How Does Midjourney Work? Exploring Ai Generated Art 

You are a treasure for the artistic community. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us 💜✨

I've been using it for a while and the difference actually using a tool like this, versus watching someone else use one, is that you realise the difference between "what I'm going for" and "what I asked for". So, if you just look at the prompts and the images, it looks like the user got more or less what they asked for, but so often that isn't what was actually in your mind, even if you didn't have a clear idea of what you thought the image was going to look like when you started. If you have an open mind and you just want something that's going to throw up some interesting imagery that you might not of thought of, to start a conversation, move an idea along, or shake up your creative thinking, it's great, 10/10. Beyond that, it really depends on what you're trying to get out of it, it can get you from A to B, but you'll probably still need to get from B to wherever else, and if you haven't done at least some of the same kind of work that the AI did for you, you're going to struggle to get further.

The interesting question, to me, is what happens when you show one of these beautiful and unique AI-generated pieces of "art" to someone who is entirely unaware of its source or how it was produced. I recently tried this experiment with about a half-dozen friends, including a few who are also artists. They all considered it art -- and pretty good art in most cases. Only after revealing the source did I get a few head scratches. So, how can it be art when someone doesn't know the source and then suddenly not art when they realize it was AI generated? Something to ponder. I'm definitely excited to try combining some of the AI-generated compositions I've made with my own artwork to see how I can create something even more interesting.

I played around with it as well and it is fun and fascinating. It's like visual brainstorming but rather than using your own mind, experiences and visual library, it uses the entire internet, or filters it through the lense of particular artists that you input. And that's also where the crux of it being used by artists is. Your art is shaped by how you view the world, your favorite movies growing up, the images your subconscious comes up with in your dreams etc. If given the same prompt, you would come up with totally different ideas than the AI would. Also, even though our own styles are often mashups of artists we like, when the AI is literally trained on images by the artists and replicates it, then it does border on plagiarism. But during testing I found that some styles are more easily replicated than others. It does great with semi-realistic art with horror elements and some abstractions and some artists have styles that fall into that category and thus justly fear being replaced. More defined, less abstract is still safe for now for what it seems. But that is only if you in general disregard the process and just see art as being the fastest way to arrive at a digital image of something that looks visually pleasing

I completely agree that while I don't consider it art, it is an amazing tool for inspiration. Just like you said the color pallets, textures, tones, and compositions generated really fascinate me and get the gears turning. I've always loved concept and interpretive art for the fact that there's more loose and undefined parts where its more about a subjective tone or feeling to the piece. And this I feel has a similar draw to it for me. I've been playing with the dream art generator from reference images and had a blast myself, loved hearing your input on this!

I am a pumpkin artist. (I am not a sculptor; I carve two-dimensional designs that are designed to be lit from within.) For years, I’ve used reference images to create patterns to carve. This year, I decided to experiment with Midjourney to generate reference images, and I’m getting great results (although it’s not so good at creating images that look like specific people).

WOW that's fantastic and scary in the same time ... so the same thoughts as you had. But thanks for your time end energy spending in this video and let as taking part of your thoughts. I have one question for using it in discord. How is the process by using a private version? I am not very familiar with discord. Is there any howto? Because i am very interested exploring it and see where it will it take me to. Thanks again for your time .... and keep on your great art.

11:50 I feel sad about it. I think this is a technology that’s probably going to be utilized in the future and, as mentioned in the video, it will cause job loss for artists. When I ponder that possibility I am reminded of ghibli and old Disney hand drawn animation. Art is art ….but art with heart hits different.

Hi Timothy. I am glad I came across this video! I have been looking at these AI Art generators and have been using the Dream by Wombo for a couple f weeks. I am really intrigued by what I am seeing created by the Midjourney environment. You have pretty much echoed my thoughts and concerns about the validity of AI artwork creation, and yes I have had the same thoughts and questions. Thank you for helping me come to terms with it. I plan on using it (if I get that elusive invite from someone) the same way you do. (There is something special about creating your own art)!

Hi just wanted to say I had the same reaction, but absolutely love it to help me work out my painting concepts. I think this will be a process we will all work through. Thank you for the video!

I think you really hit the nail on the head with the Pinterest analogy. That's why i save other people's art to my board - I like the sky from this painting, the color palette from that one, and the subject matter from another. The problem there is that there are too many disparate elements for my mind to blend, and i just get discouraged. I think I'll love this, can't wait to try it!

Wow love this video, and I’ve been on the fence about the AI (and will probably be there for a while longer) but I see so many opportunities that could be available but at the same time how horribly it could be used. I’m sure there will be a pothole-filled road ahead.

what makes a good burger? the recipe? what it looks like? the taste? the process? the chef that puts their heart and soul into something on a plate, becoming an extension of themselves? Everyone's opinion on art is different, much like food / fine dining. Some people will consume mass produced, low quality food, others will preach that only expensive burgers are good. A.I wont make lazy artists/people less lazy, or automatically more dedicated than before. Prompting a robot wont be harder for an artist who has extensive knowledge already and can articulate what they want. I'm sure among you, there are many talented and unique people who draw inspiration from things you and only you like. Tastes blend together to create style- get out there and start cooking. Understand that the PROCESS by which something is made sometimes is more important than the final product to a 'consumer'. Find your niche, you got this whoever is reading

Strangely enough, I can completely see this creating a new age of surrealist art.

Great video! I totally agree with every point you made. Also, how you drew that in only an hour has sent me. That would have taken me 10 times as long....

Human's first reactions when threatened is fear and aggression. It's completely understandable from a psycho-social standpoint. As a data scientist and electronic music producer, I absolutely love new tools to play with in both environments. People will argue and make up reasons why not to consider something art if it protects their ego and well being. The truth is, as time passes more and more of our reality is going to become automated. I think the Buddhist concept of middle path comes in handy when considering AI art. Finding inspiration and creativity in it but also being efficient in the process. From the Stoic perspective, only put thought into things you can control and disregard that which you cannot. AI are creating music and art and I find pleasure in collaborating with them more and more as time passes :)

I'm still not sure how I feel about this AI generated art but from what I've seen so far I really like it. Although it's technically not considered art I like some of the stuff that it's creating and some I'd even hang on my wall. I don't think this will replace artists any time soon but it sure is something to think about in the future because currently the images that it produces aren't perfect (human faces and shapes for example) but with more time and financing towards the project it will be able to create hyper realistic looking things like humans, animals, landscapes etc. I'm really looking forward to it but it's also really scary as a 3D artist myself. The scenes midjurney makes within minutes could take a 3D artist weeks to make. It's something to think about.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this important topic for the art community. I personnaly see that as if we switch the positions, the computer thinks and gives us the concept and then we make it pretty or just redraw it, we do the technical stuff, we let the creativity and a huge part of ideation to the AI. I will still try it to get a deeper opinion about it.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and process! I’m with you that it is at once inspirational and terrifying. It is concerning that you can enter specific artists’ names in your description, however I will say that I was more inspired by different thumbnails than the ones you chose in the video, so already there is more human element than maybe it appears.

Thank you for your information and insight on midjourney AI - I down loaded it yesterday.I confess I came across an artist who was posting really interesting work but he called it digital not A! And I was struggling to see how he came up with such work then I came across A! And I’m 🤔 now I get it but after listening to your views, yep it’s another tool and damn if I’m going to be in the box and not look at as you so rightly confirmed how ‘ inspirational ‘ it is. So Thanks again and love your art style and work.

I have been playing around with it, my thoughts are as such. I don't feel that any images it produces in their entirety are my artwork, but they are my ideas... so I guess that makes me the art director in that situation. However, I do a lot of photo manipulation and have always produced all of the assets for my projects myself (ie wondering around museums, parks, my house and shooting models. I'm always looking for things to take photos of to use in these projects). What I have found beneficial in ai art generators is the ability to quickly create complex assets to be used in larger photo manipulation work, so I guess the question is, are these parts of the final image any more or less valid than than the photos of already existing objects I use. For me the artistic part is the reorganization of what is into what I want it to be. In the end I think this could be a powerful tool for creative humans, but will most likely never replace the guiding hand.

Very informative, thanks for you thoughts! 🙏

I believe there lies an important point that must be considered in this discussion: the shift in the popular notion of art. Nowadays, thanks to post-modernism, there has been a fracturing of the elements of art-aesthetics, message, craft, so that while one person values one of these, they might disregard the others. What has been lost in time is the perception of the higher realms of existence, (energy) and so to any lay observer, the AI piece looks just as good as the one created by a person. To the traditionalist artist, like yourself, that perception of 'soul' is more apparent I'd argue. This is definitely a much longer convo, one that leads into why is it that humanity has forgotten itself and thinks its only a fleshy robot and how that is reflected in the art we value today. Keep going, these topics are much needed in discussion and its up to the artists and philosophers to keep the sacred fire of humanity alive.

Awesome video. Thanks for your insight and opinion, it really gave me a solid place to start my own thought process of this new phase of art offerings. Much appreciated!

Hey can you reference the other ones you mentioned where they also let you add some input images?

hell yeah! im excited to implement this in my process to further refine my own style. i just applied to use midjourney, and i hope i get access before i go on vacation in 2 weeks!

The farther being a professional artist gets from actual pen and pencil in hand, the greater the inequality created by "progress". AI will not make being an artist simpler. It will not create more opportunity. It will only create more artificial and educational hoops to jump through in order to be a professional. Eventually game and movie studios will only need to hire art managers who manipulate the ai software to pump out iteration after iteration and eventually final designs. The same is true for 3d art. Eventually studios will no longer need artists to create new models, textures, bitmaps, lighting. Everything will be automated and homogenous. A small group of humans acting as middle men managing it all. Rest of us "artists "will end up needing to find another line of work. The best most driven 1 -.5% of us becoming professional boutique craftsmen.

I got lost in your words. I was most focusing on your artwork and it’s beautiful

Get yourself some Overhead Projector transparent sheets to stop your hand from smudging your drawings.

That's a really beautiful drawing that you've done that accompanies your audio (and we can see it was human-done). And the face is outstanding - not like midjourney ones you showed us.

Creating a really coherent and consistent portfolio is kinda challenging though, if you really want specific results, then animating those results to create scenarios, i think it’s simply a new niche, it doesn’t cancel classic art, it’s just a new dimension of imagination.

An artist has just trained his eye and his abilities in a visual direction. This is like being the conductor of an orchestra working with AI, in this context we just have to see where a false note is played for the finished result that expresses the experience we want to convey. Because IA as I have seen it definitely does not have perfect perspective or body proportions in place, we are still needed and of course there are many more reasons. You even mention the good colors in your film, yes they are complementary which for a layman is not understandable - it is one of the small things that we who work with it take completely for granted. It's like someone who hasn't learned to draw but is good at details, shadows and cool effects - again for a non performing artist it can be hard to see - if you've ever tried to teach, the "mistakes" are very clear.. We will see very detailed kitsch for the same reason, but also new things that can be wonderfully inspiring. I would compare it a bit with our fascination with Tom Cruise when he does his own stunts, we are more impressed by that rather than CGI stunts such as Black Panther fight scene at the end - it's CGI and we miss the human aspect here so clearly. The same goes for AI and art by a human.

For me (a game developer) with no access to funds to hire an artist this allows me to make a game with beautiful art.

10/10 Solid take here Tim!

Delighted to find someone else with a similar take. I see i it as an inspiration tool for sure and also a bit of a teaching tool. And casual fun of course.

This is an example of how someone uses technology in the service of humanity. But oftentimes, technological progress is used by people who are disconnected from their hearts and soul. I believe it's going to be like with cakes, people will buy cakes made by machines, but a homemade cake will always be more tasty and expensive. It will be like we watch now the objects manually created in the middle ages, materials were of better quality, design, etc. So, traditional art will be rare but indeed appreciated. I am sure concept artists will lose their jobs because this will allow employers to think in terms of timing and profit, thus AI will replace humans. Indeed, it's a powerful tool, but I believe artists already are struggling to maintain professional stability, and this won't work in their service. I think it would be ideal if we would approach AI art like this, but unfortunately, I think it's going to fall in the wrong hands and be used not in the favor of artists. And Indeed it helps you visualize, but that means that we will have less imagination....

Hi there,one of the best reviews on Ai generated art period.thank you for the work you placed here. I followed the steps but gut stuck with the invitation:(

Amazing video and thoughts, thank you

This was a good video to find after exploring the thing myself. I think it's good for folks to be really settling on a position with respect to art. I tend to think as you do, that the process is a necessary part of what makes it, the human putting some piece of themselves into the thing they're doing is a necessary part. So by that measure I can't say midjourney is "doing art". It's more like a starting point generator to me - being able to quickly create a visual representation of some words, has a lot of utility. Unfortunately, with the tool already out there it's inevitable someone is gonna try to prop themselves up on it; those folks will flounder though if anyone tries to really get at their process. Also unfortunately, I could see a lot of consumers thinking an artist taking one of these and manipulating it, regardless of its result, is somehow "lesser" or inferior to performing the entire process. Artists, as a whole, would need to make a push for *how* exactly folks need to be engaging with it, which means folks would have to come together around a position. As an end user/consumer, personally I hope it enables folks to bring more of their ideas to light. Maybe it gets a lot of folks who otherwise wouldn't try to produce art, to start doing it. I know I'd have been helped a lot, if I could have plugged in some words and gotten such a strong starting point like that. If something like Midjourney can expose tons of people to the idea that some art is derivative, perhaps it would mean a more relaxed sort of engagement from folks, who knows. Perhaps there might even end up being *less* debate over art, because the AI bot gets us all to settle on more firm ideas of what is what. I'm interested to see how it goes, and in the meantime am gonna keep plugging in psychiatry jargon because the results there are some wild shit. Thank you for your video!

Has anyone here seen Carol & Tuesday? It's about music in a world where ai generates the songs.

Okay, so... I'm working on writing a book with the help of an AI whose text I direct and then go through and edit for the first draft. I used midjourney to get two separate generations which I merged into base image for the front cover (but the back cover was just one generated image with the floors saturation dropped to match the front cover)... Should those things I'm creating with AI be considered art? I certainly think so, as there's definitely something I'm trying to say once everything is put together.

My tutor (an architect) commented on AI Generated Art as " At the time photography was found and integrated in our lives in a similar way. Still drawing portraits and Art have a huge place in out lives..." ye he said something like that and I agree with him. I really liked your perspective tho for seeing this AI Generated Art as an inspiration and a tool. It is a smart way to use it, I doubt that it could replace handmade art.

I have tried for many years to make decent art, but while my brain is extremely colourful and imaginative, I have struggled with taking my brain's creations and putting them onto canvas. I have been enjoying describing my creations to it and seeing what it makes based on it.

Nice picture dude, mad skill 😊

It started bothering me the second IG pages popped-up with AI art claiming in the description "Artist" and then selling their prints. While it's non of my business if I'm not the one purchasing nor do I believe they should stop selling AI generated prints, but something about claiming to be the artist of the generated pieces makes it wildly disqusting practice, especially when their's lack of transparency.

Remember that "Ai generated art" is still in its infancy. Creating "Ai generated art" in the future might look more like "Give me a frog, okay good. Rise the horizon line up a bit. Give it a three quarters turn view. This frog is more predatorial, bring the eyes more to the front. Frog isn't aquatic, lose the webbings. etc etc" After artists have mastered fundamentals, what is left is each one's visual library and understanding of the subject matter. We artists shouldn't fear "Ai generated art" it is more of a tool than another artist.

It is trippy to have Midjourney reference your own art using the URL input. /imagine Reference url, what you want, options (--wallpaper etc.) Mindblowing!

So is it taking artwork from the artists you mention and adds whatever specifics to basically make something new?

Interesting. Thanks for laying it out for me. Honestly I didn't know what all the fuss was about. This clears it up.

As a Toon Boom Harmony rigger (cut-out, puppet-based rigs for 2d animation), I've seen first-hand how animation has shifted from traditional hand-drawn art to digital hand drawn art (think TVPaint, Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe Flash) to the now widely popular "rigged animation." This entire revolution is happening alongside CG animation. Netflix's Cuphead and Hilda incorporate rigged animation with some scenes using "hybrid" rig and hand-drawn animation. This renaissance in animation is more cost-effective to CG animation. I feel AI generated art will aid artists for concept art, backgrounds and give a lot of inspiration. It'll be the new photobash method to quickly baseboard ideas onto and then generate characters and backgrounds. With time this technique may eliminate the do-over phase - and then artists will have to use their taste to fine tune how AI generated art is used. But, I think of it like rigging. The rigged puppet saves time but still requires the "operator" - an experienced animator - to create realistic animation. Just more digital tools to save time and money.

The game industry will become a place where artists make final in game assets themselves from 0-100%. Eventually it will be like music production where an entire score is made by one person. Individual artists will just be expected to do more.

Despite all else, ai created art will always be a lesser form of art (if even considered art down the line) as it can never be more than a synthesis of original man-made art. All art is a synthesis of sorts, but I truly have reason to believe the human mind synthesizes with more nuance and intelligence than any machine ever can. This sort of plays into the question "can ai ever replicate the human mind in totality?" which I find super interesting. Who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong when progress is made in the future!

That's amazing! I love the use you found for this AI art generator. Before i watched your video i was playing with another Ai called Night Cafe (which gives you full rights over the art piece), so i was at most thinking of painting over and using its palettes (it's a really good AI but so far not very good for human figures). I've been trying to join Midjourney now because the results are so polished from what i've seen in your video and using them for references is such a good idea! That would save me so much time. I sent a request for beta in their form but it doesn't seem i'm gonna get an invitation any time soon :( And about people using those images and saying they made them..... they didn't, they just input some words, and that any retard can do. if you can't use your own skills to create over what you've got then to me... i don't think the person could get the credits for the final piece, they do get the credits for the prompts :P

Two hundred years ago people asked if photography will replace artists. Thirty years ago people asked if digital 3d and 2d art will replace traditional paintings and sculpture. As you can see - everything is still there. Human mind has a much more complex associative creative process than just matching pictures to the keywords that pop up in the artist's brain. AI -generated rendering - absolutely yes. AI-generated ideas - nonsense. I totally envision AI helping me autotrace my drawings, helping me color and render 2d images faster. I can envision AI helping 3d modellers do a perfect retopology, rigging and animation - but still, it all boils down to feelings. You cannot always describe in words what you want an image, a model or an animation to be like. But a dedicated specialist can. Once again: helping an artist - yes, replacing him - never.

Looks very interesting! I would use it as more of a concept/mockup tool, kinda like how I use Pinterest as a mood board tool . I could NEVER just type in words and let a computer generate an image and call that "art" though!!! Call me traditional but I'm a very tactile person who loves the feeling of a pencil, paper and paints.

Those AIs do also scare me a lot. But as you've said, extracting inspiration for patterns, textures, shapes, etc is definitely useful and different, since the results are just sth else than what we're used to. My partner is doing reasearch on AI stuff. Are you able to share an invite code or sth? That would be dope! :)

When I did my degree, the first question we were asked was what is art', after much discussion the class came to the agreement that are is what you say it is. This video is very good but the vast majority of it is simply about laying down rules and regulations for what is and is not art, how it should be constructed and used, copyright concerns, money making etc. The fact is, art has no rules, if an artist says a pile of bricks is art and sells it to the Tate Gallery for 1 million pounds, is he in breach of copyright to the brick manufacturer? Was it really art or was it just a pile of bricks? (This actually happened). An artist (If forget their name) was contacted by a gallery and asked if he would like to provide a piece of art for an upcoming display, he said yes. He then called a sign-writing company and told them to go to the gallery and write 'JOHN SMITH IS AN ARTIST' in large letters on his display space, it was the main attraction at the event! So who was the artist here, who should make the most money and was there any copyright issues? As for people losing their jobs, this is no concern at all. If we held back technology because someone might lose their job, we'd still be doing finger paintings on cave walls. Don't worry, they will find new careers. (Are cave paintings art? Who owns the copyright?)

I would literally not be able to live in the same house as that pumpkin head thing behind you. It makes me feel a type of way, that’s art.

This is great, I was sent an invite too - I'm likely to use it as inspiration in a very similar way.

I’m going to get a job as a text inputter concept artist now!

I don't think it's dangerous for the artist, i use it a lot as a source of inspiration and i think it's good!

So so cool. Great inspiration tool.

nice , very good ❤️😍

Excellent video and discussion. I’m currently incorporating Dream Wombo ai images into my art, but would LOVE to find an MJ invite.

My natural style is cartoon. I can't wrap my head around concept or realism. So getting to play with this, fine-tuning down variations further and further until the bot generation is close to what I'm seeing in my head based on my prompts is a nice feeling. I can see myself using this for some creations where I would other wise be banging my head against a wall trying to explain to someone what I want. How to use it in the long run I don't know. I might make some t-shirts to go alongside my cartoon style, or even blend them together in post for some juxtaposition.

Midjourney has come a long way since you made this video. It’s no longer struggling with faces and hands, and many images are indistinguishable from human-created art.

This is how we should push it, it is scary but what can we do otherwise. Let’s let ai push us as artists

I had an interesting thought. Does anyone think there were portrait artists in the past who thought that the first few photographic cameras were illegitimate? Why didn't everyone just give up on drawing anything depicting the realistic world then and there?

Do we get to see your finished piece? It's like a cliff hanger at the end! :)

Honestly I think a lot of people do not care about how art is done. So many people buy the pictures from Ikea to hang up at home, so if they like what the AI generates (which I do since it is so "creative"; detailed yet abstract, in enough instances) they will not care about it being AI art. The saving grace will be that AI art is abundant, we will see it EVERYWHERE and things that are abundant are cheap and get boring. So real art that takes time and is unique will win out. Also people not caring about the process arn't that interested and won't pay much to begin with.

Creativity - have an idea of what you want the AI to come up with, Skill - learning keywords, and different way of typing, to create a style, light, prospective and so on you're looking for, soul- choosing, and keep choosing images until come up with the one you're happy with. Into this prospective AI art is still art.

You can actually use an Image URL with midjourney to have an image a the base of what you want.

had this idea for a gaming console. it basically could create a dream game or it would combine your favorite games together and make it into a new one

Thank you, greetings from Bolivia, this is very interesting!!... increible!

Great video thanks for sharing! Just a heads up though creating a video review of the app is against the terms of service of the private beta.

Art is art. This is art.

My first thought is that is not ones art if you just type some words and use the ai image as your final image or even if you do some minor changes to it. Then I thought more about it. Besides ai there is also generative art which is software that makes or modifies an image based on algorithms that are not ai based. When I write my own software, then I consider it my own work. It takes quite some effort to write the software. If I use an ai programs then it’s someone else’s program. You can also ask, did I make my own paint and brushes or buy them? Most artist buy pens, paint and brushes. When I paint with a paint program such as Rebelle or use Photoshop, I still think of the pictures as my art even though I did not write the paint software or make the computer. But what about my own words to run the ai program to create concepts for my art? Maybe it’s all in my clever words or other input that controls the ai software. What about just random words? What about a 3D program such as Blender. It too has a lot of procedural tools for making, distributing and texturing objects. In the 3D software case, the image is still modeled by the artist but the mathematical calculations to render the image are done by a computer with someone else’s software. It is still my art because I spent hours modeling the image. Ai could run a 3D program. It’s very interesting ai is another tool that can be quite useful. Ai is leveraging the minds and work of many people to make more, hopefully, pleasing images. Just about everything we have today relies on someone else’s work and machines in factories designed and built by many people over many years. I definitely would like to try one of these ai image programs. If I had the time and more computer skills or a team of programers, I would write my own ai tools. Very interesting.

The way you used to incorporate on your own art is something I had in mind, amazing. It will drive your work to newer heights.

Would you mind sharing who you followed that you found out was AI art please?

If you don't consider the output art, do you consider the input art? Is not written text also classified as art? Are books not art?

Can we use this art for commercial use , as book covers .. etc

as an artist who has aphantasia, this actually helps me visualise my concepts better. its a tool, not a replacement. :)

I think it is art and it only will get better. It is sad for artists and their long journey but technology always has changed areas of life.

I think this can be a very useful tool for inspiration. inputting vague concepts and taking what it makes as a jumping-off point

beautiful drawings

I agree with you, it is a great tool for inspiration and working through ideas.

The first name I think of when I saw these midjourney renders for the first time: Yoshitaka Amano

So what if you add a design, an intricate design, or create a collage, a mix of your work done by hand "on-top" of a Midjourney output? Who owns the derivative work at that point? I wonder if they are adding metadata to each output to maintain ownership? -- That is basically what they are doing to copryrighted art, in a round-about way, and then claiming ownership for themselves. I see a lot of grey areas.

Wow this video is ancient in the AI scheme of things but is still the first one that pops up when you type in "how are AI images generated"

Sadly, this is art, and I agree with all your thoughts and opinions about this… I have to resign that - between paying an artist hundreds of dollars to finish a masterpiece over a couple days/weeks and paying $2 for a digital print, most people will choose the instant digital print. The first time I realized artistic effort getting stomped on was when I saw the Netflix show “Arcane” based on League of Legends.. you can literally freeze one frame and have a CG still that would take a single artist hours and hours of work to complete. I realized then, that the only way to compete against this was to lean into the technology and “cheat” as well. Sure, Arcane was completed with an entire art and design team doing modeling, texture maps, lighting experts, rendering teams and directors - but one person can do that as well. I realized then that I should have put more effort into learning 3D rendering back when hardly anyone was into it. Now here’s a new technology that is threatening traditional digital art - do I sit here and mope about it, or do I use it to my advantage and learn and lean into it?

Great job

i agree with a lot of your points here, but i definitely dont think that ai generated art is going to affect the industry for concept art and stuff. Yeah, you could probably come up with a relatively good character or environment design using midjourney but it still wont stand out as much as a concept drawn up by human artists thats changed over the course of game development. A lot of ai generated art looks cool and can be fairly unique but its all also going off of the majority of the internet, if theres a lot of one type of thing its most likely going to pull from that one type of thing. Its definitely less likely to introduce unique enviromental concepts or character silhouettes because it would be pulling from common things- like many designs you'd get for inputting "fire sorcerer" into an ai generator would probably not have crazy unique elements to them like having 6 arms or no head or something. And of course if youre working on a very stylized game (take Psychonauts for example) it probably wouldnt be able to come up with environments for that game just because they're all so weird and unique. I do think ai art will probably be used to replace some jobs in game devolpment, but more so for things like very clearly for profit mobile games and stuff like that, i dont see it being used as a replacement for concept artists in AAA studios and definitely not in very passion driven indie studios as well. Anyway i did really enjoy this video! it was so nice to finally hear another take on this because all the ones ive seen are so negative! just wanted to share my opinion just because i think most artists jobs are probably not gonna be replaced and that we really dont have much to worry about :)

Can you print what you created, say 30x40 inches big?

So how is this different from Disco Diffusion and others ?

AI music is still music. People consider their photography to be art. Therefore, if people think it's art then it passes for art. In the case of AI, the talent is in the ability to generate prompts that elicit pleasing results, so that the skillset is an entirely different ballgame.

So for me, I'm a disabled artist who used to draw but no longer can due to my fine motor skills getting so bad. I think in my case, it should be fine.

This is a great tool for me as I cannot draw well. Finally that will allow me to alter it post-render in Photoshop to perfect the imperfections and change it enough so it looks enough different from the original.

I wouldn't have much of a problem with AI images if only we could always tell when it was used. The oversaturation of AI generated images on ART sites where you can't even be sure anymore is making me feel like I'm being held one over. I just wish we were able to have any say in if and when and how we consume it!

For me I can understand the threatening nature of this new tech. It is already hard enough to have a career as an artist now everyone with a pulse will be "claiming" to be an artist too and try to sell these AI arts - but wait a min...I was one of those people 20 years ago when I first discovered pencil and paper and photoshop a few years later. Perhaps a session with MJ ignited a future new artist to pick up the pencil or start digital painting/compositing, etc? Who knows right? I have a biology degree and no art training whatsoever but even I had a chance to enjoy art and even started to sell some of it and get better over time. I felt incredibly scared of 3D art as a 2D photoshop artist. Then I started using 3D as inspiration and it helped me. So it was funny how I felt threatened and SUPER inspired all at the same time when I got the invite to MJ. Then I thought about it without the "other people" int he equation and realized art is supposed to be a journey (no pun intended) for your own soul and self expression. I'm not making art to impress people and I am very much proud and humbled by the people who buy and support my art. That being said if I find this tool to be very inspiring and perhaps make my life easier in creating ideas and collage pieces - well hell yeah I'll use it! But I do see the issue where any marketing person at a large company might now just bypass hiring an artist and use dalle 2 or midjourney to create an ad or concept art etc. So who knows but like any new tech I will learn and use it to enhance my skills, despite the haters or lovers of my decision to use it as a tool. I used to hide the fact I used references and did photography collage work - I assumed everyone would call me a fraud because I didn;t draw every thing by hand. But guess what - many people saw the value and how much work and time and effort it took to make my artworks despite it being all digital and collage mostly. That stigma slowly faded and now I embrace it and help others who wish to learn this skill. As for AI - I would not use it as a one click and done art generator and claim "it's my final art by me" unless I completely rework it or use pieces of it etc. That is where I think the line might be drawn between a "creative word/idea prompter" vs "artist".

what in 1 year, what in 10 years, what in 20 years? this AI came in couple of years. Just imagine what it will be doing in 5 years or 15 years.... I'm afraid lots of people will lose there job and will to endevor the art skill