Anima Artist A/B Variants

You've added a fifth artist to the chain and the output doesn't change. Is the artist too weak, too similar to the others, or did you just typo the tag? Guessing wastes renders. AnimaArtistABVariants ends the guessing: one queue renders a same-seed comparison series - no-mixer baseline, the full mix, and a per-artist breakdown - so you can see with your own eyes whether each artist is pulling its weight.

How it works

It's a fan-out node. You give it your chain, and it emits a list of variant chains plus a list of matching labels, all sharing your seed. Wire the artist_chain list output into AnimaArtistPack.artist_chain, wire the label output into your SaveImage.filename_prefix, and each variant renders under a name you can tell apart.

The mode dropdown picks the flavor:

• solo_each (default) - one variant per artist alone. The classic "does this tag work in isolation" test.
• leave_one_out - the full mix minus one artist each. The "would the mix be worse without this artist" test.
• cumulative - add artists one by one. Shows what each new artist contributes on top of the previous stack.
• off_vs_full - just the baseline vs the full mix. The quick sanity check.

Two booleans shape the series: include_no_mixer (baseline render) and include_full_mix (the complete chain), both on by default. Weights, @layers, and %timing routes stay attached to their artist in every variant - so a solo variant of a layered artist still uses that artist's route.

Outputs

artist_chain (STRING list) and label (STRING list) as described, plus a report STRING summarizing the series. Since v27.6 you can also wire the decoded images and label into AnimaArtistContactSheet to get the whole comparison back as one labeled grid instead of a folder of loose files.

Install

Manager → search "Anima Artist Mixer Forge", or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/peter119lee/Anima-Artist-Mixer-Forge

then restart. No extra dependencies; standard Anima model files and the Anima-compatible CLIP loader. Remove the original Anima-Artist-Mixer if installed (same node names).

My take

This is the single most useful diagnostic in the pack, and the README agrees - it calls the solo A/B "the definitive test," even above the tag-checker. The reason: the tag vocabulary can't know about a tiny artist below its snapshot threshold, but a same-seed solo render never lies. If the solo render shows the artist's style plainly and your full mix ignores it, the artist isn't broken - the mixing is. And leave_one_out is the mode you want when you're pruning a chain that's gotten too crowded.