i really wish there was an easier way to find manual/ai artists online because i'm worried that it's just me and my handful of mutuals. and i love my handful of mutuals very dearly but it'd be nice to see what more people are doing! it feels arrogant to say but i genuinely wonder if i was the first one to create a space like this
maybe my idea of what i'm doing is just very narrow. i was inspired by multiple ai artists before me, but if the task is "taking your own manual art style, training a lora on it, and then creating with that, both by posting it wholesale, by editing and refining it, or by using it as a thumbnail for more manual art to continue the cycle" i just can't say with certainty if there was anyone before me. it feels so arrogant but i really can't!
i think i'm just not used to being on like...the cutting edge of anything, really. it's scary to hazard a statement like "i was the first" because that's never happened before. and i really don't have a lot of evidence! heck, maybe there's people in other countries whose platforms i don't have access to who are doing the same thing as me and did it earlier! and it would be wonderful to know that and find that community. but right now i'm just kinda left holding the bag because I Don't Know. not knowing is weird and nervewracking. this could be total nonsense because of a single blindspot and i wouldn't be able to tell.
I think a ton of people are quietly creating because of harassment right now, or are dabbling with AI assistance but are afraid to reach out.
Critical mass may change that, but for now I've resigned myself that the open community is small and will continue to be until it's safer to be out as an artist who uses AI.
It's why I made this account, because I saw so many people creating in shame and silence and if I can do a little bit to add to the critical social safety mass then I've succeeded.
I think there are some people in the modern art and animation space that might be doing something similar to what you're doing but they've been pretty scrubbed from public life atm.
Lots of people are creating privately and are afraid to show it or are being quiet about it for social safety.
Hey @rhapsodyxvi !
So I'm still getting back into the swing of things, but I'm gonna be joining the AI sphere here...my group exists on Reddit but I'm done with that dumpster fire....so I came back to the Hellsite. But it DOES seem like there is a lot of backlash against AI here, which would be intimidating, however I come from a group of artist and activists so the fires of debate and defense.
We are artists, musicians, coders, writers, journalists, videographers, researchers and...uh...goofballs. It's stressful fighting harassment all day so we support each other in any way we can.
I like to call us the "Island of Misfit Toys" but officially we are the SynthCollective and I wanted to let y'all know that there CAN be community, one that stands up for each other...I'm excited to be the herald.
See y'all around!
@legion-artists
