rooms with real clutter, one flaw per frame. The product stays sharp and never hidden by more than a third.

Perfume sprayed on a wrist in backlight — **C02**Spritz on the wrist · 3:4

Coffee pour-over at a breakfast table — **C03**Sunday breakfast · 16:9

Sneakers on a city curb — **C04**Sneakers on a curb · 3:4

Tote bag at a market — **C06**Tote at the market · 3:4

Watch on a wrist pouring coffee — **C08**Watch, pouring coffee · 1:1

Mug on a rainy windowsill — **C09**Mug and rain · 3:4

Dog eating from a steel bowl — **C11**Dog bowl · 1:1

Lit candle at dusk — **C13**Candle at dusk · 3:4

05 Feature explainers

Back the claim

Each image supports one product claim on the page. The claim is written under it because that is what the image is judged on.

Water beading on dark fabric — **D01**Waterproof · 1:1

Split of dry and hydrated skin — **D03**Hydration, split · 1:1

Sneaker midsole compressed mid stride — **D04**Cushioning · 3:4

Cold brew bottle sweating in the sun — **D06**Cold brew, condensation · 3:4

Leather bag new and with patina — **D07**Durability, 10 years · 1:1

Skincare jar with ingredients laid out — **D08**Ingredients · 16:9

06 UGC

Performance creative that reads as a customer's phone

The camera line changes to a phone, on-camera HDR and honest clutter are allowed, and the product still matches its plate.

Sneaker unboxing on a bed — **F01**Unboxing on the bed · 3:4

Skincare jar on a messy desk — **F03**Desk flat lay · 1:1

Perfume on a nightstand at night — **F04**Night mode nightstand · 9:16

Skincare jar in a car cupholder — **F05**Car cupholder · 3:4

Sneakers on a gym bag — **F06**Gym bag · 3:4

07 Interface

How the image behaves inside the layout

An image is finished when it holds in the product page, the phone hero, the grid and the billboard, not when it looks good alone.

Laptop showing a product page — **G01**Laptop PDP · 16:9

Phone showing a mobile hero — **G02**Phone hero · 9:16

Phone showing an Instagram grid — **G05**Instagram grid · 1:1

Billboard at dusk showing the hero — **G04**Billboard at dusk · 16:9

Contact sheet with one frame circled — **G06**Contact sheet, the pick circled · 16:9

08 Process

The system is the portfolio piece

Everything above came from 4 text blocks and a runner I built. The blocks are pasted, never paraphrased. The runner picks the model, sets aspect ratio and references per prompt, calls the model's API and writes the log. Swap the model and the system stays the same, which is how it keeps up as newer models ship.

1. Product lock, written once, pasted verbatim

Product: the perfume bottle in the reference images, reproduced exactly. Shape: tall rectangular flacon, 12cm, shoulders slightly rounded, heavy thick base. Material: clear glass, amber liquid at 90 percent fill. Cap: black lacquered wood cylinder, matte. Label: small cream paper rectangle centred on the front, thin black border, text unreadable. Same scale, colour and proportion in every image. Nothing added to the product.

2. Realism block

Shot on a Canon EOS R5, 50mm or 100mm macro prime, f/5.6 to f/8, ISO 100, colour-accurate raw conversion, gentle S-curve, no HDR. Studio: one large softbox key plus a white bounce. Location: natural window light shaped with one bounce. True white balance. Real surface texture, real reflections in glass and metal, real shadows with soft edges. No CGI sheen, no plastic skin, no oversaturation, no vignette filter, no lens flare.

3. One flaw only, rotated

a. slight highlight clipping on the window   b. one prop a little off its mark
c. faint fingerprint on glass or metal       d. a crumb, petal or thread on the surface
e. camera a degree off level                  f. a water ring where a glass stood
g. one light left on in daylight              h. a corner of backdrop paper visible
i. a stray hair on fabric                     j. focus a hair in front of the label

4. Negatives, appended to all

No text, no watermark, no extra copies of the product, no warped label, no floating objects, no melted edges, no wrong proportions, no cartoon, no illustration, no render look.

How a run works

Reference plates are generated first (P01 fragrance, P02 sneaker, P03 skincare) and stored once as the reference set for the whole run.
A script writes SHOTS.md: one heading per image with ID, ratio and title, a REFS line, then lock + scene + realism + flaw + negatives.
The runner I wrote reads each brief, selects the latest image model, sets the ratio and a single output, attaches the named plates, calls the model's API and saves the native-resolution result as img/ID.jpg.
Any prompt the model filters is timed out and reworded. IDs that already have a file on disk are skipped, so a run can be stopped and resumed at any point.

Elapsed	ID	Ratio	Refs	Result
0:00:00	P01	1:1	none	plate saved 1024x1024, 18 s
0:08:17	A01	1:1	P01	saved, run of 79 begins
1:22:54	B09	3:4	none	saved 896x1200, 20 s
1:24:17	H01	16:9	P01	saved 1376x768, 34 s
1:28:43	H08	4:3	P02	filtered, timed out, reworded
1:35:31	H11	1:1	P02	saved 1024x1024, 31 s

94 generations, 3 filtered, 90 kept, under two hours end to end. Full log and SHOTS.md available on request. Latest image models · API · Automated runner

What I would do for a real product

Photograph 3 clean angles of the actual item, write the lock from the photos and the spec sheet, generate 4 per prompt on the strongest current model, keep the one that matches the plate, and publish the log with the deck. The same system, with the client's product held constant.

Want this run on your product?

Send three clean angles and a spec sheet. You get the plate, the lock, the finals and the log.

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