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> is that the barrier to entry is very different from for example drawing Thqt got me thinking. I agree, but from another perspective: the skillset is differe
by MayeulC 3y ago
> is that the barrier to entry is very different from for example drawing
Thqt got me thinking. I agree, but from another perspective: the skillset is different. Traditionally, the approach to art was very bottom-up. Start with a pen and basic contouring techniques. Understanding more advanced techniques require a lot of work (perspective, shadows, etc).
"AI" art generally does away with basic techniques. The emphasis is more on composing, styling. A top-down approach. "AI" artists may be able to iterate quicker by seeing "almost-finished" versions quickly (though a skilled artist can most likely imagine their work pretty well).
But most of all, the tools and required skills are very different. You don't need to know a lot about machine learning, but it certainly helps. Probably pretty far from the skillset of most current artists. And people generally fear what they don't understand. And if I was an artist, I'd be at least a bit concerned about (i) it undercutting the value of my art, (ii) having to learn this alien way of doing things to remain competitive (by way of selection, artists probably enjoy their current tools.
Anyway, I imagine photography was similarly upsetting in a lot of ways. It also didn't happen overnight. I also suspect we are going to see similar improvements to output quality as in early days of photography.
Another similarity is with digital music (and recording/remixing before that). I wonder if we're going to see new genres emerge as a result (the equivalent of techno/electro).
- Paul-Craft 3y agoYour comment in particular captures it, but I can imagine a lot of the same sort of comments on this post being made about film cameras when they came out, then again about digital cameras.
- prpl 3y agoDigital cameras made burst photos go from $.25+ a frame at 5FPS to effectively free with rates at 30+FPS now. That was transformative but also lead to all sorts of lamentations about lack of skill
- rprospero 3y agoI remember my university photography club trying to get digital cameras banned from campus because "art only happens in the darkroom".
- dragonwriter 3y agoEvery new technology which can be applied where existing art or artisanship exists causes similar lamentations, LLMs and image (which includes video) generation (especially because it spans visual styles from “photograph-like” to “cartoonish” to “3d-rendered” to…) just is doing for an unusually wide swath at the same time.
- zirgs 3y agoBefore AI art there was 3D art. You need to get good at 3D sculpting, but the renderer handles a lot of hard stuff for you. Perspective, shadows, global illumination, light refraction, caustics, realistic materials, etc Some people also didn't consider it to be "real" art.
- MayeulC 3y agoAnd yet 3D artists are also reckoning with the fallout of generated images: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35308498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35308498 This complain in particular strikes me as someone who enjoyed the process more than the result. Very specialized crafting skills, now made, not useless, but not required to obtain a similar result. And, if reducing things to a market, competing with a very orthogonal set of skills.
- zirgs 3y ago3D artists can also generate concept art easier and there are many models that can generate tileable textures. "3D Stable Diffusion" doesn't exist yet, but some projects look promising.