Hello everyone, I am Koushi Meow Meow, and I regularly share free AI tools to help everyone work more efficiently on their side projects
~
Recently, Nano Banana has sparked a trend in AI-generated images, and ByteDance has followed suit with the launch of Dream 4.0, which has similar functionalities. Dream claims that it can do everything Nano Banana can do, and both are currently free. Here’s a brief introduction to some features that Dream 4.0 can also perform:
1. Figurine Generation:
After uploading a source image and entering a prompt, you can see that the figurine images generated by Dream 4.0 are indeed quite impressive:
Create a commercial figurine at a 1/7 scale of the character in the illustration, in a realistic style and environment. Place the figurine on a computer desk using a round transparent acrylic base without any text. On the computer screen, display the ZBrush modeling process of the figurine. Next to the computer screen, place a BAMDAI-style toy packaging box with the original image printed on it.
2. Background Removal:
After uploading the material and entering a prompt, you can see that the background removal is much better than the previous Dream model:
Help me remove the background and keep only the character.
3. Material Composition or Modification:
Change the character’s clothing to the material we uploaded. This function of composition or modification is the most commonly used in commercial images. However, this is where Dream 4.0 falls short; it does not understand and modify well, nor can it maintain a consistent style. For example, I uploaded a character design of a cat and a 2D maid outfit and entered the following prompt:
A 3D cat character in the same style as the main image, wearing the maid outfit from image 1, appearing in a cozy café. It is holding a tray with a chocolate parfait, as if serving a customer. The image should maintain a 3D texture and rendering style, with warm lighting and a lively atmosphere.
We can see that Dream 4.0 does not understand what a chocolate parfait is; it generated a chocolate cake instead (but I want to eat it
). It also cannot maintain a consistent style; the maid outfit is still 2D, the character is 3D, and the background is realistic. The same prompt generated much better results with Nano Banana:
Many people are discussing which one to use. To be honest, my real experience has shown that they are not in competition; rather, they work best when combined. Below, I will share my usage insights.
1. Nano Banana: The “Underlying Tool” for Image Generation and Modification
My first impression of Nano Banana is that it is professional and powerful. Thanks to Google’s robust natural language model, it understands complex prompts very accurately, such as grid layouts, multi-step pose changes, and background removal, all of which it can accomplish very well. Especially its grasp of details is reassuring.
The only issue is that it can hardly generate usable Chinese text. Advertisements and titles come out as garbled or distorted, so if you want to create e-commerce images directly, it may fall short. However, if you want to add English text and layout, you can continue to use Nano Banana.
2. Dream 4.0: The “AI Designer” for Text Layout
Dream 4.0 acts like a specialized graphic designer. It performs particularly well in tasks like Chinese text layout, e-commerce styles, and Xiaohongshu covers, generating finished products that look very much like design drafts.
However, perhaps because Dream 4.0 is based on DeepSeek, its language understanding capabilities are limited, so its image modification functions are not as good as those of Nano Banana.
3. The Best Workflow: Combining Both
First, use Nano Banana to generate and modify images, ensuring the core visuals are accurate; then hand it over to Dream 4.0 to generate Chinese posters, e-commerce main images, and add advertisements or layouts.
For example, I used the image generated by Nano Banana above, further modified the cat’s pose and direction in Nano Banana, and then used Dream 4.0 to create an advertisement for a maid café:
Help me design a poster for a maid café using this image, with “Welcome” written vertically on the left, “Meow Meow Maid Café” written vertically on the right, and at the bottom, in very large artistic font, “Cat Cafe”. The poster should have some large transparent pink heart bubbles rendered, with a pink border around it, and a white border on the outermost layer.
By the way, this cat is the only designated mascot of this public account, designed by AI based on keywords I provided
~ Isn’t it adorable
~ So my conclusion is:Don’t get caught up in choosing one; use them in the same workflow, and you will find that both your creative efficiency and the quality of the final product have improved significantly~
Do you prefer the “all-rounder” Nano Banana or the “Chinese-speaking” Dream 4.0? Or have you tried combining them? Feel free to leave a comment; perhaps we can spark more useful workflows!