AI Generated Art
Fueled by the creativity from artificially generated photos, illustrations and other forms of art, I’ve experimented with different platforms to test out different prompts, styles and ideas. It was at times hilarious, the results can be really hit and miss, but also breath taking, when things worked out.
Clearly not every service is made equal, and not every prompt gives you quality results. One query the AI knows perfectly how to shape adult sized hands, and the next query the hand could look like a baby hand with 3 fingers.
I decided to attempt to create some fictional characters for my fictional video game “What Happened Here”. I made the choice to attempts to make them detectives, in a winter setting, but otherwise let the AI have creative freedom. The results were interesting.
Adobe Photoshop & AI
The particular AI I used to generate these images seemed to have a problem creating the top of the heads of any character it made, in the sense it would never generate it. It would either crop off the top of the head, or they would look very interesting, but not very human like.
This wasn’t so much a problem for me, it had been a fun experiment. But then Adobe released a variety of A.I. functions in its products during Adobe Max 2023, and of course I wanted to try them out. I let the generative AI in Photoshop attempt to repair the heads of the characters, and the results were far better than I expected.
It’s clear how superior Adobe has become over the years to resolve details, even in its earlier smart features, such as content awareness. I still was not prepare for the beauty in which it was able to complete the image.
Ethics of A.I.
With new technology come new opportunities, new questions, but also new concerns. I can’t pretend to have answers to this, but since I have this little space where I can speak my mind, I am going to give this my 2 cents. While I understand the concerns of creatives, that their careers are in danger of being replaced by A.I., I think there’s always a sense that as artists we live on borrowed time.
We’re able to work on our passions by donations of culture enjoyers, the tax money put aside to encourage the arts, and generous donors who want to put their money in a place that makes a difference, in a field they want to promote.
That said, we might end up being replaced, or we find alternative new ways to put our creativity into the making process, and that might include fewer hand labor, more use of generative tools doing some of the work for us. In particular I am thinking how printing press replaced the marksmanship of monks, human computers been replaced by the technological computer, and how Adobe has replaced most of traditional graphic design.
Advancements in technology have been able to improve our lives in a way, we still cannot full quantify. Should we have handbrakes and should there be room for questions? Absolutely. But this is also a time to test, to learn and to consider the endless opportunities this could bring to us all.
