⚡ 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
Fixed the connection from NAG to SampleCustomAdvanced
The CFG Guider node is now properly connected to NAG
Added a couple token counters from ComfyUI-JNodes
Some sources says to keep your token counts at 77 or lower for the best results. I don't necessarily agree, but now you can see how many tokens are in your positive and negative prompts.
The switch toward the end of the workflow was removed and the "steps" for the initial image are now controlled by a single node.
The node that is actually in use should be properly displayed on the progress bar now.
Changed some of the layout and added various Markdown Notes throughout the workflow.
Default settings are for what I consider "Simple Mode" using Euler A CFG ++ with the Beta Scheduler. As always, please adjust the settings to your preferences.
Custom Nodes used in the version are from:
As previously mentioned:
The Laplace Scheduler is not recommended for people new to ComfyUI and/or are not comfortable with figuring out settings on your own.
If you do want to try it out, I suggest not messing with the settings on the LaplaceScheduler node other than "steps".
It's very sensitive to what you prompt in both positive and negative prompts, so prompt with caution (or go wild).
The Basic Scheduler node (which is the default) works like the same normal KSampler settings, but some people have ran into random compatibility issues with it before. It's a Comfy Core node, so it has to be something on their installs causing the conflict.
On the Basic Scheduler node: you control the Scheduler, Steps, and Denoise.
SamplerCustomAdvanced is now the only KSampler for the initial image on this workflow
Confirmed it works even with RES4LYF installed
This node is not affected by the Global Sampler node, so the sampler and scheduler have to bet set manually here.
The CFG setting is also separate here since I tend to use sa_solver with Laplace but other combos for the rest of the workflow.
The Global Seed and Global Sampler nodes will override any of the settings related to them across the workflow.
Using a sampler or scheduler not compatible with any of the nodes will result in an error.
You can bypass or delete these two nodes if you want to do these settings manually on each node.
Does not affect the sampler or scheduler settings connected to SamplerCustomAdvanced (if it is in the workflow).
After the most recent update, sometimes even after setting the seed to fixed, it doesn't always pick up where you left off. This may be due to comfy unloading something. Just a guess.
CFG is tied to the “CFG” node to the left of the KSampler.
Delete this node if you want to set CFG manually on each node.
The detailers can be used for whatever you want as long as you have the detection models.
The detailer nodes used in this workflow take all detected items and do them at the same time.
You can use whatever detection model you want. You don't have to use what I use.
If you are seeing busted results in the detailers try adding something to the wildcard spec field to help guide the detailer.
Example: only one eye is detected and the detailer is turning into nightmare fuel
set the Global Seed to Fixed
try adding "eye" (without quotes) to the wildcard spec field
click Run
If you’re using the Nodes 2.0 feature: you are on your own.