Media Library

Generate Images with AI

5 min read

Create a custom illustration from a text description, right in the image picker — no stock search or upload needed.

Berdee can create a fresh illustration for an image widget from a short description. Instead of searching stock libraries or drawing something yourself, you describe what you want and Berdee generates it — then saves it to your media library like any other image.

There are two places this happens: automatically when the Assistant builds a lesson for you, and on demand from the studio whenever you want to make or replace an image.

When the Assistant illustrates for you

When you have the Assistant build a lesson, it writes a detailed picture description for each image spot and generates the artwork during the build — in one consistent style across the lesson and in the colors of the lesson's theme. The lesson arrives with real pictures already in place, each with its alt text written, and the images are attached to the lesson automatically when it's delivered.

Every description is screened before anything is generated, and every finished picture is checked again before it's added (see Some images can't be used). If one is refused, or an image can't be generated for any other reason, that spot stays an empty placeholder and the rest of the lesson is unaffected — a build never fails because of a picture. Skipped pictures aren't listed scene by scene, so look through the delivered lesson and fill any empty picture spot from the studio, as described below. Full walkthrough: Have Berdee Build a Lesson.

Scenes that Ask Berdee builds into an open lesson are different on purpose: they arrive with empty picture spots, and Ask Berdee offers to run an image search for you instead of generating.

Generating an image yourself

Generation lives in the image picker, alongside search, your own files, and upload:

Open the image picker — select the image widget and click Choose image (or Replace image) above it, or double-click the widget on the canvas.
Go to the Generate tab.
Describe the image you want — for example, _"a friendly cartoon water droplet on a white background."_
Pick a shape: Landscape, Square, or Portrait.
Click Generate image.

The new illustration is added to your media library and dropped straight into whatever you opened the picker for. Because it's a real library asset, it behaves exactly like an uploaded or stock image — you can reuse it, organize it, and it travels with the lesson when you publish or assign.

Every generated picture goes through the same safety check as an upload. Rarely, one isn't suitable for a lesson and isn't added; you'll see _"This image can't be used in Berdee"_ with an Ask for a review link. A picture that isn't added doesn't use up a generation from your monthly AI usage. Rephrase the description and generate again. More in Some images can't be used.

The Generate tab appears wherever you're choosing an _image_. Audio and video pickers don't have it, because generation makes still pictures.

You can also generate outside a lesson: the Media Library page (Media in the sidebar) has a Generate image tab. An image made there goes straight into your library, ready to use in any lesson later.

Making another version

Generation always creates a new image rather than replacing one, so you can try a description, look at the result, adjust the wording, and go again. Every attempt stays in your library until you remove it — so you can compare two takes and keep the better one.

Which plan includes it

Image generation is part of your monthly AI usage, so it's available on Plus and above. On the free plan the Generate tab still appears, and generating shows you what upgrading would unlock rather than a dead end. Generation shares the same monthly AI allowance as Ask Berdee.

Writing a good description

The description is the whole instruction, so be concrete about what a student should see:

Name the subject and the style. _"A flat vector illustration of a smiling sun"_ beats _"a picture about weather."_
Describe the key elements. _"A blue rain cloud with three raindrops, white background"_ gives a much more useful result than _"rain."_
Keep text out of the picture unless you specifically need a label — generated text can be unreliable, and most classroom visuals read better without it.

Vague descriptions produce vague images. Picture what you want a child to see, and describe that.

Aspect and fit

You choose the shape — Landscape, Square, or Portrait — when you generate. The image widget uses a _contain_ fit by default, so the picture sits neatly inside the frame even if the proportions aren't an exact match; pick the shape closest to the space you're filling and don't worry about precise dimensions.

Remix an image you already have

Sometimes a picture is _almost_ right — the correct barn, the wrong weather. Instead of describing the whole thing again from scratch, start from the image itself.

Click any image to preview it — one of your own files or a stock result, in the image picker or on the Media Library page — and choose Remix with AI. Berdee opens the Generate tab (Generate image on the Media Library page) with that picture attached, and the description box changes to ask what you want _changed_.

Say what to change, not what the picture already is. _"Make the sky stormy"_ works better than _"a barn with a stormy sky."_
Your original is never touched. A remix is saved as a new file in your library, so you keep both.
Remix costs the same as generating — one image from your monthly AI usage.
Remixing a stock result imports it first. That's deliberate: it means you're working from a properly licensed copy, and it's why a Vecteezy remix arrives without a watermark.
Large photos work too. A big original (over 4 MB, like a full-size stock photo) is shrunk automatically before it's sent — the saved original stays full size.
To go back to describing a picture from scratch, click the ✕ on the attached image.

Remix is for images only — video can't be remixed.

When to use generation vs. other sources

Generation is best when you want a custom, on-theme illustration that doesn't exist in a stock library — a specific character, a labeled diagram, or a scene tailored to your lesson. When something close already exists, Remix is usually faster and more predictable than describing it again. For a realistic photo, or for ready-made clipart and backgrounds, stock search is often faster — one box covers Pexels, Pixabay, and Vecteezy. For media you already own, that same Search tab pins your matching files above the stock results, and the Browse tab holds all your files.