Wednesday, July 19, 2023

A.I., Tool -or- Digital Pyramid Scheme?

So - popping in after an uneventful birthday passing, as is the case annually & has become a norm.

That stated, I spend a week or two in a corner of the internet that has been criminalized and touted as evil by many on social media. Artificial Intelligence art generation/image generation has the face value of being comparable to Wal-Mart entering a wholely local store community.

My brief dipping of a toe into this puddle of A.I. came from my growing interest in Virtual Youtubers (VTubers). I have a pointed view on VTubing that I will save for a future post.

Needless to say. One of VTubing's tools, Live 3D, had an online Artificial Intelligence generator for both Anime Characters & "Waifu" creation that I felt I had to at least tinker with. After a week or two (on & off between work, sleep, & life) and an indeterminant amount of attempts to change prompts & settings of which I did not know the intended use, I reached my goal of what I wanted to create.

© 2023 Celix Productions, Dave McCoy - Characters & Imagery


Pictured above are my attempts to visualize with A.I. 3 sister characters known as "The Kawaiichi Sisters' " who all live together and are all humanized abilities Kawaiichis. The details of Kawaiichi's should also be a blog post. Admittedly, I should be using past tense wording, but I just haven't gotten that much of an opportunity to try and dance my fingers across the keyboard and flesh out information.

I'm bringing myself back to focus here. Where does A.I. sit with me as an artist (granted a less active one) who knows the claims of illegal and blatant use of uncredited data for creations? The morality of people profiting off imagery that they made prompts them to create? The track record of minimal effort art that may lack warmth and emotion from an actual person bleeding a part of themselves in every line and stroke?

In the end - I look at A.I. as a use for reference. There is, still, no better way to express yourself visually & emotionally while imprinting a part of yourself onto paper than with physical art.

Physical art, as defined by me, is use of your hand and arm to create an image, be it traditionally or digitally. I feel A.I. can find itself cooperative within this scope through reference. Myself & others are more internally minded. For me, I find it easier to understand things mentally & characters tend to surface from RPG chats in the past, random days at work around machinery, or the day-to-day I observe.

I may not be giving the best wording for it, but I cannot visually see in my mind the character, only feel what kind of "vibes" they give off or a placeholder, much like an NPC, but in my head. Others can visualize and see characters and stories in detail internally & those same people may not have as easy of time finding the "vibe" or attitude embodied by that entity.

There is nothing wrong with either way.

Again, art is a way to express yourself and release emotion. A.I. also brings to the table a way to use keywords you may already know for a character, some real-life traits, and general background info to generate a starter pack entity. It could also be a tool for those, again like myself, who struggle with pose setup or suffer the same "insert body space here" syndrome.

I'd suggest using A.I. just as I used it in the prior noted image - as a reference for the characters involved. Offering a template to visualize characters you may still be developing or haven't the foggiest idea what they look like other than an entity apart of your other character's lives/story.

I would say to avoid using this new medium to create full-finished artwork for the reasons I stated earlier. If you're using art as a fast-track scheme to riches or to be the latest talked-about creator, making your income on A.I., you're simply short-changing yourself from a form of peace. There are also moral and legal issues that, while hearsay, could discredit a creator using the medium.

Art, as a medium, bears such priceless advantages and journeys for anyone who steps into it. Be it traditional or digital drawing, photography, or writing. The arts, as a whole, should still be done by hand and facilitate inner peace and the release of negative emotions.

Let me know your thoughts on A.I.

Do you agree its use solely as a reference source may bring legitimacy to the otherwise hated media? Or have the bridges been burned on the topic for you?

I'll try to post more entries as best I can between those earlier-mentioned roadblocks. Should I try to get a Kawaiichi dossier post created next, or should I fawn over VTubers' in-text?

You can try Live3D's A.I. generator at: https://live3d.io/ai_anime_art_generator

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