I Built a Figma Plugin That Generates Custom SVG Illustrations with AI | Hacker News Reader

I Built a Figma Plugin That Generates Custom SVG Illustrations with AI

figma.com

57 pointsgigantz20 comments

The obviously AI generated description strangely, ironically, puts me off from a project whose entire purpose is AI generation.

I'm just surprised the author hasn't answered your comment with an AI generated reply.

Are you saying you don't want to unlock your full creative potential with unique and scalable ai designs?!?

Yeah, it was reworked by AI, but entire description was written manually. So to fix my non-perfect english grammar skills I passed it through. The purpose is time saving. Primarily the plugin was for internal usage only.

> The purpose is time saving.

If it saves time but loses customers, that looks like a bad trade off. When you cut corners in the presentation, people assume you cut corners in the functionality too. Considering the plugin apparently costs money to use¹ and you plan to expand it to other apps², I’d guess you want people to actually use the tool and not be put off by it.

¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42458587

² https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42460588

Hey HN!

I’ve been working on a Figma plugin called Vector Image AI, and I’d love to share it with you all. It uses AI to generate custom SVG illustrations and icons directly in Figma based on simple text prompts.

Here’s what it can do: - Generate unique, scalable SVGs in seconds. - Support a variety of styles like flat, outline, pastel, pop art, and more. - Seamlessly integrate into Figma—no need for exporting/importing.

Would love your feedback—what works, what doesn’t, and any ideas for improvement!

Check it out here: https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1440141868641854458/v...

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Hey, I was actually looking for something like this a while back and couldn't find anything. Really glad to have discovered it. But I couldn't get it to work. I added the plugin via Figma, gave it a prompt and spent my 1 credit to generate an illustration, the credit was used, but no image was created (or perhaps it was created and is just hidden or outside of the frames / groups).

Figured you might want to know / provide some instructions in case others are running into this issue too.

Hey, thanks for heads up. There was such an issue you mentioned which seems to be solved now. If you can provide your email to vectorimageai@gmail.com, I can add you a credit to retry it.

I’ve been looking for something like this for some basic custom illustrations for presentations and for my company’s website. I didn’t spend a ton of time looking but it’s great to see someone working on this. I think there’s a ton of opportunity there for illustration and diagrams in company materials. Especially if you can stick to a certain design aesthetic or incorporate text.

That might solve the “last mile” of design when you just want to get something together quick and have 0 design skills. Currently the alternative seems to be hacking something with premade clip art type of stuff on Canva

Sorry for a basic question-- does it require a paid Figma subscription?

I hear stories about Figma being expensive and dark patterns to bump up the charges. Keeping track of monthly subscription spend across services has become a drain. Hence the hesitation.

Otherwise this is an excellent use case. I sometimes wish I could create my own vector illustration library - mostly general purpose gepmetric or abstract shapes that we don't find in libraries like PowerPoint. Thanks.

> Sorry for a basic question-- does it require a paid Figma subscription?

It doesn't, but you'll immediately need to (1) sign up for an account and (1) buy credits to generate more than one image. Although unexplained, each credit = one vector image. Buying plug-in credits costs $10 for 50.

The plug-in provides a limited GUI for ReCraft V3, notably less capable than what ReCraft's GUI and API allows. ReCraft itself gives users 50 credits/day, allowing them to create 12 vector images/day for free.

The ReCraft API used by the plug-in costs $0.08 per vector image (which consume 80 API Units).

Hey, currently it works in Figma only. But I’m thinking to integrate it into more platforms. Powerpoint sounds really good idea to integrate into.

How about a standalone version?

I was planning to gradually support more platforms including standalone version. Where are you planning to use the svg ai? Just trying to get more data from users.

This looks like Recraft V3. What do you think is the most interesting part of this from the POV of the Hacker News audience?

Extinguishing livelihoods with technology?

Maybe the fact that they did something productive with it - like launched a plugin in a growing ecosystem.

It is using Recraft’s models under-hood with enhanced prompt and vector smoother.

The audience is more for people who need illustrations, icons and etc. That can be Frontend engineers, designers and etc. That is the target I aimed.

What model does this use?

ReCraft V3. Here's an example I made using one of the prompts in the video with ReCraft's GUI: https://imgur.com/a/Hu15rbO

https://recraft-ai.org/introduction-to-recraft-v3/

https://recraft-ai.org/api/

https://simonwillison.net/2024/Nov/15/recraft-v3/

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