AI shit does piss me off bc you don’t have to do any of that shit. If you don’t like drawing then you don’t have to be an artist. If you don’t like writing you don’t have to be a writer. If you don’t like making music you don’t have to be a musician. My fucking gog find something you like and do that instead of poorly masquerading as some type of creative when you to do the bare minimum requirements to even be defined as one.
I am making a Devil May Cry Magic set. All Magic cards have pictures. I just decided the Bant deck needs a board wipe that can also hose the graveyard, so I designed "The Savior Has Come," a spell based on a pivotal point in DMC4 where the Savior shows up with an army of Angelo knights to defeat a horde of demons (released by the same people that made it) that lets you destroy all of multiple types of permanent, but for each type of permanent you destroyed, you give all your opponents a Knight token to represent the Angelos that "came to the rescue." I think this is a cool, unique, and creative effect that captures a pivotal moment in the story that lets this deck have a card it needs to have. This card has to have a picture on it.
If anyone had ever drawn fanart of this moment, I would use it with credit but without asking them for permission and you would not have a problem with it. But nobody has ever drawn fanart of this moment. No concept art of it exists. The only images of it are screencaps of an Xbox 360 game, with Xbox 360 model and texture quality, where no single frame actually captures all the elements of the event (the laser only fires when nothing else is in frame, the Savior and the demons getting lasered are never in the same frame, the lighting is really bad and the Savior's details can't be made out). In order to use this card I designed, I have exactly two options:
- I can use Gemini to synthesize the pose and framing from one frame, the laser from later on, and the detailed design from a frame where it's clearly visible, redraw it in a more painterly style, and create an image that does not look like complete shit and conveys what moment the card represents.
- I can use an X360 screenshot that looks like complete shit and doesn't actually get across the visual of the event it depicts.
I'm not paying an artist $200 for a card for a custom Magic set. I'm not learning digital illustration because I'm not here to make illustrations. I'm here to design cards. Option 1 and Option 2 are the only possibilities. Why should I pick Option 2?
masquerading as some type of creative
If you create because you want to "be a creative" that's fine I'm sure but it has nothing to do with where I'm at - I create because I want to have a creative work. The reason I don't use AI for illustrations is because I don't need any illustrations. If I did, I'd use AI.
But if you create to "be a creative" then sure, go enjoy your lifestyle. Over there. Away from people who create because they need the creations.
I think it's telling that this is presented entirely in terms of identity. It's not about creating, it's about being 'a creative'. A type of person. The act of artistic creation is treated like some kind of membership card, and AI art becomes a way to counterfeit that card.
This is obviously pretty dumb. The purpose of creation is to create, not to belong to a group identity. Item #665 in my list of reasons that group membership is a mind virus, one more until the world ends.
