⚡ Illustrious Workflow as of version 18
🛠️ Purpose & Design Philosophy
This workflow is a high-fidelity environment built for Illustrious XL. It prioritizes stability and professional texture over generation speed. It follows an "all-in-one" philosophy: configure your prompts, hit queue, and let the workflow handle the multi-stage refinement from start to finish.
Not for Speed: This is a heavy-duty refinement tool. If you want 2-second previews, use a basic SDXL workflow.
Personal Use: Built for my specific production needs. It is shared as-is for those who want a "set-and-forget" pipeline for Illustrious.
All-in-One Logic: The workflow handles generation, detailing, and upscaling in one continuous pass.
🚀 Key Features & 2026 Logic
Global Model Patching (RescaleCFG): Includes a pre-configured RescaleCFG patch (Multiplier: 0.7) applied globally. This acts as "HDR Insurance," preventing the "deep-fried" or over-saturated look common in high-CFG Illustrious runs.
Detail Daemon Sampler: Integrated to enhance structural depth. In this version, it is tuned to start at 0.4 to preserve the core Illustrious character proportions while sharpening hair and eye details.
Hybrid Upscale Strategy: * Group Bypass Switch: Easily toggle between a Pixel-only (Lanczos) path for flat anime styles and an Upscale-Model path for 2.5D/highly detailed renders.
Ultimate SD Upscale: Re-draws the upscaled canvas at a 0.35 denoise to lock in fine textures.
Power LoRA Loader: Manage multiple Illustrious-specific LoRAs without messy wiring.
Triple Detailer Groups: 3-stage targeted refinement for faces, hands, and clothing using standard detection models.
CivitAI Meta-Sync: Images are saved with full metadata (Model, LoRAs, Sampler info) for automatic site parsing.
⚠️ Disclaimer & Compatibility
Install at Your Own Risk: Custom nodes can break your environment. I am not responsible for troubleshooting your specific installation.
ComfyUI Portable: Built and tested on the Portable version. Desktop app users may face additional hurdles.
The "Your Version" Factor: Your node versions and environment are 99.9% likely to differ from mine.
Nodes 2.0: I do not recommend using Nodes 2.0. It creates unpredictable UI behavior; I will not provide support for issues involving this feature.
🤝 Support & Boundaries
No DMs: DMs are disabled due to repeat spam. Please check the Discussions tab below; most questions have already been answered.
Modifications: You are free to hack this workflow apart. However, you are responsible for fixing it if it breaks.
Custom Requests: I do not make private workflows. If you need a custom solution, post a Bounty on CivitAI. There are many talented creators ready to help you for a fee.
Description
Load VAE
This node is now in its own group and is enabled by default
Please ensure your VAE model is selected in this node or it will throw an error
Bypassing the group will switch to loading the baked-in VAE from whatever checkpoint you are using. If your model/checkpoint does not have a VAE baked in, then the images after the initial generation will be washed out.
The reason this is not visible until after is because the VAE is not used until after the initial image generation.
Added CFG Star Zero
This is a built-in Comfy Core node that requires no custom node download.
If you can't find it, then your comfy install is not up-to-date.
Update ComfyUI at your own peril
Dropped FreeU, Detail Daemon, and CFG++SamplerSelect from the workflow.
I pretty much never use these anymore.
Other minor layout changes.
Tried cleaning up some of the connections
Left all of the nodes expanded except for the watermark removal portion of the workflow. This should make it easier for anyone trying to add to or modify the workflow and/or see how things are connected.
Testing was performed using Better Days and the Touching Grass LoRA.
Sampler: sa_solver
Scheduler: karras
Full workflow form start to finish is about 2 to 2.5 minutes on a 5060ti. Your times will vary depending on hardware and settings.
This workflow was built to work with Image Saver, since it is the only node that has consistently worked for providing all of the generation information, including model, loras, embedding, etc. without any manual entry. The nodes used in the workflow are what I have found to work best with Image Saver while still having control over prompts and other settings.
You are free to make your own changes as you see fit and I highly encourage it! Make it your own!