4 ms·

This is 100% AI slop, cool story and all but I'd 100 times rather see a very poorly drawn 2007 animation than any of this.

swiftcoder 10mo ago
Tbf, the original is also slop (albeit of the pre-AI variety)
- jesucresta 10mo ago
  no is not, the original is full of personality and ideas even if its poorly drawn and kitsch.
  - shadowgovt 10mo ago
    Yes, but also literally AI slop. Stock characters auto-puppeted to a text script with text-to-voice run across it. The artist's input was writing the text and signing off on the final auto-generated product. The reason the two characters in the video are weird superheroes is those were the available stock characters in the XtraNormal.com service he used. After all, the creator didn't want to be an professinal full-time animator, he just wanted to animate three minutes.
    - jesucresta 10mo ago
      It is only "literally AI slop" if you widen the definition to include anything made using computers. That is not an honest take on what content made with AI is. The original author chose those assets and that background, other people made those assets on the first place and had to take a ton of tiny creative choices that changed the final thing and help transmit ideas and feelings (of uncanniness, vulgarity, surrealism, whatever). Anyone can tell the difference between one and the other.
      - morshu9001 10mo ago
        Text to speech in the 2000s would be considered AI
      - caymanjim 10mo ago
        The things we called AI back then weren't AI. The things we call AI now aren't AI either. The definition remains wide.
        SoftTalker 10mo ago
        Sounds like Humpty-Dumpty.
    - darkwater 10mo ago
      > Yes, but also literally AI slop. Stock characters auto-puppeted to a text script with text-to-voice run across it. Maybe I'm wrong but I would say that the slop feeling of the original version was a deliberate decision and part of its charm. That kind of video and voices were a meme back then, IIRC.
      - swiftcoder 10mo ago
        As is the slop feeling of the current, no doubt. I don't think that changes it being "slop" in the sense of low-effort and mostly generated by machine learning (rather than hand-edited like a machinima)
    - hbn 10mo ago
      If the tech stack used to make that video makes it "AI slop" then every video game cutscene is AI slop.
      - parpfish 10mo ago
        video game cutscenes usually involve real artists designing and animating the characters, not just using preset stock characters
      - shadowgovt 10mo ago
        Most videogame cutscenes (well, for AAA games; I'm going to ignore the wide, worthy, and growing ecosystem of "I had an idea and made it in Unity with purchased assets") use bespoke model and texture assets, motion-capture human animation, and voice acting. None of that is what an Xtranormal auto-puppet show is about.
        hbn 10mo ago
        Motion capture in bigger budget games only started to become common around the Xbox 360/PS3 generation. Go back to prior generations and it was a lot of "2 models facing each other and their mouths wiggle up and down while audio files play" Pretty much exactly what you see in that video.
        swiftcoder 10mo ago
        The difference being that someone actually had to record said audiofiles, and animate the mouths wiggling. The "slop"-ness is defined by the inputs, not the outputs.
  - Rebelgecko 10mo ago
    Xtranormal was slop, you just plugged in a script and chose premade character models
- lanyard-textile 10mo ago
  Oh we’re at this stage of AI huh :) “No it was always slop!!!! Nyeh!”
  - swiftcoder 10mo ago
    Feeding text into a machine-learning based app that creates low-effort audio and visuals? Yeah, that's always been slop. I don't use "slop" in a particularly negative sense here, it is what it is
    - lanyard-textile 10mo ago
      It’s an intriguing use of the word I’ll admit — I think it’s a bit of a loaded term atm though. Overwhelmingly negative, anecdotally.
      - swiftcoder 10mo ago
        > Overwhelmingly negative, anecdotally I don't think it is, actually? "Friend-slop" is a super-popular genre of video game right now (for example, indie smash-hit PEAK), typically characterised by low-friction co-op experiences with a low-fi and/or kit-bashed aesthetic
        lanyard-textile 10mo ago
        The games are the popular, but I do not think that term to describe them is that well-used nor used with that much affection :) It’s requires a good base group of friends that you will have fun with already, and the design for the game is “slop” / cheap / lazy in that regard. But not necessarily bad.

swiftcoder 10mo ago

Tbf, the original is also slop (albeit of the pre-AI variety)

jesucresta 10mo ago
no is not, the original is full of personality and ideas even if its poorly drawn and kitsch.
- shadowgovt 10mo ago
  Yes, but also literally AI slop. Stock characters auto-puppeted to a text script with text-to-voice run across it. The artist's input was writing the text and signing off on the final auto-generated product. The reason the two characters in the video are weird superheroes is those were the available stock characters in the XtraNormal.com service he used. After all, the creator didn't want to be an professinal full-time animator, he just wanted to animate three minutes.
  - jesucresta 10mo ago
    It is only "literally AI slop" if you widen the definition to include anything made using computers. That is not an honest take on what content made with AI is. The original author chose those assets and that background, other people made those assets on the first place and had to take a ton of tiny creative choices that changed the final thing and help transmit ideas and feelings (of uncanniness, vulgarity, surrealism, whatever). Anyone can tell the difference between one and the other.
    - morshu9001 10mo ago
      Text to speech in the 2000s would be considered AI
    - caymanjim 10mo ago
      The things we called AI back then weren't AI. The things we call AI now aren't AI either. The definition remains wide.
      - SoftTalker 10mo ago
        Sounds like Humpty-Dumpty.
  - darkwater 10mo ago
    > Yes, but also literally AI slop. Stock characters auto-puppeted to a text script with text-to-voice run across it. Maybe I'm wrong but I would say that the slop feeling of the original version was a deliberate decision and part of its charm. That kind of video and voices were a meme back then, IIRC.
    - swiftcoder 10mo ago
      As is the slop feeling of the current, no doubt. I don't think that changes it being "slop" in the sense of low-effort and mostly generated by machine learning (rather than hand-edited like a machinima)
  - hbn 10mo ago
    If the tech stack used to make that video makes it "AI slop" then every video game cutscene is AI slop.
    - parpfish 10mo ago
      video game cutscenes usually involve real artists designing and animating the characters, not just using preset stock characters
    - shadowgovt 10mo ago
      Most videogame cutscenes (well, for AAA games; I'm going to ignore the wide, worthy, and growing ecosystem of "I had an idea and made it in Unity with purchased assets") use bespoke model and texture assets, motion-capture human animation, and voice acting. None of that is what an Xtranormal auto-puppet show is about.
      - hbn 10mo ago
        Motion capture in bigger budget games only started to become common around the Xbox 360/PS3 generation. Go back to prior generations and it was a lot of "2 models facing each other and their mouths wiggle up and down while audio files play" Pretty much exactly what you see in that video.
        swiftcoder 10mo ago
        The difference being that someone actually had to record said audiofiles, and animate the mouths wiggling. The "slop"-ness is defined by the inputs, not the outputs.
- Rebelgecko 10mo ago
  Xtranormal was slop, you just plugged in a script and chose premade character models
lanyard-textile 10mo ago
Oh we’re at this stage of AI huh :) “No it was always slop!!!! Nyeh!”
- swiftcoder 10mo ago
  Feeding text into a machine-learning based app that creates low-effort audio and visuals? Yeah, that's always been slop. I don't use "slop" in a particularly negative sense here, it is what it is
  - lanyard-textile 10mo ago
    It’s an intriguing use of the word I’ll admit — I think it’s a bit of a loaded term atm though. Overwhelmingly negative, anecdotally.
    - swiftcoder 10mo ago
      > Overwhelmingly negative, anecdotally I don't think it is, actually? "Friend-slop" is a super-popular genre of video game right now (for example, indie smash-hit PEAK), typically characterised by low-friction co-op experiences with a low-fi and/or kit-bashed aesthetic
      - lanyard-textile 10mo ago
        The games are the popular, but I do not think that term to describe them is that well-used nor used with that much affection :) It’s requires a good base group of friends that you will have fun with already, and the design for the game is “slop” / cheap / lazy in that regard. But not necessarily bad.