It's been almost a year since I uploaded my last realistic Illustrious model. At the time, someone asked me if it wasn't an XL model. From that moment on, I dedicated myself to developing XL models. I felt that Illustrious had lost some of its essence, so I decided to return to the first Illustrious model I made with something very clear in mind.
This model was created with a very specific goal: bring true photorealism to the Illustrious ecosystem without sacrificing the strengths that made Illustrious so popular in the first place.
Many realistic anime-based models achieve impressive realism, but often lose what makes Illustrious special. Character recognition becomes weaker, prompts become less reliable, and dynamic scenes lose the energy that users expect. This model was designed to avoid those compromises .
What Makes It Special?
Preserves Illustrious Character Knowledge
Strong recognition of popular characters
Better retention of distinctive character traits
Consistent identities across different scenes and styles
Reliable prompt interpretation
Maintains Action-Oriented Composition
Dynamic action scenes
Dramatic camera angles
Strong sense of movement
Cinematic framing and visual storytelling
True Photorealistic Rendering
Natural skin textures
Realistic lighting behavior
Detailed environments
Convincing materials, fabrics, and surfaces
Built for Complex Prompts
Handles crowded scenes more effectively
Better composition under challenging conditions
Stronger scene coherence
Improved visual depth
The Philosophy
This is not an anime model trying to look realistic.
This is a realistic model built on the foundation that made Illustrious successful.
The goal was to preserve the vast character knowledge, prompt responsiveness, dynamic compositions, and action-focused imagery that users love, while transforming the final output into believable photography and cinematic realism.
The result is a model that can generate recognizable characters, dramatic action sequences, and complex scenes while delivering a level of realism that feels grounded, immersive, and visually striking.
The soul of Illustrious. The look of reality
Starting with version 3, the VAE is baked
Upscaler: Im using 4X-ClearRealityV1 upscale 1.5 Steps 5 denois 0.1 Hires CFG 1.1
Width and height: 896*1152
CFG Scale: 1.2
Steps: 8
The sampling method i use is LCM-Exponential, I have also obtained excellent results with Euler A-Karras, although sometimes the eyes don't turn out so well.
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