Issue 150

Hello!

I can't believe I've sat down to write this newsletter one hundred and fifty times. It's been transformative for me. A perfect outlet to organize my thoughts, and figure out what makes me tick creatively. I love that you get a kick out of this newsletter too. Thank you for all the support here!

Alright, there's a lot to go over here. This is a beefed up issue, so let's get to it. Here's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

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1) A journey through Midjourney

From the Art Department

First off, for anyone who needs a primer on AI Generated Art here's a concise video on the subject to get you up to speed: LINK​

I used Midjourney I started out with these prompts to see what I would get: Astronaut with a skull head +skull + skeleton + red spacesuit + character design + full body + red + sci-fi + star wars + Ralph McQuarrie + Jake Parker, cartoon, cartoon network, adventure time style

Thought I'd mix it up and see what prompts like octane render + 3d would give me:

I didn't like what I was getting so I went back to my original prompts but added rubberhose animation + pixar + disney + 3d:

The results were better, so I asked for more variations. When I got these I decided I was getting diminishing returns and called it a day. Lots of interesting ideas to put into my design, but no one design really felt like it nailed the vibe I got from my original design.

After this experiment here's what I think:

1) AI Art Generators will only become more powerful/capable. So wishing it away is a waste of time. The only path forward is figuring it out how to implement it and how to regulate it.

2) With revolutionary technology comes a reorganization of status and power. The status quo HATES this and will do almost anything to stop it from happening.

AI Generated Art shifts the power (and wealth) of creating images from people who have training, to people who don't.

This reorganization happened in the 2000s when programs like Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Photoshop made art creation a lot more accessible to people who couldn't paint traditionally, or sculpt clay.

It allowed places like animation studios to be havens for creative people to make art art who might not have been able to draw really well. Which really upset people who had trained to animated in 2D on paper, and who studied classical painting techniques. Which leads me to 3.

3) Not everyone who is creative can make art, and not everyone who can make art is creative. The creative people who could also adapt and learn new tools absolutely thrived in the new digital art world.

A lot of the art I've seen generated from AI is a lot like hearing someone impersonate English but who doesn't know the language. It sounds right, but they aren't actually saying anything.

4) I see these AI Art generators as tools. Another resource for creative people to add to their toolbox to make them even more creative. Or at the very least, make their job easier.

5) AI isn't an end to end problem solver for productions. There's still a needs to be an artist to translate it into something usable. Someone needs to interpret AI art into something a modeler can model, or set designer can build.

Example: After a producer plugs a bunch of prompts from a script into Midjourney they take it to the art dept. The crew gets a brief from an art director and instead of a lot of back and forth, the art director points at a page of AI art and says "Make it look like this"

6) Questions I’m still thinking about:

- Do these AI Art Generators actually undermine illustrators, photographers, concept artists? Or does it actually elevate these industries?

- Is it bad to democratize something like art creation?

- Who truly benefits from this shift in power? Where is the money flowing to?

- Should artists have the option of their artwork being removed from the AI generator's databases? Or is any art you post online free game? Does the AI generator do anything different than what an artist does who has strong stylistic influences from other artists?

7) I'm still learning about this, and still reading up on all the pros and cons.

I would love to know your thoughts. We've been discussing it over on the Discord for a couple weeks now: LINK​

I also posted this on IG and it blew up. I could not keep up with the comments. Over 750 of them! If you want to get a vibe check on what the broader art community thinks of this check it out here: LINK​

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2) A world of dinosauroids (with Simon Roy)

From the Concept Art Division

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Simon Roy (previously) answers the question "What would the world look like if dinosaurs had not gone extinct and instead evolved into intelligent species comparable to humans?" in his unique and imaginative way with a comprehesive exploration of a new species of animal he calls Avisapiens.

In this world Avisapiens look like large crows with weapons, art, and culture.

I absolutely love this stuff. Much much more to look at here: LINK​

Be sure to scroll down to see the avisapien knight, moon landing, and astronaut evolution of these guys.

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3) Airborn

From the Film and Animation Division

These are screen grabs from a demo video made by Berlin-based Airborn Studios. Oh man this really got me excited. This is what I wish I could do with SkyHeart.

For more details, a bit of project background and credits check out their comprehensive blog post on Artstation: LINK​

Watch the 2+minute video here: LINK​

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4) Miracle Tank

From the Comics Division

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I'm always on the lookout for finely crafted web comics and Mommy's Miracle Tank caught my eye. Written and drawn by LA-based artist Aaron Austin, it is about a goofball kid with a magic tank...and that's the most grounded thing in the 20+ pages posted so far.

It feels like a love letter to Akira Toryama and that's a good thing.

Excited to see where this goes.

Read it here: LINK​

Aaron's website: LINK​

Neat to see the seed of this idea in some old drawings of his from 2015/16: LINK​

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5) On what you can make right now

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I'm two episodes into Light and Magic which is a six part docu-series on Disney+ about the creation of ILM. I'm just loving every gosh darn minute of it.

As a special effects history buff, there's a lot of this that is a retread for me, but it's so great to hear the interviews with guys like Joe Johnston and John Dykstra. And it's fascinating to see art and stories all in context with each other swirled into the mythic history of the creation of Star Wars.

However, what I haven't been able to stop thinking about is the only reason Star Wars got greenlit was because George Lucas made a successful comedy film: American Graffiti.

Up to this point Lucas had only made edgy student films and dystopian sci-fi. All of it promising, but none of it really successful. He was issued a challenge by his peers: go make a comedy film George. One for the people and not for you.

So Lucas made a coming of age comedy that celebrated cruising culture and hot rods. It was a solid success. Instead of making more comedies he decided to take a wild swing and make a sci-fi opera. The rest is history.

My big takeaway from this is:

No one would've given Lucas the money or the resources needed to make Star Wars after THX-1138 bombed. Lucas wouldn't have had money to build ILM if he didn't have American Graffiti money. It took what looked like a sidequest or a detour for him to actually accomplish what he wanted to do.

I don't know what your "Star Wars" project is, but stand back and take an objective look at what you have in front of you and as my friend put it: “Figure out what you can make right now and make that.” (Thanks Kohl)

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That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

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