Prompt · Image

Turn Your City into a Miniature World

Turn a place name into a miniature landscape rising from a paper map, with local landmarks and everyday scenes. Copy the shared prompt into an image-capable AI tool and adapt the city, landmarks, and activities.

@leo_xiaolei

View post ↗ Read tutorial ↓

miniature
cityscape
image-generation
prompt

Quick start

Prompt

You are an art director specializing in miniature photography, urban geography, and travel magazine covers.

The user will provide only a place name. Handle location identification, geographic checks, landmark selection, everyday scenes, composition, image generation, typography, and final inspection. Deliver one complete image, rather than asking the user to fill in a brief or returning only a prompt or plan.

ONLY INPUT
Place: {the user's place name}

1. Identify the location

Use the name and conversation context to determine the location, country or region, accurate Chinese name, commonly used English name, and coordinates of a representative central point.

For ambiguous names, use the context. Without context, choose the most common interpretation and briefly identify it on delivery.

For a city, old town, neighborhood, island, or scenic area, choose a suitable map extent and representative scenery. Do not force a metropolitan skyline onto every place.

When web access is available, prioritize official maps, local government and tourism sources, and landmark websites to verify:
- Basic shapes of mountains, waterways, coastlines, and main roads.
- Actual relative positions of representative landmarks.
- Local everyday details, English names, and coordinates.
Research only what affects the image; do not deliver a research report.

Do not invent rivers, coastlines, buildings, customs, or dialect without reliable evidence. Do not describe an unverified generated map as geographically precise.

2. Final image

Create one detailed miniature-photography-style image in a strict 3:4 portrait aspect ratio, resembling both a premium travel magazine cover and a collectible city model.

Keep it quiet, refined, realistic, and visually well organized. Avoid cartoon, low-poly, game-scene, and concept-art styles.

Prefer the host's built-in image generation and the highest quality settings actually available. Use only supported parameters; words such as “ultra-clear” or “8K” do not establish the actual output resolution.

3. Paper map base

A real paper map lies on a table and fills the frame. Use subtle natural folds, fine fibers, and restrained print texture. Keep it clean, without yellow stains or exaggerated damage.

Use a high, nearly overhead viewpoint that keeps the map readable while revealing building roofs and sides, with approximately isometric spatial relationships. Maintain consistent projection throughout.

The map must reflect the place's actual geography:
- Include a coast only where one exists; do not add an ocean to an inland location.
- Position rivers, lakes, mountains, and plains in plausible geographic relationships.
- Make major roads and the urban layout recognizable, rather than presenting random lines as an accurate street network.
- Use sparse, low-contrast map labels with conventional printed-map styling. No gibberish or meaningless text.

4. A miniature city emerging from the map

At the relevant map location, let a refined three-dimensional miniature landscape emerge naturally from the paper.

Printed roads become raised streets; flat terrain becomes gentle relief. Buildings must visibly connect to the map, rather than sitting on a separate base, floating island, or detached model.

Select 2–3 of the place's most recognizable landmarks or landscapes:
- For architectural locations, choose distinctive buildings with varied forms, combining old and new where appropriate.
- For natural locations, use representative peaks, bays, bridges, or settlements; do not invent city buildings.
- Establish one primary focal point, with the others supporting it.
- Preserve real relative directions instead of arranging landmarks arbitrarily.
- Do not crowd the image with every attraction.

Allow deliberate artistic compression of distances, buildings, and terrain to combine an overview with everyday details. Do not claim that the whole city is a uniformly scaled survey model.

5. Three local everyday scenes

Choose three distinctly local scenes recognizable through small objects and actions.

Draw on local breakfasts, transport, street life, markets, waterside activities, crafts, or leisure. Reflect actual life, avoiding three generic stalls or treating tourist symbols as every resident's daily routine.

For each scene, establish:
- What people are doing.
- What recognizable objects they hold or have nearby.
- How the scene connects to a street, courtyard, waterfront, or building.

Distribute these scenes across separate small areas within the same city. They should be individually readable without becoming a collage or separate illustration panels.

6. People and stories

Include 15–20 detailed miniature figures with the crafted appearance of 1:87 scale models. Keep each figure's local scale consistent with nearby doors, windows, vehicles, stalls, and furniture.

Plan the count and actions internally before generation. Avoid duplicate figures and aimless standing. Give everyone a specific activity, such as queuing for breakfast, passing food, cycling, carrying groceries, tending a stall, reading, walking a dog, waiting for transport, sweeping, strolling, or taking a photograph.

Keep actions simple and readable. Bodies must be properly supported, feet touch the ground, and hands connect correctly to objects. Integrate figures naturally rather than lining them up for display.

Do not include recognizable real faces or oversized cartoon heads.

7. Art direction and materials

Establish complete forms, continuous light and shade, and visual hierarchy before adding details.

Give major buildings clear silhouettes and volume. Roofs, streets, slopes, trees, and water should first read as coherent large shapes. Fine details should clarify materials and local character.

Do not simulate detail with scattered bright specks, scratches, grain, noisy foliage, harsh edges, or excessive sharpening.

Render materials according to their physical properties:
- Buildings: matte resin, fine card, miniature wooden components.
- Roofs and roads: subtle tiles, masonry, and paving, without exaggerated texture.
- Vegetation: flocked grass and coherent model-tree canopies.
- Water: a thin layer of clear acrylic with restrained transmission and reflection.
- Paper: soft fibers and natural folds, without coarse texture across the entire image.

Use one credible, soft studio side light as the key light, with natural ambient fill where needed. Shadows, highlights, and reflections must follow a consistent lighting setup.

Evoke tilt-shift macro photography: keep landmarks and key everyday scenes clear, with slight blur at the paper's perimeter. Do not hide structural problems behind global soft focus, gray haze, or plastic gloss.

Base colors on local architecture, terrain, and everyday surroundings. Control the main color relationships while retaining local color. Do not automatically make everything gray or desaturated. Avoid unsupported neon or clashing saturated colors.

8. Cover composition

Concentrate the subject in the middle and lower portions, occupying roughly two thirds of the visual space. Leave enough map visible around it to show the city emerging from paper.

Reserve clean title space in the upper left, unobstructed by mountains, buildings, or strong map lines.

Leave a quiet small area for a signature at the lower left and a local phrase at the lower right.

Keep margins, baselines, and alignment consistent. Add no frame, stickers, decorative badges, or extra promotional slogans.

9. Accurate text and typography

Include only the following necessary text and a few accurate map labels:

1) Large Chinese title at the upper left:
Use the place's accurate, commonly used Chinese name. Choose an elegant, legible Song-style typeface or another Chinese font suited to the location, with complete strokes, stable letterforms, and clear edges. Use flat printed type, without extrusion, glow, embossing, or exaggerated shadows.

2) One small line below the title:
“{common English name} {latitude}°N/S {longitude}°E/W”
Use the correct hemispheres and a restrained, readable small typeface. Coordinates identify a representative central reference point, not a shared position for every pictured landmark.

3) One small handwritten phrase at the lower right:
Choose a short, natural everyday phrase with local character, preferably related to the depicted activities. If dialect cannot be verified, use a Mandarin phrase appropriate to local life instead of inventing dialect. Do not use a slogan or explain the phrase.

For final typography, use separate text layers and check the wording for accuracy: generate the main visual with space for text, then add the text using fonts. Do not assume generated lettering is finished typography.

If the host can only generate images with embedded text, check every character. Correct mistakes, gibberish, missing characters, and duplicated text. If accurate typography cannot be completed, disclose this instead of presenting incorrect lettering as acceptable.

10. Inspect and correct the actual image

View the generated image before delivery and check:
- Whether the aspect ratio is 3:4, and the actual pixel dimensions.
- Recognizable landmarks and plausible relative directions.
- A natural connection between city and paper.
- Three readable everyday scenes.
- A figure count of 15–20, with credible actions and contact with objects.
- Consistent materials, light, shadows, and spatial relationships.
- Distracting fragmented detail, plastic appearance, or unnecessary clutter.
- Accurate Chinese, English, coordinates, and local phrase, each appearing only once.
- Brand logos, unrelated watermarks, or recognizable real faces.

Correct the relevant region and underlying cause while retaining successful composition, subjects, colors, and landmarks. Do not arbitrarily remake the whole image to fix one detail.

Successfully saving a file, writing a detailed prompt, or passing automated checks does not establish visual quality.

11. Delivery

Deliver one complete, downloadable final image. Briefly state its actual dimensions. Mention only necessary limitations concerning map precision, scale, or typography.

This is an AI-generated miniature-photography-style artwork, not a photograph of a physical model.

Unless the user asks otherwise, do not provide the production process, alternatives, long explanations, or an image set. Complete this one image directly.

Overview

What you get

The complete prompt.
A Beijing reference image showing a miniature city emerging from a paper map.
Instructions for choosing landmarks, arranging everyday scenes, and checking typography.

Good fit

Creating city-themed posters or travel illustrations.
Adapting a recognizable miniature style to your hometown or destination.

Not for

Installing an agent skill package: this post shares a prompt, not an installer.
Producing a survey-grade map or assuming generated lettering is always accurate.

Tutorial

Understand the miniature city

In the author’s Beijing example above, printed roads connect to raised streets, landmarks such as the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven establish the city, and nearby courtyards, stalls, and people add everyday life. For your own version, make the location recognizable first, then give viewers small scenes to explore.

This is an image-generation prompt, with no skill package to install. Send the prompt to an AI tool that can generate images and specify a location. The original post does not identify a model. Geographic research, image generation, and separate text layers depend on your chosen tool’s capabilities.

The Chinese prompt is the author’s full reply; the English version is an Opuskill translation. The author also credits @guanmo_ai for inspiration; see the related links. The instructions below are editorial examples and have not been tested by generating images.

Choose your city

Copy the full prompt and replace “Place: {the user’s place name}” with a specific location, such as “Place: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.” A province or country helps distinguish places with the same name.
Send the edited prompt in an image-generation conversation. It requests a 3:4 portrait image combining local landmarks and three everyday scenes on a paper map.
Review whether the landmarks belong to the location and whether the city connects naturally to the paper. Then inspect figures, materials, and lettering. Prompt requirements are not a guarantee that the tool will meet them accurately.

The Beijing reference has no cover title, while the full prompt requests a title, coordinates, and a local phrase. To keep the reference’s landscape-only treatment, replace those text requirements before sending: “Keep only essential map labels. Do not add a cover title, coordinates, signature, or local phrase.”

Choose landmarks and everyday scenes

Make it feel like the place you know

A city name leaves landmark selection to the AI. For a particular neighborhood or a project with your own references, append a more specific brief:

Focus on the area around West Lake in Hangzhou, rather than the whole city.
Use the lake and Leifeng Pagoda as the main features, preserving their actual relative positions.
Show people walking beside the lake, cycling, and drinking tea. Use my reference photos to arrange people and objects.
Check the references first. Do not invent buildings or local customs you cannot verify.

Look for activities expressed through specific actions and objects. “Lively local atmosphere” gives less useful direction than explaining what people do and what they use. Supply your own reference photographs and confirm that you have permission to use them.

Adapt it to your purpose

A travel poster can emphasize a destination and visitor experiences; a hometown keepsake can focus on familiar streets and daily routines. Replace the brackets in this brief:

Location: [country, region, city, or clearly defined neighborhood].
Purpose: [travel poster, hometown keepsake, or another use].
Main scenery: [one focal point and one or two supporting landmarks].
Everyday scenes: [three specific activities and associated objects].
References: [photos, maps, or reliable sources I provide].
Text: [exact wording to include, or no cover text].
Keep the miniature landscape naturally connected to its paper map and compose the image around this scope.

Correct lettering and local details

If a building is wrong, edit that region while retaining the successful composition and style. In a tool that supports image editing, attach the current image and send:

Change only the incorrect building on the right. Match its silhouette to the reference photograph.
Keep the paper map, main landmarks, colors, and other everyday scenes.
Connect the replacement naturally to the surrounding streets. Do not add landmarks.

Check every character and verify coordinates independently. If lettering remains wrong, generate the main visual with empty text areas, then add real fonts in a design application. After export, check legibility, cropped edges, and whether the actual pixel dimensions suit the intended use.

Miniature compositions compress distances and may enlarge people for readability. Do not treat them as accurate maps or uniformly scaled models. A publicly shared prompt does not establish unrestricted commercial permission; for client work, check terms for the original image, reference materials, and generation service separately.