Systems and methods are provided that include a processor executing a program to receive input text from a user. The processor is further configured to, for a predetermined number of iterations, input an initial image into a diffusion process to generate a processed image, back-propagate the processed image through a text-image match gradient calculator to calculate a gradient against the input text, and update the initial image with an image generated by applying the calculated gradient to the processed image. The pixel values of the processed image during a first portion of the predetermined number of iterations are value clamped to a first range, and pixel values of the processed image during a second portion of the predetermined number of iterations are value clamped to a second range that is a subset of the first range.