Version XVII

This is an updated personal Illustrious merge, consisting of some of my favorite checkpoints and LoRA's. Bringing it in to 2026! All and massive credit goes to the original creators of the checkpoints and LoRA's.

Tip: Use and weigh for great fur: realistic, (fluffy, detailed fur:1.4),

Improvements compared to Phased Merge XIII:

• Even better and more detailed fur.

• More flexible and dynamic poses.

• Better and more flexible expressions.

• Brighter.

• More coherent and more detailed overall.

Things that possibly got a little worse, even though LoRAs were weighted a little less than the previous merges:

• Species variety in some cases.

• Hands and paws in some cases.

• Teeth.

The biggest improvement is that images generated with this merge can now be used commercially! Specifically some of the LoRA's were reselected with this in mind. Version XIII and VII still use restricted LoRA's, so no selling images generated from the older versions, only with XVII.

Models used for this merge:

Nova Animal V10: https://civarchive.com/models/784543?modelVersionId=2436591
Amanatsu V2: https://civarchive.com/models/1325426?modelVersionId=2288934
Tiger Milk 🐯🌿: https://civarchive.com/models/1635490?modelVersionId=1851225

LoRA's used:

Adjot / Snowskau style: https://civarchive.com/models/1500955/adjot-snowskau-artist-style-illustrious
Zaush Art Style: https://civarchive.com/models/1076338/zaush-artstyle-ponyillustrious
Furry Enhancer (/w permission, tysm!<3): https://civarchive.com/models/310964?modelVersionId=1780880
Detail Tweaker XL: https://civarchive.com/models/122359/detail-tweaker-xl?modelVersionId=135867

Showcase images:

All images in the showcase have been made with 1.5x latent upscale, automatic face and eye detailing, and ESRGAN upscale. Made in ComfyUI in one automatic pipeline. So all in all, be aware that 'base/raw' gens look less refined. Even with the ComfyUI pipeline, inpainting would be required often for paws, teeth and hands to make things perfect. Images have been cherry-picked a little to show off the enhanced fur, details and posing. Gens are based on older prompts of mine.

What does this merge intend to do?

It's merged to change the style of the base Nova Animal closer to my personal preference, with a focus on good fur detailing. It changes the styles of the faces, fur, details and backgrounds compared to the base models. I tried to keep a somewhat cartoony/expressive vibe to it as well.

Nova Animal is mixed with Amanatsu (anime checkpoint) for more flexibility, and Tiger Milk 🐯🌿for a little extra flexibility and further fur detailing. The LoRA's help that too, especially the Furry Enhancer LoRA is quite incredible. The Snowskau LoRA directs the fur style a little, and the Zaush LoRA is lightly weighted to give an aesthetic to faces I personally enjoy. The Zaush LoRA might make other faces (rodents for example) less like they should be though, so a LoRA for that might be needed in those cases.

I did weigh the LoRA's a little less this time around, so the model should be a little more flexible.

License and usage:

This merge honors the license settings the checkpoint/LoRA creators had set for their work. I received permission from the Furry Enhancer LoRA creator to use it in the merge. With this new Phased Merge VXVII you can now commercially use the generated outputs as well! The older versions XIII and VII are still commercially restricted due to the LoRA's used in those versions!

I've only required creator credit in the license in this merge, so that the original creators get properly accredited, this merge is all thanks to them!

Recommended settings:

Resolution: I recommend genning at 1536x1024 (or reversed) for best details. 1280x1280 is possible too of course, even things like 1728x768. If VRAM is a concern or you get wonky results, step down to 'old' resolutions like 1280x768 and upscale more and so on.

Sampler: Euler A for best performance, though other samplers work too of course, each one having some/slight differences. It's personal preference.

Steps: 20-50 steps (30+ preferred imo)

CFG: 3-5

VAE: Integrated. Illustrious-XL-v2.0: https://civarchive.com/models/1684460/illustrious-xl-v20

I can wholeheartedly recommend using Hires Fix if you're an on site user.

'Recommended' base prompts:

Prompt: masterpiece, best quality, very ava, amazing quality, very aesthetic, ultra-detailed, 4k, highres, volumetric lighting, ray tracing, realistic,

Negative Prompt: kid, cub, loli, child, bad quality, worst quality, worst detail, lowres, error, blurry, unfinished, displeasing, oldest, early,

These can be tailored to personal preferences. Many people are divided on the 'best' prompts, and I don't know which are objectively best. This is mostly what I've been using and works for me fairly well. So play around for sure! Results vary.

Since the merge is based on a realism model, you will have to weigh some things a bit more to get the results you want. For a furred kobold I had to weigh things heavily for example. Proper prompts are important!

Important: If you want truly detailed, fluffy fur in most cases, put in and weigh to personal preference:

Prompt: realistic, (fluffy, detailed fur:1.4),

Workflow:

Finally, if you download the RAW showcase images, you can drag it into ComfyUI to get my workflow. It's probably inefficient, and am quite sure it's not as good as others do it, but it could be a decent starting point for you. The workflow regularly hits up to almost 20gb of VRAM though with 1280x896 res because of the upscaling and detailing, and genning batches of 4, so you'd need a card able to manage that. Or step down resolution, cut nodes, and optimize the heck out of ComfyUI, idk. I honestly recommend ReForge for example if you start genning locally. It's easier, has some great plugins, and especially inpainting is quite handy in there. I use Krita with AI diffusion plugin since I prefer ComfyUI, but you can't go wrong with ReForge or similar updated webui's.

You should also even be able to drag the Phased Merge checkpoints itself into ComfyUI and see the simple merge workflow. It's super simple, and for sure not on the amazing level of what the Nova or Furry Enhancer creator or many others are doing! I'm just a guy fiddling with buttons hehe.

Hope you enjoy! Have fun genning, make the best of it, and take care of yourself! ^^

Version XIII

This is a personal Illustrious merge, consisting of some of my favorite checkpoints and LoRA's. All and massive credit goes to the original creators!

Models used for this merge:

Nova Animal V5a: https://civarchive.com/models/784543?modelVersionId=1936160
Amanatsu: https://civarchive.com/models/1325426?modelVersionId=1496755
Tiger Milk 🐯🌿: https://civarchive.com/models/1635490?modelVersionId=1851225

LoRA's used:
Snowskau style: https://civarchive.com/models/1178677/snowskau-style-illustrious
Zaush Artist Style: https://civarchive.com/models/1488390/zaush-artist-style-illustrious
Furry Enhancer (/w permission, tysm!<3): https://civarchive.com/models/310964/furry-enhancer
Detail Tweaker XL: https://civarchive.com/models/122359/detail-tweaker-xl?modelVersionId=135867

Showcase images:

All images in the showcase have been made with Ultimate SD Upscale x2 (Foolhardy Remacri), face and eye detailing, and small refining passes. Made in ComfyUI in one automatic pipeline. So all in all, be aware that 'base/raw' gens look a little less refined, though it's surprisingly close. Images have been cherry-picked a bit more than in my previous merge to show off the enhanced fur, details and posing. Gens are based on older prompts of mine.

What does this merge intend to do?

It's merged to change the style of the base Nova Animal closer to my personal preference, which is in between cartoony and realistic with good fur detailing. It changes the styles of the faces, fur, details and backgrounds compared to the base models.

Nova Animal is mixed with Amanatsu (anime checkpoint) for more flexibility, and Tiger Milk 🐯🌿for a little extra flexibility and further fur detailing. The LoRA's help that too, especially the Furry Enhancer LoRA is quite incredible. Be sure to check out that creator's work, because it's fantastic! The Snowskau LoRA directs the fur style, and the Zaush LoRA is lightly weighted to give an aesthetic to faces I personally enjoy. The Zaush LoRA might make other faces (rodents for example) less like they should be though, so a LoRA for that might be needed in those cases.

Hands and fingers are fairly consistent as far as AI goes, on the level as the base models.

License and usage:

This merge honors the license settings the checkpoint/LoRA creators had set for their work. I received permission from the Furry Enhancer LoRA creator to use it in the merge. This merge is not intended for commercial purposes, only to freely gen cool stuff! <3

(Due to CivitAI Model Page limitation, I cannot set different licenses for each version. This version, VII, is not intended for commercial use!)

I've only required creator credit in the settings so that the original creators get properly accredited, this merge is all thanks to them!

Recommended settings:

Resolution: I recommend genning at 1536x1024 (or reversed) for best details. 1280x1280 is possible too of course, even things like 1728x768. If VRAM is a concern, step down to 'old' resolutions like 1280x768 and so on.

Sampler: Euler A for best performance, though other samplers work too of course, each one having some/slight differences. It's personal preference.

Steps: 20-50 steps (30+ preferred imo)

CFG: 3-5

VAE: Integrated

'Recommended' base prompts:

Prompt: masterpiece, best quality, very ava, amazing quality, very aesthetic, ultra-detailed, 4k, highres, volumetric lighting, ray tracing, realistic,

Negative Prompt: kid, cub, loli, child, bad quality, worst quality, worst detail, lowres, error, blurry, unfinished, displeasing, oldest, early,

These can be tailored to personal preferences. Many people are divided on the 'best' prompts, and I don't know which are objectively best. This is mostly what I've been using and works for me fairly well. So play around for sure! Results vary.

Since the merge is based on a realism model, you might have to weigh some things a bit more to get the results you want. Proper prompts are important!

Important: If you want truly detailed, fluffy fur in most cases, put in and weigh to personal preference:

Prompt: realistic, (fluffy, detailed fur:1.4),

Workflow:

Finally, if you download the RAW images, you can drag it into ComfyUI to get my workflow. It's probably inefficient, and am quite sure it's not as good as others do it, but it could be a decent starting point for you. The workflow regularly hits up to almost 20gb of VRAM though with 1536x1024 res, so you'd need a card able to manage that. Or step down resolution, cut nodes, and optimize the heck out of ComfyUI, idk.

You should even be able to drag the checkpoint itself into ComfyUI and see the simple merge workflow. It's super simple, and for sure not on the amazing level of what the Nova creator or many others are doing! I'm just a guy turning buttons hehe.

Hope you enjoy! Have fun genning, make the best of it, and take care of yourself! ^^

Version VII

This is a personal Illustrious merge with a touch of Pony realism, consisting of some of my favorite checkpoints and LoRA's. All and massive credit goes to the original creators!

Models used for this merge:

Nova Furry V8a: https://civarchive.com/models/503815?modelVersionId=1865201
Nova Animal V4a: https://civarchive.com/models/784543/nova-animal-xl
Pony Realism v22: https://civarchive.com/models/372465?modelVersionId=914390

LoRA's used:
Incase + gothic style mix: https://civarchive.com/models/1059581/incase-gothic-style-mix-or-illustrious
Snowskau style: https://civarchive.com/models/1178677/snowskau-style-illustrious
Detail Tweaker XL: https://civarchive.com/models/122359/detail-tweaker-xl?modelVersionId=135867
XL More Artful: https://civarchive.com/models/124347/xlmoreart-full-xlreal-enhancer?modelVersionId=152309

Showcase images:

All images in the showcase have been made with latent x2 latent upscaling (Foolhardy Remacri), face and eye detailing (though face detailing can be considered a relic, maybe, possibly. Eye detailing is mint though IMO), and small refining passes. Made with ComfyUI. So all in all, be aware that 'base/raw' gens look less refined. Images have been 'cherry-picked' from a single batch of 4 images total, gens based on older prompts of mine.

What does this merge intend to do?

It's merged to change the style of the base Nova Furry a bit to my personal preference, and so I can post images to it correctly lol, since I don't want to flood the Nova pages with unrealistic images to the checkpoint. Anyway, it changes the faces, fur, details and backgrounds a smidge. Nova Furry is mixed with Nova Animal and a touch of Pony Realism for a little more fur detail without going into the true realism zones. The LoRA's help that too. Consider this a somewhat 'in between' checkpoint, with my preferred style added in. The changes can usually be seen in the faces, fur detailing, as well as the backgrounds which are leaning more towards photographic backgrounds now.

Hands and fingers are fairly consistent as far as AI goes, but it's not better than the base models. In fact, fingers and nails might be slightly worse due to the merge, because normal Nova Furry is mixed with realism models, and might require a touch more inpainting sometimes for those very detail oriented.

Note that due to merging, the model has become a little less flexible than the base checkpoints. Also due to Pony Realism being used on top of the Nova models, it's possible that it's limiting the pose diversity and expressions as well, it's a Pony Realism thing. It's not that heavily used though, so it's effect shouldn't be that pronounced.

Edit: After genning a bit more, it is indeed less dynamic/expressive. Define and weight the prompts a bit more to compensate.

License and usage:

Since it's mostly based on Nova and the creator doesn't want the model to be used for commercial purposes, this model honors that as well. It is not intended for commercial purposes, only to freely gen cool stuff! <3

(Due to CivitAI Model Page limitation, I cannot set different licenses for each version. This version, VII, is not intended for commercial use!)

I've only required creator credit in the settings so that the original creators get properly accredited, this merge is all thanks to them!

Recommended settings:

Resolution: I recommend genning at 1536x1024 (or reversed) for best details. 1280x1280 is possible too of course, even things like 1728x768. If VRAM is a concern, step down to 'old' resolutions like 1280x768 and so on.

Sampler: Euler A for best performance, though other samplers work too of course. It's personal preference.

Steps: 20-50 steps (30+ recommended imo)

CFG: 3-5

VAE: Integrated

'Recommended' base prompts:

Prompt: masterpiece, best quality, very ava, amazing quality, very aesthetic, ultra-detailed, 4k, highres, volumetric lighting, ray tracing, realistic,

Negative Prompt: kid, cub, loli, child, bad quality, worst quality, worst detail, lowres, error, unfinished, displeasing, oldest, early, username, watermark, signature,

These can be tailored to personal preferences. Many people are divided on the 'best' prompts, and I don't know which are objectively best. This is mostly what I've been using and works for me fairly well. So play around for sure! Results vary. Keep 'Realistic' in if you want a bit more fur fidelity though.

Workflow:

Finally, if you download the RAW images, you can drag it into ComfyUI to get my workflow. It's probably inefficient, and am quite sure it's not as good as others do it, but it could be a decent starting point for you. The workflow regularly hits up to almost 20gb of VRAM though with 1536x1024 res, so you'd need a card able to manage that. Or step down resolution, cut nodes, and optimize the heck out of ComfyUI, idk.

You should even be able to drag the checkpoint itself into ComfyUI and see the simple merge workflow. It's super simple, and for sure not on the amazing level of what the Nova creator is doing!

Hope you enjoy! Have fun genning, make the best of it, and take care of yourself! ^^