Erin and I have been shooting the breeze with Erin about the potential of AI generated images.
Forget ChatGPT! Besides, we are writers and we don't need some robot to tell us what words to use - right?
But images ... now, imagine what we could do with images, especially if we don't have the talent or the time.
Here is the remarkable truth - AI generated images barely existed until this year and no people are talking about the end of magazine photography. Some of these images are that good. In fact in a recent photography the winner of first prize had to decline it explaining that it was not really a photograph - it was an AI generated image.
This is not a great one - the eyes and mouth are not right, but it was free! The prompt was "Beautiful transwoman"
Or we can go for art...
You will have to ask Erin what was the prompt for this one!
But then we looked at a you tube guide for creating a comic using the app Midjourney which is just one of those available, but it is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPm8mQdxIjU
As well as Midjourney (which is supported by a bunch of YouTube guides) there is Stable Diffusion, Dall-E but the new kid on the block (and I mean last week new) is DeepFloyd IF which is open source and so being evolved by nerds as I type this.
Ok, so what Erin and I were wondering was if there is anybody out there in our wider BCTS community who would be prepared to prepare some art or maybe collaborate on a comic with me or with other writers ready to explore graphic fiction.
Obviously AI images/art has the capacity to deliver just what is wanted, but that takes time. I am too busy writing, and Erin is too busy keeping us up and running, so if you can't help in any other way, help us with this project.
I read plenty saying that "AI is going to change the world and we are all fucked" but the way I see it this is a wave, and it's a biggie, and if we are not riding it, it must just drown us. So get on you boards (the key kind) and let's surf!
Maryanne
AI Image Generator
Comments
The Challenge of Wordsmythy.
I try to create a visual image in a story as I write it and that is a real trudge. Second life is pretty awful, and Sony had game out that made attempts at that. One caution about images in stories online is they are memory gobblers. I just don't do graphics and that may be why my computer has lasted so long. ???
Gwen
I’ve used “wonder” and have
I’ve used “wonder” and have created some interesting results.
Here is the original:
And the AI output with a prompt to add glasses and red hair
Ok I most definitely am "old school"
I enjoy original concept and personal technique in all forms of art. I've only been here for 6 months but I've found so many different individuals that I am constantly amazed.
One other site that has grabbed me is DeviantArt. I love comics and have many favorites. But there is so much artificial art that rather than art it must be called "meme" and they all run together. Because of that the work suffers.
There are no "quick fixes" to visual or written art. It must come from a cognitive brain that has been worked and trained. Even photography benefits from knowing composition and order.
Ron
Soulless Beauty
AI art definitely has its place. It's a real boon to us impoveraged unartistic shmoes who just need a decent illustration for a story that's cheap and legal. And some of it's truly breathtaking, in the way that a rock or a tree branch you find lying on the ground can just happen to be a perfect sculpture. But the more AI art I see the more I appreciate pen on ink line drawings where the artist has a recognizable style that's inmistakeably his or hers, and is a manifestation of their personality, tastes and quirks as hand and brain make a hundred tiny decisions every second about where to go next. Artists that you instantly know who it is when you see their stuff; like Picasso (I like his paintings ok, not all that crazy about most cubism; but LOVE his linework), Dr Seuss, cartoonist Gahan Wilson, those amazing Taoist painters from way back when who could capture the profundity, mystery and beauty of something as simple as a leaf in a few quick brushstrokes; and this guy HV HOOT who's one of my current favorites over at DeviantArt:
https://www.deviantart.com/hvhoot/art/Elven-Bather-944694080
Just look at those trees and clouds, the way they curl, and the expressions on some of the characters' faces if you look at some of his other works. They're all so gloriously HUMAN, full of warmth and humor, and kind of sexy; and if I could afford to commission an illustrator for OFF THE DEEP END this is who I'd choose. Not smooth homogenized AI photorealism but cartoony fun stuff that has---for want of a better word---a soul.
AI might develop a personality someday, but that'll probably be right about
the time SKYNET comes on line, and you know how that story goes...
~hugs, Veronica
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
The far Side
One of Gary Larsen's primitive AI was two jars filled with random ideas written on small pieces of paper.. On occasion, he would reach into each jar and draw out a piece of paper. He would then combine the thoughts in order to create a cartoon. For example, 'Child Daycare Center' and 'Coyote Rescue Shelter.' or 'baby' and 'passenger jet.' :)
I wonder what the trending AI illustration might do with Man with an apple for a face or melting watches? Or even an overnight diner with a bunch of random customers? Goddess rising out of a clamshell, anyone?
I just realized that I might actually be one of those many chimpanzees stuck in a room with a typewriter!
Love, Andrea Lena
For a photographer
I've been pretty ambivilant about illustrated stories (not to be confused with comics). When I start a story with no illustrations I form my own mental pictures of the characters and places. Then when the author adds illustrations they may clash with my previously conceived ideas. One story I was enjoying had illustrations that clashed so strongly that I downloaded all the chapters and removed all the added illustrations so I could finish reading it.
Another author obviously worked hard to warp the story to fit a chosen picture that I felt pain for the author. Definately a case where the illustration(s) should have been left off, IMHO.
In short, authors should tread carefully when trying to devise art to accompany a story, especially retrofit an illustration to an already published story. It's your baby, you can do as you wish. Just be careful you don't break something that didn't need fixing.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Oh my god Maryanne. How easy
Oh my god Maryanne. How easy is that to do? This took about 60 seconds
Leeanna