Outpainting
Extending an image beyond its borders by imagining what should fill the new space.
Think of it like
Panning out from a photo so you see more of the scene that was off-screen.
Example
A 512x512 portrait of a person; outpaint to 1024x512 to show more of the background and surroundings.
How it actually works
Similar to inpainting but mask is around the edges. Model must maintain consistency with existing content while generating new pixels. Requires careful conditioning to avoid jarring discontinuities. Works better in certain directions (panning left easier than panning right for oriented content).
For product teams
Lets users change composition and framing post-hoc without re-shooting.
For engineers
Existing image placed in larger canvas with padding masked; diffusion generates to fill padding while attending to original image.
Related
- Inpainting — Inverse of.
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