AI-generated character art

[Murdergurl]

So I've been getting into AI generated art for the better part of a year now. I gotta say that it is SO addicting and such a great resource when trying to find that character pic that just doesn't seem to exist out there. I mean, there are limits of course. But I mean, if your character notion is super specific and obscure, you're gonna have a hard time finding preconceived art either way. But if you get good enough at writing you prompts and have the patience to sort through enough pics... eventually you get something that is close enough to what you wanted. And if there are little edits that need be done, you can fix them yourself with free online pic editors, and without having to have a whole lot of artistic ability.

I guess what I'm also trying to impress here is that you can essentially get some great character art for yourself without paying for anything. Because yeah, commissions are great and everything. But most of us don't have $50, $60, $100 + dollars just laying around to throw at some concept art for dirty online roleplay. At least, I know I don't. So, for all of you that are struggling to find good character art for your ideas, do a google search. There are a lot of free sites, and Stable Diffusion is probably one of the more popular AI generators. Though, I'm sure there are plenty of others. Also, pretty much all of the hosting sites that I've visited give you free reign to use the generator art however you want.

So what are everyone's thoughts on AI art? I think it's a great resource, and probably one of the better things to be applied to the RP community since map-making programs!

 

[Genbu83]

I've been playing with it myself. I like it for both this and concept art. I still like human created art, but for myself it allows me to express ideas without being a proper artist.

 

[Sync]

I've done a little tinkering with AI art, and I've been rather impressed (mostly) with the results.

The one site I found, though, wanted me to sign up after 5 free images, so that was a little discouraging.

 

[Siph]

Ethical and legal issues aside, I generally dislike AI generated images, simply because they look ugly to me. It probably has to do with how early AI stuff oversaturated porn art image boards, subreddits and Discords the same way generic "I let an ChatGPT write my script"-videos flooded YouTube, but I feel like all AI images have the same bland style; even those that don't use the typical style that edges the line between realistic and artsy have this soulless, uncreatively generic feel about them.

That said, if there's any good use for this sort of technology, using it for RP faceclaims is definitely one of them. I personally prefer to use visuals as a source of inspiration rather than the other way around, though, and the stuff AI spits out is about as uninspiring as it gets.

 

[Murdergurl]

I've done a little tinkering with AI art, and I've been rather impressed (mostly) with the results.

The one site I found, though, wanted me to sign up after 5 free images, so that was a little discouraging.

Try Perchance. Absolutely and totally free. They never ask anything of you.

Ethical and legal issues aside...

What legal issues, may I ask, are you referring to? If you mean some kind of copyright infringement, there is none. Like I said before, most of the hosting sites actually blatantly state that you are free to use the images however you wish.

...I generally dislike AI generated images, simply because they look ugly to me...

You probably need to work on your prompts. It took me a little bit to learn how to guide the generator into giving me good images. And also, negative prompts work wonders in turning crap generations into beautiful renditions by having the AI negate malefactors in the generated images.

 

[Siph]

Like I said before, most of the hosting sites actually blatantly state that you are free to use the images however you wish.

It's not a matter of what the company behind the AI allows you to do, but what they're allowed to do in the first place. Generative AI needs a butt load of data -- in this case, images -- to work, which is gathered almost always without the permission of the original creator. As far as I'm aware it's still in debate whether that violates copyright or not.

You probably need to work on your prompts. It took me a little bit to learn how to guide the generator into giving me good images.

I'm solely judging by what I've seen others post, I've never tried it myself.

 

[Murdergurl]

It's not a matter of what the company behind the AI allows you to do, but what they're allowed to do in the first place. Generative AI needs a butt load of data -- in this case, images -- to work, which is gathered almost always without the permission of the original creator. As far as I'm aware it's still in debate whether that violates copyright or not.

I mean, if you wanted to rule out all generated images as being a copyright infringement, that's the same thing as saying that all human-made art inspired by a previous work is also an infringement. There is no such thing as an original idea anymore, and to say that a concept or arrangement of shapes and colors is the sole property of someone is asinine.

 

[Siph]

I mean, if you wanted to rule out a generated images as being a copyright infringement, that's the same thing as saying that all human-made art inspired by a previous work is also an infringement.

That's one viewpoint, but another is that the human factor plays a vital part here; there's a difference between studying art and blindly throwing half the Internet into an artificial neural network. I'm not familiar enough with the subject matter to take a stance, though, and I wouldn't want to drag that debate into here either way.

Here's an article from a while back about Stable Diffusion specifically, if you want to read more. There's been more recent coverage about the NY Times's lawsuit against OpenAI, as well, which revolves around a fairly similar issue.

 

[TangerineAly]

Oh, I love it! I use NovelAI's V3 to make all my anime-related art. And even some non-anime stuff. So long as it's not real person art, it is probably the best one out there right now, imo. Of course, using the best stuff isn't free. I'm subscribed to them, but I absolutely adore the stuff they let me make!

I'm pretty good with prompts, so if anyone would like advice, just hit me with a PM.

 

[Seranda]

I don’t hate AI art, but nothing really hits like the artwork of a talented human being. It could make a character crazy to define, but I feel most of these images look somewhat generic with some exceptions. To each their own, I have my own sources for characters and that won’t change, but if you enjoy the AI art and your partner doesn’t mind, have fun!

 

[Trixter]

I have a very complicated relationship with AI in general. I don't like how it's trained and I don't like how artists, authors and the like are suffering from it. While some would argue it's not wrong because the source material isn't sold or showed to the public, I'm not sure I agree.

However, as the hypocrite I am, I don't know how to draw, nor can I afford to pay others to draw my characters for me. And using real people as face claims makes me uncomfortable sometimes, especially considering they (probably) have families and friends, and I can't possibly know if they or someone they know hang around forums like this one. And no, I don't live in the clouds thinking they actually are here, but it's a sobering thought.

To sum it up, AI can be a great resource for us RP folks, when it's used in a way that doesn't really lower the sales of actual artists. I doubt many of us would be prepared to pay others to draw our characters anyway.