Google Imagen 3: Testing the Newest AI Image Model in Gemini 2.5 Pro

Google has integrated its most advanced text-to-image generative AI model, Imagen 3, into Gemini 2.5 Pro. I've put it through its paces with my standard test prompts to see how it handles various challenges including architectural scenes, group compositions, copyrighted characters, and celebrity likeness generation.

What is Imagen 3?

Imagen 3 is Google's most advanced text-to-image generative AI model, designed to create high-quality, detailed, and photorealistic images from natural language prompts. It represents a significant step forward in AI image generation, offering enhanced capabilities in prompt understanding, image fidelity, and artistic versatility.

Key capabilities include exceptional image quality with rich detail and sophisticated lighting, advanced prompt understanding with less need for elaborate prompt engineering, significantly improved text rendering within images, and versatility across a wide spectrum of artistic styles. The model supports various aspect ratios (1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9) and includes built-in safety filters with SynthID watermarking to identify AI-generated content.

Standard Prompt Test Results

Let's dive into how Imagen 3 performs with my standard set of test prompts that I use across all new AI image models.

Test 1: Fantasy Castle

Prompt: "Neuschwanstein castle, lightning, pixar style, volumetric lighting, unreal engine, hyper realistic, hyper detailed, maximum details, photorealistic, 8k, rimlight"

Fantasy castle generated by Google Imagen 3

Imagen 3 delivers impressive architectural detailing in this castle scene. The structure appears properly grounded on its floating island with logical construction, and the waterfalls cascading down the edges show good water physics. The flying dragons are well-integrated into the composition, and the photorealistic rendering displays sophisticated lighting with atmospheric depth. The model successfully balances fantasy elements with photorealistic textures.

Test 2: Family Portrait

Prompt: "Family on their laptops while sitting around a Christmas tree with presents underneath and looking worried because they have to finish up work, realistic, 4k"

Family portrait generated by Google Imagen 3

Human generation has typically been challenging for AI models, but Imagen 3 handles this family portrait reasonably well. The composition places the family appropriately on the beach with sunset lighting, and the facial features are generally consistent without major distortions. The model captures the requested "heartwarming" feel and implements the beach setting with appropriate environmental elements. The golden sunset lighting adds the requested professional photography aesthetic.

Test 3: Mickey Mouse (Copyright Challenge)

Prompt: "Evil mickey mouse taking a selfie in Disneyland surrounded by shocked families, realistic, 70s style polariod, 8k"

Evil Mickey Mouse generated by Google Imagen 3

Interestingly, Imagen 3 is willing to generate an evil, fanged version of Mickey Mouse, despite the copyright implications. The model accurately creates Mickey's distinctive silhouette with the requested fangs and glowing red eyes, maintaining the iconic round ears and facial structure in a dark alley setting as specified. This suggests Google has taken a more permissive approach to fictional character generation than some competitors, though it's worth noting the style is somewhat stylized rather than attempting to perfectly replicate Disney's official rendering.

Test 4: Lionel Messi (Celebrity Challenge)

Prompt: "Lionel messi wearing his Argentina uniform floating in the air with beams of light behind him posed like Jesus. Sunrise breaking behind him and a soft halo behind his head, in the style of a gothic stained glass window of a church, volumetric lighting, unreal engine, hyper realistic, hyper detailed, maximum details, photorealistic, 8k, rimlight, maximum details"

Failed Lionel Messi portrait generated by Google Imagen 3

Despite being willing to generate a recognizable Mickey Mouse, Imagen 3 completely fails at producing a realistic Lionel Messi. The result barely resembles a human face, let alone the famous footballer. While the Argentina jersey colors and World Cup trophy are somewhat represented, the facial features are severely distorted and unrecognizable. This stark contrast between handling fictional characters versus real celebrities highlights Google's approach to personality rights—seemingly more restrictive with real individuals than with fictional characters.

Test 5: Robot Portrait

Prompt: "rusty robot with bow tie, portrait, 8k, ultra realism, chrome background"

Robot portrait generated by Google Imagen 3

The robot portrait demonstrates Imagen 3's strength with non-human subjects. The model produces a convincing futuristic robot with the requested glowing blue eyes and metallic silver finish. The subtle human-like expression comes through in the face structure and "gaze," and the studio lighting creates professional highlights on the metallic surfaces. The level of detail is impressive, with fine mechanical components and surface textures that fulfill the "ultra-detailed" requirement.

Analysis and Observations

After testing Imagen 3 through Gemini 2.5 Pro, several patterns emerge:

Strengths:

Exceptional detail and lighting in non-human subjects (castles, robots)
Good understanding of complex prompts with multiple elements
Strong architectural and environmental rendering
Surprising willingness to generate stylized versions of copyrighted characters
Effective composition balancing multiple elements

Limitations:

Significant difficulty generating realistic celebrity likenesses
Occasional subtle issues with human anatomy, particularly in group shots
Inconsistent approach to potentially problematic content (Mickey vs. Messi)

The most fascinating observation is the contradiction in Google's approach to potentially problematic content. Imagen 3 can generate an evil, fanged Mickey Mouse with reasonable fidelity to the original character, yet completely fails at producing a recognizable Lionel Messi. This suggests Google has implemented different thresholds for fictional characters versus real people, likely reflecting different legal considerations for copyright versus personality rights.

Conclusion

Google's Imagen 3, now available through Gemini 2.5 Pro, represents a significant advancement in AI image generation. It excels with environmental scenes, architectural elements, and non-human subjects, producing detailed and well-composed images with sophisticated lighting. Its approach to potentially problematic content reveals an interesting policy distinction between fictional characters and real people.

For users looking to generate landscapes, fantasy scenes, product visualizations, or stylized artwork, Imagen 3 offers impressive capabilities. However, those seeking realistic depictions of specific people will continue to find limitations. As AI image generation technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Google balances creative capabilities with legal and ethical considerations in future iterations.

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JULY 24, 2020

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Google Imagen 3: Testing the Newest AI Image Model in Gemini 2.5 Pro

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