Caught red handed! They seem to be using AI generators (possibily midjourney or chatgpt) to make the god portraits... is this a good or bad thing? I feel like we might be using a mod in retold called "original god portraits art"
The art in the original age of mythology is so iconic and had so much soul. It adds a lot to the beauty of the game, this is very dissapointing for it to make taken over by some soulles machine..😢
@@anxy4895 Of the OG art? That's actually really cool, those ones were the bomb dude, not like this new ones that look like shit, honestly it is a disgrace to even glare at these god portraits while playing, aom doesn't deserve to be disrespected with AI esque art
I don't care that much about the art since i will press the minor gods in 0,1 sec, but using cheap art just makes me feel like the game will be really bad and rushed on it's realise. If they can't do art properly, how good will game be?
Agree man, people will prob also make a mod where we can use the old god portraits. But like you're pointing out the problem is that it reflects badly on the rest of the game, so even if the rest of the game is amazing (ingame screenshots looks really good.) the marketing material(the god portraits) just downplays all the effort of the rest of the team.
Most of what is good about AoM is the visuals actually. It's really important for that to be the most solid point. Balance and small glitches can be patched out later.
They couldve just upscaled the quality on the original arts and it wouldve been peak. If they want to use AI art... fine. But jesus at least have it stylized so it's not generic AI art slop, and have an artist edit it afterwards bc it's filled with so many giveaways
I work with AI generators and image generators daily for my job, and it seems kinda obvious. It doesn't look too bad though, but i think the cute cat head stands out a bit too much. what do you guys think. Loki one is prob my fav. But the poseidon one and loki one definitely have different artstyles. I feel like there should be some kind of continuinity across all the art for retold. Right now it feels like the wild west in terms of art styles for the god portraits.
The art style should definitely be the same. Why on earth can they allow it to be worse than the originals? Makes no sense. And that cat head is funny because it's bad.
Old Bast looks like genuine cat-lady, this one? Cat head and human body doesnt match each other like they belong to the different beings and were just 'glued' together without rhyme or reason
To me it shows they are cutting corners. Very disappointing. I love AOM and still play it. I was looking forward to Retold but still had my concerns. I wonder where else they are doing to rush the game out.
Yeah its a shame because the ingame screenshots look great, I wonder if this is the reason we haven't seen gameplay yet cuz it takes some time to finetune the AI arts. The problem is that these god arts are the marketing material they use to promote the game with, and if this is AI generated it kinda downplays all the effort that went into the real game.
I don't have an issue with AI-gen art in itself, or if Retold wants to use it, BUT it definitely looks like they didn't have someone look over it and smooth out the rough edges 😬. Second small complaint is that the head looks way to domesticated and cute. Gives me the "uncatty valley" 😆. It should loook more stern or "distorted" (for lack of a better word) like original AoM art.
"I think... or that's what another guy said on Discord, right" I don't think there's any proof it's generated art, and the only thing that feels like it could be a giveaway is the sistrum layering. Cats can have hairy ears, the black near the fingernail is the gap where her thumb meets her hands, and the hieroglyphs in the AI art are at least as nonsensical as the ones on Bast's girdle. Forgotten Empires put a lot of work into AOE123 remastered, I don't have much reason to believe they'd cut corners with AOM.
Hope so man! But still a lot of mistakes in this art. I've worked with AI art ever since it came out for work and hobby... and it screams like AI. aoe2/aoe3 stuff doesnt look like AI to me.
@@KeeNGaming I'm definitely hopeful they keep up their high standards for this, it'd be a shame to see them throw away both a great studio legacy and a great opportunity for a quality remaster. Fingers crossed with you that there's no AI generated art making its way into AOM Retold.
You know what's funny? I had a weird feeling about the artwork from the first time i have seen it, but i really really hoped it was just the fact the artists in question actually make such art, now that you point it out i am not so sure and i am starting to get really annoyed if that is fact, because i am looking forward to the game but this doesn't fill me with positive vibes at all. Thanks for sharing the info, it is worth being safe than sorry. Also, i really feel you for having to work in a company with AI... honestly you shouldn't, its horrible and i guess you do it solely for the job itself but still these companies thinking its the next coming of jesus get on my nerves.
This is a both a let down and a deal breaker. I've heard that you can revert the portraits back to the original ones, if you can't I'm not buying this. Even the AI art generated by KeeN is better that the shit they've published. Outrageous.
I played the beta, and the game is really good. Ill be using the old god portraits for sure(which is part of the premium edition.) it is a let down that the AI art kinda sucks(some of the ai arts I do like though like hades) Trust me you'll be missing out on a lot of fun if the art is a dealbreaker, cause the graphics are great and the game is super addicting. My honest 2 cents.
Ok criticizing, but at least make some effort with your own eyes. The fingernail doesn't have a black part, the fingernail ends there, the dark spot is the wall behind visible between the fingers.
There were accusations about AI art for Mountain Royals and Victors & Vanquished as well which eventually turned out to be not true with the artist's husband stepping in on the official forum. (Link removed as it seems like I run into a filter) Don't get me wrong - being critical towards AI is definitely needed but it's likewise important to not quickly jump to conclusions.
Fair enough, definitely agree we shouldn't jump to conclusions. I hope they step up and show us that it's not AI generated. Either way I still think everything else about retold looks great so far, thanks for the comment!
@@FloosWorld_AoE I had a pro artist look at it, she said it looks like an outsourced work. She noticed a lot more errors in the art. It is much worse than I thought. It is definitely AI generated, but its edited afterwards in illustrator or photoshop. But even the edited items are very very bad. Microsoft cut budget on these portraits.
@@KeeNGaming I mean, it's definitely outsourced (looks like out of the companies listed on the Steam page, Virtuos Games was responsible for the art, given the portfolio on their site) but I'm still not fully sold on the AI accusations. I'm in doubt for the accused and wait for any kind of statement before making a conclusion.
Guys i think it was a place holder ... in the game now and its not the same images ... cut the beta some slack, i think more people will start committing the same as more people get access to the game. The voice for Arkantos is the original i think or it sounds a lot better!
the denied it so where is the proof, the burden of proof is on yall. everyone i hear just says, well it looks like ai art, oh it seems like ai, like cmon please have some proof
I feel weird paying for stolen art. The original they payed a master to bring those gods to life and now they want to throw his art out and steal from people without paying them? is pirating the game stealing or just algorithmically generating a game?
@@adammisner971 i agree with you, but you should try the game first. Its really fun. Prob the most fun ive had in a long time in any game. Can just also use the old god portraits. Comes with the premium edition. Dont let the ai art blind you from a really good and fun game
@@KeeNGaming It does look good. I'll probably just pirate the premium edition. I can't pay for stolen art man. My girlfriend is an artist. She'd feel shitty if I did. Plus, I'm an author. I need to hire artists for covers. Even beyond my own sense of honour, how could I work with an artist and convince them I respect and value their abilities? You have to have a lot of back and forth, asking for little changes here or there. You have to do this while maintaining that you respect their ability to use their creative freedom to make a piece you couldn't have envisioned while ensuring the cover will sell the book and fit the interior. Now imagine taking advice from a guy who thinks your job is easily replaced by a collection of stolen images. In fact imagine deciding how much to charge a guy like that.
@@adammisner971 I get where you're coming from, but ur not gonna change much by not buying if you had enjoyed it. Im perosnally just gonna use the old god portraits and old voices
@@KeeNGaming I'd advise against that course of thinking, that you can't change much etc. It's an ideology that reinforces weakness and it will effect how you go about the rest of your life. Also more important than what I'll directly effect, I get to effect myself. I get to choose to be myself. There's a lot of value in existing independent of exterior factors. Also I'll save 20 bucks or whatever they're charging, and go buy some prints from an artist. and play the game anyway, with the original portraits
At first glance, at least, the Poseidon art looks fine to me, but the Loki art with that ethereal wolf and something about his face definitely does seem like typical AI art. And with Bast, the cat head looking too cute and stylized, plus the headdress having obvious symmetry issues (especially the bits with red gems above the eyes), makes this one pretty obvious imo. Also if they had a real artist making these, the artist should be credited in the posts (I know that isn't really standard but I wish it would happen way more). Sigh... it just makes me really unhappy that talented artists may be denied the opportunity to work on these. Assuming the AI art allegations are true Edit: when I first saw the Bast image on Instagram I was excited for the reveal, but immediately felt it was very mediocre? The cat face really threw me off, there's no real intelligence behind those eyes, it's just cutesy. She's not emoting, just staring into the distance at nothing. The old Bast face always felt a bit off to me but at least there was expression in it
Hi, i almost agree on you! But did you notice? The Poseidon's hair and beard have different art styles.... I thought it looks amazing at my first sight, but after i noticed this, it is so hard to believe they are not using Ai for their arts..
It is shameless, but the beta was really good, I think its the most fun I've had in a game for a long time, I can't wait to play again. And people can just use the old god portraits instead in retold.
I can be used, but it has to fit the game and not look alien. Any game needs to have an art direction and keep it consistent through all sets of the game. The art simply lacks personality and direction.
saying that it's ai generated because it's not perfectly symmetric seems insanely dumb. cats have hair (not whiskers) in their ears, too with that said, it still likely is ai
Why everyone is opposing AI art? If we have achived AI to generate things then why not use it? Why put humans to the pressure of deadline and work when AI can do it and let them have fun with their family. Don't forget AI was also programmed by a Human!
Like @karelleet said, but also, because AI isn't good enough to make production-quality stuff. Even GPT is kind of meh. I was just asking it questions about labor law last week, and it sent me the wrong information 3 times in a row. Actually looped back to its original wrong answer at one point, but could never give me the correct one. The laziness argument is actually the strongest; people use it because they're lazy, not to save time. So what happens is when the AI spits out crap, it doesn't get caught, because the people who should catch it are too lazy to do so.
You have the answer in this video. From AI we get bullshit like this. Without any thought going into each aspect of the image. We get this utterly generic stuff. It's like pissing on classic AoM art, which is to this date looks really good.
Well first off because it steals from people who make art ( Artists ) and second, it goes against everything art stands for. Artists don't make art just for quick cash, companies love quick cash tho and that is why they push the narrative of this tech being useful when in reality it is not. Art has so much more to offer than "Oh look, how cute, NEXT!" that's just fast food product at that point.
