Qwen 2.1 outpaint that only paints the sides: 100% pixel-true center, full workflow released

Environmental_Fan600 · reddit · 2026-10-24

Tired of 'expand image' workflows redrawing the whole photo, the author built a Qwen 2.1 + ComfyUI outpainting pipeline that only paints the sides and strictly preserves the original image, with full reproducible details:

Method

Scale photo to 960px tall, center on a 2240x960 (21:9) canvas
Pre-fill empty sides with mirrored photo edges to prevent a hard grey edge bleeding through the VAE
A soft mask lets Qwen paint the sides plus a 224px ramp over the photo edge; the clean photo is the reference image (not the padded canvas), since Qwen copies references very literally
Generate with Qwen 2.1 (25 steps, CFG 1, differential diffusion), then paste the untouched original back at the exact position, fading in over 192px per edge — the model's version of your photo is discarded entirely

Fidelity check (pixel diff on the subway sample): 52.9% of photo pixels bit-identical, center 100% identical, 93.4% within 2/255; a normal Qwen 2.1 Edit 'make it wider' pass: only 1.2% identical

Limitations: sides only; some seeds leave a visible join (try another seed first); bright objects cut at the frame edge tend to continue as pale strips (trim a few px)

Requirements: recent ComfyUI, Qwen Image 2.1 int8, qwen3vl 8b text encoder, 2.1 VAE, ComfyUIessentials, plus the author's one-file kirooutpaintstitch node pack; workflow published on Civitai

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Qwen 2.1 outpaint that only paints the sides: 100% pixel-true center, full workflow released

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