#Free ai animation software

[userpeggycarter]

COLORING + SHARPENING TUTORIAL

someone asked for a coloring tutorial and my sharpening settings, so here it is! there are also a few tips to achieve more HQ gifs. :)

tutorial under the cut!

FOR HIGH-QUALITY GIFS

FILE SIZES

it doesn’t matter what your sharpening settings are if the file you’re using to gif is too low quality, so i tend to look for the best that i can get when downloading stuff. 

usually, movies (+2h) look better if they’re 5GB or more, while an episode (40 min/1h) can look good with even 1GB. the minimum definition i try to find is 1080p, but i gif with 2160p (4k) when available. unfortunately, not every computer can handle 4k, but don’t worry, you can gif with 1080p files just fine if they are big enough. contrary to popular belief, size does matter! which means sometimes a bigger 1080p file is better than a smaller 2160p one, for example.

SCREENCAPPING METHOD

this can too influence the quality of your gifs. as a gifmaker, i’ve tried it all: video frames to layers, directly opening video clips, loading files into stack, and i’ve finally settled down with opening screencaps as an image sequence. with bigger files, it doesn’t matter much what technique you use, but i’ve noticed with smaller files you can do wonders if you screencap (either by loading files into stack or opening as an image sequence) instead of using video clips. for example, this gif’s original video file was only 4GB (so smaller than i’ve usually go for), if you can believe it!

here’s a tutorial for setting up and screencapping with MPV, the media player i use to screencap. again, you can keep using video clips for bigger files, but you’ll find this useful when dealing with dire causes. i don't file loads into stack, though, like the video does. i open as an image sequence (open > screencap folder > select any image > click the image sequence button). just select OK for the speed. this will open your screencaps as a video clip (blue bar) in timeline mode (i'm a timeline gifmaker, i don't know about you). you will need this action pack to convert the clip into frames if you're a frames gifmaker. i suggest you convert them into frames even if you're a timeline gifmaker, just convert them into a timeline again at the end. that way you can delete the screencaps right away, otherwise you will delete the screencaps and get a static image as a "gif".

ATTENTION if you’re a Mac Sonoma user, MPV won’t be an option for you unless you downgrade your system. that is, if you have an Intel chip. if you have M1 Max chip (or even a better one), here’s a fix for MPV you can try while keeping that MacOS, because nowadays MPV is skipping frames in its latest build. or you can use MPlayer instead for less hassle. here are two tutorials for setting and using MPlayer. Windows users are fine, you can use MPV without trouble.

FOR EVEN MORE QUALITY

ADD NOISE

here’s a tutorial for adding noise as a way to achieve more HQ gifs if your original material is too low quality.

REDUCE NOISE WITH CAMERA RAW

instead of adding noise, you can reduce it, especially if your gif is very noisy as it is. 

the path is filter > camera raw > detail > nose reduction. i do this before sharpening, but only my video file isn't great to begin with. because it’s a smart filter, you can reduce or increase its opacity by clicking the bars next to its name in the layers panel.

TOPAZ AI

i use Topaz Photo AI to increase the quality of my screencaps when i need to. it’s paid software, but there are… ways to find it for free, usually on t0rrent websites. if someone’s interested, i can make a tutorial solely about it in the future.

SHARPENING SETTINGS

here are my sharpening settings (filter > sharpen > smart sharpen). i sharpen things twice: 500% 0.4px + 10% 10px. here's an action for it, for more convenience. here's a tutorial on how to use Photoshop actions. for animated stuff, i use this action pack.

COLORING

here’s the gif i'm gonna use as a base. it’s already sharpened like the way i always do it.

LIGHTNING THE SHOTS

half of the secret of a good coloring is good lightning. i always useCurves (layers > new adjustment layer > curves) and Brightness & Contrast (layers > new adjustment layer > brightness & contrast). the settings depend on the scene you’re giffing, but i always try make my gifs bright and with high contrast to make the colors pop.

CURVES

besides lighting your scene, the Curves adjustment layer has four automatic options that will color-correct it for you. it’s not always perfect and it doesn’t mean you won’t need to do further coloring, but it’s a great start. it’s a lifesaver for most ridiculously yellow scenes. look at the difference! this gif uses the 3rd automatic option (the screenshot below isn't mine btw so that's why the fourth option is the chosen one), from top to bottom. what automatic option you need to choose depends on the gif.

sometimes i like to tweak my Curves layer. not everybody does that, it’s not that necessary and if you’re not careful, it can screw your gif up. to modify your layer by hand, you will need to click and drag points of that straight line in the position you desire. this is the concept behind it:

basically, the lower part of the line handles the shadows, while the upper part handles the highlights of the image. if you pull a highlight point up, the image’s highlights will be brighter. if you pull it down, it will make them darker. same thing for the shadow points. you should play with it to get a grasp of it, that’s what i did when i first started giffing.

BRIGHTNESS & CONTRAST

then i added a bit of brightness and contrast.

CHANNEL MIXER

the scene looked a bit too yellow, so i used the Channel Mixer (layer > new adjustment layer > channel mixer) adjustment layer. here’s a tutorial of how it works. not every scene needs the Channel Mixer layer though, i mostly use it to remove heavy overall tints. in this particular case, the Curves layer got rid of most of the yellow, but i wanted the gif to be just a bit more blue so the Channel Mixer tweaks are very minimal.

SELECTIVE COLOR

now, this adjustment layer i always use: Selective Color (layer > new adjustment layer > selective color). this is THE adjustment layer to me, alongside the Curves one. this is how it works:

ie, you can separately edit a color this way, giving it tints. for this gif, i wanted to make the colors more vibrant. to achieve that, i edited the selected colors this way:

for the reds, i added even more red in them by moving the first slider to the right, making the color more vibrant. for his hat to have a more warm tint, i added yellow to the reds (third slider, moving it to the right). finally, to make the reds stronger, i moved the last slider to the right (more black).

for the yellows, i made them brighter by adding white to them, thus making the tile wall and Paddington more bright as well.

for the cyans and the blues, i just added the maximum (+100) of black that i could.

i wanted for Paddington's nose to be brighter, so i added more white to the whites.

lastly, i added depth to the blacks by increasing their own blackness.

you should always play with the Selective Colors sliders for a bit, before deciding what you want or need. with time, you will automatically know what to change to correct the color grading. it all takes practice!

HUE/SATURATION

i don’t know if you noticed, but there are some green spots on the blue wall behind Paddington. to correct that, i added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation) and made the saturation of the greens 0%, making that unwanted green disappear from the background.

while the green spots on the wall are specific for this gif, i use hue/saturation a lot to tweak, well, hue and saturation. sometimes someone’s skin is too yellow, i made it redder by tweaking the reds and the yellows, or vice-versa. the hue bar follows the rainbow bar, so the maximum settings (+100 and -100) give the selected color to change its hue to something more red or pink (the rainbow extremities). changing hue can give pretty whacky results, like turning someone’s skin tone to green, so you will need to play with it to get the hang of it. you can also tweak the opacity of your hue/saturation layer to further improve your gif’s coloring. i didn’t do it in this case, the opacity is still 100%. the reds and the blues had their saturation increased to make them pop just a bit more, without affecting the other colors.

COLOR BALANCE

the highlights of the gif still had a green tint to it due to the automatic correction of the Curves layer, so i used Color Balance. this is how it works: instead of giving specific colors some tints, you can give them to the shadows, highlights, and mid-tones. if your shadows are too blue, you counterbalance them with the opposite color, yellow. same thing with the cyan-red and magenta-green pairings. in my case, i added a bit of magenta.

B&W GRADIENT MAP

now, if this gif was a dish, it’s time for the salt and pepper. i always add a Gradient Map (layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map) (black to white gradient) with the Soft Light blending mode, thus giving my shadows more depth without messing with the mid-tones and highlights. it also doesn’t “deep fry” (you know those memes?) the gif too much by adding even more contrast. usually, the opacity of the layer is between 30% to 70%, it all depends on the gif. it always does wonders, though!

COLOR FILTER

finally, i like to add Color Filters (layer > new adjustment layer > color filter) to my gifs. it’s very handy when giving different scenes for the same minimalistic set because it makes them kind of match despite having completely different colors. in this gif’s case, i added a “deep blue” filter, opacity 50% density 25. you can change the density and the opacity of the layer for further editing, again, it all depends on the gif.

VIBRANCE

if i feel like it, i add a vibrance layer (layer > new adjustment layer > vibrance) to make the colors pop. this can ruin your coloring sometimes, especially when regarding skin color, so be careful. i didn't do it in this gif because i felt i didn't need it.

TA-DA! 🥳

AN OTHER EXAMPLE

the color grading of the original scene it’s pretty good as it is, to be honest. let’s see a worse scenario, a VERY yellow one:

no channel mixer this time because the automatic curves option dealt with the yellowness, but you can see it made the gif too green. i needed to correct that with the following adjustment layers:

curves (automatic option) (gif 2) >> same curves layer (tweaks) (gif 3) >> brightness & contrast (gif 4) >> hue/saturation (tweaked cyan+blue+green) >> selective color >> color balance (gif 5) >> b&w gradient map >> (sepia) filter >> vibrance (gif 6)

i added a hue/saturation layer to remove the blues & greens before my selective color layer because i thought that was more urgent than tweaking the tint of all colors. color balance (gif 4) was the real hero here, though, by removing the green tint. the selective color layer was meant to make the red pop more than anything else, because the rest looked pretty good, especially her skin tone (despite the green tint). you can notice that tweaking the curves layer (small gif 3) also helped A LOT with the green problem.

tl;dr 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

here's a list of my go-to's while coloring and lightning gifs. it's not a rule, just a guide. there are gifs in which i don't use all these adjustment layers, or use them in a different order. it all depends!

1. curves (automatic option + tweaks) 2. brightness & contrast 3. channel mixer 4. selective color 5. hue/saturation 6. color balance 7. b&w gradient map 8. color filter 9. vibrance

i'll suggest that you study each adjustment layer listed for more info, either with other Tumblr tutorials or YouTube ones. the YouTube ones focus on images, but you can translate what they teach to gif making very easily. you can ask me to further explain any adjustment layer, too! i was brief to keep this short (which i kinda failed lol).

feel free to ask me for clarification or something else about gifmaking wise, i always like to help. ❤️

[ponderingmoonlight]

Since I was bombarded with anon statements about me using AI again, I'll say it here on last time: I see and understand where artist come from, I get the frustration over "artists" claiming AI work as their own, selling those pics and getting quite some fame for it.

But accusing me of stealing because I let an AI software turn me and readers into jjk or demon slayer style pictures is a little insane, don't you think? Especially advicing me to just use pictures on Pinterest or out of the manga. I don't want to hurt or trigger someone, but isn't that exactly what stealing is out of your context as well? Isn't using screenshots of jjk anime or manga "stealing" as well? And don't get me started on using random pics on Pinterest where you simply can't find out who's the original artist anymore. The argument that AI gets feeded countless pics on the internet and consumes artists hard work in the process sounds absolutely depressing and I'd be pissed as well.

But when I thought about it more...When putting your stuff on the internet, you deliver it to basically the whole earth. Damn, even my fics were found on some Russian site translated and without stating I was the one writing it. I get the frustration, I get the hate! But at the same time I feel like you aren't im charge for what happens on the internet anymore. As soon as you publish your stuff on literally ANY site (since all of them are collecting your data like Thanos anyway), it will get feeded into that system. Who knows how many of my countless essays already landed in there and are a part of someone's work? Who knows how many phrases of my fics I would be able to find when searching with ChatGPT? This isn't talking your concerns down or explaining myself, but rather showing that it's literally ANY artist out there getting affected by AI. You could just search for a fic with Gojo and boom, ChatGPT delivers way faster than me.

But why are you still here, then? Because NOTHING compares to original art!

Like I said over and over, I'd love to collab with artists. But much to my understanding, a lot of them work for MONEY and since my content is FREE, I'm simply not able to pay for the sheer presentation. Also, when looking at my blog, you'll see that I'm using like 70% of anime screenshots by now.

Let me take this opportunity to ask: are you even familar with how generating pictures with the help of AI even works? To make it short, the ML algorithms get "trained" with a huge ammount of training data (we are talking about like 1 billion pics here, depending on the AI). Yes, that data is sourced from the internet. Yes, that data will most likely include the content of artists on the internet without consent (which isn't fair). BUT that art doesn't find direct use in the later generated pics. It rather helps training the algorithms in order to "learn" aspects and characteristics of the imagine in correlation to the picture you want to translate into a certrain art style (like in my chase) or based on the described properties that the image should have (e.g. Bing AI). To translate that: You don't type in "blonde girl with blue eyes" and the AI just shows you a stolen picture online that fits into that description but generates its own version of it based on the pictures it got trained with before. Of course, it surely depends on the AI you're using and it is your responsibility as a consumer to think about ethical correctness here. But same goes for the people simply hating on me over the fact that I'm using AI and accusing me of stealing while this is definetely not the chase.

I won't change my blog because of you, I will continue putting a pic here and there into a fic because not only I find it cute from time to time, but the people who request are thankful more than once because I'm able to make "their" fic feel a little more personal. I get this is controversial and that some people won't feel comfortable on this blog because of it, which is sad but life. I can't even count how many times I've got rude messages because the jjk screenshots I've took myself out of the anime are someone else's artwork, because the manga panels are also artwork and I'm stealing them for my own content. I feel like I'm always in the wrong here, so I'll continue what I'm doing and what makes me happy.

Also, let me get this straight: I'm a writer who uses AI generated pics from time to time in order to spice up a cover and you're able to see that in the very first entry on my blog. It's really not that deep over here.

Every coward anon rambling in my inbox regarding this topic will be blocked and deleted.

Have a nice day everyone

[ivalice-tifalucis]

Anyway, this is the update how am I doing so far. I really end up extracting the whole show. I got like 80% of progress already. I notice some part of the recording has that annoying clicking sound. I don't know because the quality of the video from bilibili, problem when the video was streamed and screen recorded by OP, or because technical problems during the streaming itself (likely this). I try to remove it as best as I can but some part I just let it be like that because it's too hard to remove and I'm not that good in sound editing. My tools are after all just my macbook, airpods, audacity, and bunch of free AI softwares :")

This part from City of Angels. I don't know anything about this musical except that Hadley was in it and damn this is so good.

Ramin channeling his inner Gleb Vaganov. To be honest, I don't really like the stage musical version of Anastasia. I don't enjoy Christy Altomare's voice as much as the original animation so I prefer listen to that album rather than the OBC. All of Gleb's part sounds good in live performances but actually meh on the OBC album, idk, it's just sounds too loud I guess. But I like this version of Still. Still, not really a huge fan, but still, still, STILL!!!!

They did this in the exact way they did it in 2016 except this time it's just with a piano and Hadley remembers everything *chef kiss

[violetsandshrikes]

Since sharing this post about a usful AI used to compile and graph research papers, I've realised I have a few other resources I can share with people!

Note: I haven't had a chance to use every single one of these. A group of post-grad students has been slowly compiling an online list, and these are some I've picked out that are free (or should be free and also have paid versions). However, other students using them have all verified them as safe.

Inciteful (Using Citations to Explore Academic Literature | Inciteful.xyz) – similar to connectedpapers + researchrabbit. Also allows you to connect two papers and see how they are linked. Currently free.

Spinbot (Spinbot - Article Spinning, Text Rewriting, Content Creation Tool.) – article spinner + paraphraser. Useful for difficult articles/papers. Currently free (ad version).

Elicit (Elicit: The AI Research Assistant)  – AI research assistant, creates workflow. Mainly for lit reviews. Finds relevant papers, summarises + analyses them, finds criticism of them. Free (?)

Natural Reader (AI Voices - NaturalReader Home (naturalreaders.com)) – text to speech. Native speakers. Usually pretty reliable, grain of salt. Free + paid versions.

Otter AI (Otter.ai - Voice Meeting Notes & Real-time Transcription) – takes notes and transcribes video calls. Pretty accurate. Warn people Otter is entering call or it is terrifying. Free + paid versions.

Paper Panda (🐼 PaperPanda — Access millions of research papers in one click) – get research papers free. Chrome extension. Free.

Docsity (About us - Docsity Corporate) – get documents from university students globally. Useful for notes.

Desmos (Desmos | Let's learn together.) – online free graphing calculator. Free (?)

Core (CORE – Aggregating the world’s open access research papers) – open access research paper aggregation.

Writefull (Writefull X: AI applied to academic writing) – Academic AI. Paraphrasing, title generator, abstract generator, apparently ChatGPT detector now. Free.

Photopea (Photopea | Online Photo Editor) – Photoshop copy but run free and online. Same tools. Free.

Draw IO (Flowchart Maker & Online Diagram Software) – Flowchart/diagram maker. Free + paid versions.

Weava (Weava Highlighter - Free Research Tool for PDFs & Webpages (weavatools.com)) – Highlight + annotate webpages and pdfs. Free + paid versions.

Unsplash (Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash) – free to use images.

Storyset (Storyset | Customize, animate and download illustration for free) – open source illustrations. Free.

Undraw (unDraw - Open source illustrations for any idea) – open source illustrations. Free.

8mb Video (8mb.video: online compressor FREE) – video compression (to under 8mb). Free.

Just Beam It (JustBeamIt - file transfer made easy) – basically airdrop files quickly and easily between devices. Free.

Jimpl (Online photo metadata and EXIF data viewer | Jimpl) – upload photos to see metadata. Can also remove metadata from images to obscure sensitive information. Free.

TL Draw (tldraw) – web drawing application. Free.

Have I Been Pwned (Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach) – lets you know if information has been taken in a data breach. If so, change passwords. Free.

If you guys have any feedback about these sites (good or bad), feel free to add on in reblogs or flick me a message and I can add! Same thing with any broken links or additions.

[maypop-the-dragon]

PSA: Free Software

Reading this may really save your time, privacy, and money! Reblog or share to spread awareness!

Folks often use software that’s expensive and sometimes even inferior because they don’t know there are alternatives. So to those unfamiliar: basically, free and open-source (FOSS) or "libre" software is free to use and anyone can access the original code to make their own version or work on fixing problems.

That does not mean anyone can randomly add a virus and give it to everyone—any respectable libre project has checks in place to make sure changes to the official version are good! Libre software is typically developed by communities who really care about the quality of the software as a goal in itself.

There are libre alternatives to many well-known programs that do everything an average user needs (find out more under the cut!) for free with no DRM, license keys, or subscriptions.

Using libre software when possible is an easy way to fight against and free yourself from corporate greed while actually being more convenient in many cases! If you need an app to do something, perhaps try searching online for things like:

foss [whatever it is]

libre [whatever it is]

open source [whatever it is]

Feel free to recommend more libre software in the tags, replies, comments, or whatever you freaks like to do!

Some Libre Software I Personally Enjoy…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an office suite, much like Microsoft Office. It includes equivalents for apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which can view and edit files created for those apps.

I can't say I've used it much myself yet. I do not personally like using office software except when I have to for school.

OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is, as the name suggests, a video editing program. It has industry-standard features like splicing, layering, transitions, and greenscreen.

I've only made one video with it so far, but I'm already very happy with it. I had already paid for a video editor (Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro), but I needed to reinstall it and I didn't remember how. Out of desperation, I searched up "FOSS video editor" and I'm so glad I did. There's no launcher, there's no promotion of other apps and asset packs—it's just a video editor with a normal installer.

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program is an image editor, much like Photoshop. Originally created for Linux but also available for Windows and MacOS, it provides plenty of functionality for editing images. It is a bit unintuitive to learn at first, though.

I've used it to create and modify images for years, including logos, really bad traceover art, and Minecraft textures. It doesn't have certain advanced tech like AI paint-in, but it has served my purposes well and it might just work for yours!

(Be sure to go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colors. I have no idea why that's not enabled by default.)

Audacity

Audacity is an audio editing program. It can record, load, splice, and layer audio files and apply effects to them.

Audacity is another program I've used for a long time. It is not designed to compose music, but it is great for podcasts, simple edits, and loading legacy MS Paint to hear cool noises.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file manager and archive tool. It supports many archive types including ZIP, RAR, TAR, and its own format, 7Z. It can view and modify the contents of archives, encrypt and decrypt archives, and all that good stuff.

Personally, I use 7-Zip to look inside JAR files for Minecraft reasons. I must admit that its UI is ugly.

Firefox

Firefox is an internet browser, much like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. While browsers are free, many of them include tracking or other anti-consumer practices. For example, Google plans to release an update to Chromium (the base that most browsers are built from these days) that makes ad blockers less effective by removing the APIs they currently rely on.

Aside from fighting monopolies, benefits include: support for animated themes (the one in the picture is Purple Night Theme), good ad blockers forever, an (albeit hidden) compact UI option (available on about:config), and a cute fox icon.

uBlock Origin

As far as I know, uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blockers there is.

I was on a sketchy website with my brother, and he was using Opera GX's ad blocker. Much of the time when he clicked on anything, it would take us to a random sponsored page. I suggested that he try uBlock Origin, and with uBlock Origin, that didn't happen anymore.

Linux

Linux is a kernel, but the term is often used to refer to operating systems (much like Windows or MacOS) built on it. There are many different Linux-based operating systems (or "distros") to choose from, but apps made for Linux usually work on most popular distros. You can also use many normally Windows-only apps on Linux through compatibility layers like WINE.

I don't have all four of these, so the images are from Wikipedia. I tried to show a variety of Linux distros made for different kinds of users.

If you want to replace your operating system, I recommend being very careful because you can end up breaking things. Many computer manufacturers don't care about supporting Linux, meaning that things may not work (Nvidia graphic cards notoriously have issues on Linux, for example).

Personally, I tried installing Pop!_OS on a laptop, and the sound output mysteriously doesn't work. I may try switching to Arch Linux, since it is extremely customizable and I might be able to experiment until I find a configuration where the audio works.

Many Linux distros offer "Live USB" functionality, which works as both a demo and an installer. You should thoroughly test your distro on a Live USB session before you actually install it to be absolutely sure that everything works. Even if it seems fine, you should probably look into dual-booting with your existing operating system, just in case you need it for some reason.

Happy computering!

[synthvnews]

Rock voicebank announced for SynthV ANRI!

AUDIOLOGIE has announced a brand-new solid/power voicebank for ANRI: ANRI ARCANE!

New update is available for free for existing users until December 5th, 2023. This offering will be available on the upgrade event page at ANRI Arcane’s launch in December 2023!

Demos song: Back to Basics

Music/Lyrics by ippo.tsk

Vocals : Synthesizer V AI ANRI Arcane

Tuning: dnf x Aria

Mixing: Aria

Mastering: GuitarHeroPianoZero

Illustration: えのき

Official Design: 7Mora

MV/animator: HanaMisaki

Created in Association with Dreamtonics

Physical gift set

Physical version is now available for preorder for 29.99 USD!

Gift Set includes:

Acrylic Stand [Approx. H: 15cm / 6 inches]

Metal Can Badge [Approx. H: 6cm / 2.25 inches]

※ Pre-order Status: Expected Shipment date in January 2024.

※ This edition does not contain ANRI Arcane's software activation code. This an add-on merchandise + DVD box with DVD included intended to be paired with digital purchases or previous physical DVD purchases.

※ Inventory is limited. Product will not be restocked.

Download Edition

Available for preorder here for 89.99 USD

[caw4brandon]

How AI Kills Creatives

Human beings love to express themselves in many unique ways. From dance, to singing, to creative writing and of course, by art. Artists wrestle everyday to stay relevant to the masses while doing their favorite hobbies to earn a living.

This however may become null and void as the art community is facing another difficult challenge that could put them into jeopardy. The answer as to what can pose a danger to our beloved creative types is the hot topic for this Wednesday's piece. Let's discuss the complex situation of AI Art.

- Being a Creative Online -

For as long as I can remember, Creative work is either something industrial for advertisements or for entertainment, like comic books or animated shows. Often times, it involves expressive and also very dead people of influence like [Van Gogh], [Picasso] and [Da Vinci]

This however changed when the world was introduced to the internet. Allowing creative work to be presented to the masses, pass the borders and beyond. A timeless time capsule of creativity that can reach places traditional methods failed to do at rapid speeds.

Places like [Artstation], [DeviantArt], [Behance] and [Pixvi] are some of the most popular websites where aspiring artists can produce and express their craft to be shared and may potentially, give them the confidence to do commissions. These sites laid out a platform that can attract beginners and professionals alike for a chance to find an audience and develop themselves. This however, doesn’t mean an easy climb.

Creators need to combat against the algorithm and the occasional critics of these respective sites to be recognized. Creators need to claw their way out of the crowds to be graced by algorithm which means, they probably need to churn out backlogs of content to be seen and favored.

- Rise of The AIs -

A few years ago, I stumbled across a program called [Artbreeder]

Its a free to use program that allows you to create close to realistic portraits or stylized artworks by using a base picture and some photo manipulation for the desired effect. 

I myself have also used Artbreeder to create a version of my character; Sadie mac Lir based on the game version of her in HPHM.

Around that time, there was also the discovery of the mix and match dress up site by the name of [Picrew] which I too have used on more than one occasion. As time went on, better and smarter programs start appearing. Thus, allowing the masses to create scuffed or impressive images of whatever they so wish. From OCs to potential future babies to fiction turned real characters. 

At frightening speeds, AI programs created by intelligent software and application builders have grown to observe and steal from artists in various parts of the world to produce excellent works of art within seconds. Thus, threatening the very livelihoods of those who produce art as a job.

Enter the most controversial AI Art program [Lensa AI by Prisma Labs] Who is accused by multiple professional artists for committing art theft. Using the styles, compositions and signatures of said artists to reproduce works under the program's watermark.

- This is Art Theft! -

First, let's make a few things clear. I am not an expert to the subject of AI Art Theft but I highly recommend reading these few posts by better experts who can explain things better than me.

You can read [Megrae's Post] and [Jonlamart's Post] to gain a better understanding of the situation. From here on out however, I will be using my own words to breakdown how this can potentially kill the Creative community at large in the long run. Including us little guys.

To loosely summarize, the application takes a massive data collection of posts created by professional artists to be learned and recreated. Infamously, the application uses works of art by the late [Kim Jung Gi US] and others without the respective artist's permission to gain traffic and profit.

The disturbing factor in question, is that the developers of Lensa AI created this application with data that is NOT CONSENTED for such use. The program blatantly steals the artistic skills and styles of the Creative, allowing instant results via prompts which puts Creatives into obscurity. And, this is just the beginning.

Heaven knows, if the big guys in this industry are not safe from this AI. The time will come, where even small time artists will suffer such a fate.

Worst still, it places the general world view that the art community is an irrelevant industry. It takes away the trouble and cost of doing commissions and requests be a lot more to the AI's favor.

Looking into it further, a video essay by [Ana Isabel] (Which I highly recommend you watch as well) showed several other AI programs that has gotten better into writing articles via processing a database of samples and a few keywords. Thus, removing the need for a creative writer. (Like I am right now) 

What we are looking at right now is, for the first time in history. We are at odds of replacing Creatives from job opportunities. With these programs available, the phrase "Any Tom, Dick and Harry can do it" has gotten too close for comfort.

- Arguments Against AI Art -

Of course, the application can't work without us Creatives feeding the program samples and data. In some way, it still requires some form of human creativity to feed it data and develop and it also requires a little bit of luck to trigger the right prompt.

As stated in Ana Isabel’s video, some artists welcome the AI as an additional tool to help lay some groundwork for the artist to improve and build upon. Which creates a new label; [CyberArtist] or Cyborg Artist. 

Their argument is that the AI can be a helpful tool to conceptualize ideas as a first draft in productions or help with small time gigs such as promotional art or E-flyers. These Cyborg Artists also pointed out that AI Art will set a unique benchmark for what “good art” actually is, focusing more on the concept/ prompt than the process of creation.

Tempting as it may to say the world cares more about the idea than the craft. This is still detrimental to small timers or freelancers who want to pursue art as a profession with their own new ideas. It can discourage new and rising artists from chasing their ventures as they will be aware of the competition upon them.  

The comment; “it won't happen because, MY art is not that great" is not the point. If I were to guess. The AI will absorb any artwork that emits a large following and activity as food for the AI to feed and replicate which might even include doodles if left unchecked.

Although, not all hope is lost. As with these new improvements arise new problems. For that, new laws and new policies are being made to combat this troubling issue. Though not effective, it does raise the awareness. What is very important is that the general public must be made aware of such an issue. The world still looks down on Creatives, and sees their work as still "just a hobby" which is why this awareness needs to be raised and why we need to prove we are better.

On a hopeful note, AI is but an imitation of what is considered as great art but the one thing it can't ever do is produce Personal Art. It can't emote the hard hours spent, the process of improvement, the personalized charm, and the very heart that the artist cares about the audience.

That is something the AI CAN’T ever do. Its easy to feel fear knowing that the days as a Creative is numbered now that everyone can have access to such a program and to some, it may even be disheartening. But be aware that the True Value of an artist is the heart they have to share their craft. To show the imperfections and to do so anyway because they believe it inspires people. That is perhaps, what AI Art can’t ever kill.

To give because they enjoy the fun of it.

Thanks for reading

- Caw4B -

[rateaters-sutff]

THE CONVERSATION BELLOW SHOW AN ACTUAL UN ALTERD CONVERSATION I HAD WITH AN AI ART TECH BRO:

I'm not going to censor his name since he has deleted his account

He posted a really low effort ai animation on r/ animation, to which I responded with this meme:

Fig 1. The inciting incident

He then responded to me with this defending his decision using Ai art assets:

Fig 2. I responded that he should at least say parts were done with AI. Note that at this point, I meant no ill will and just told him that stating he used ai would be a good practice. This will get worse with the screenshots that follow:

He then stated it doesn't matter if he uses AI and that he made it "not for bragging rights"

Fig 3. I responded that crediting who/ what did what, helps the viewer not misarribute skills to him. And that always crediting what/ who did what aspects of a project is a good practice. This will set you up for the kicker he's about to say in the 4th screencap.

He then states that he infact,

doesn't need to credit anyone for the work they do in his projects because he paid for it.

And that as long as he pays for art, it is his, and he doesn't need to credit anyone.

Fig 4. He claims that he has copy right over his AI image, and if he needs to credit Ai, does he also need to credit Adobe too???

I then claim that he doesn't infact have copy right due to a recent court ruleing. As well as the fact that professional creators do credit their software. As well counter his claim by stating it is not like using a reference, because he didn't even make the art generated in the first place.

Fig 5. I also profess confusion over the claim that you don't need to credit free lancers for art.

This will get worse I promise:

He now states he does make art because he edits AI images.

Fig 6. Please note his "edits" were so minimal that I was able to spot it was ai before his short even ended.

I respond with this.

Fig 7. Yes this is still ongoing and will get worse

Now, when I engaged in this conversation, I did not expect him to try to send an NSFW AI generated Mona lisa, but

Fig 8. My comment is in refrence to him failing to send an image, and my assumption that he was banned off the subreddit.

Though evidently, this is not why

I then respond with this. Ignoring the absurdity of what he tried to do 5 seconds prior.

Fig 9. This thread will now get really sad and kind of pathetic

After all of this nonsense he goes to a separate subredit to complain about what happened. Key points being he only has ever done "south park level drawings". People who recognize he uses AI are "smart asses" and his reference of " bragging rights" as a reason to do art

Fig 10. This is kinda sad tbh.

This will certainly stick out in my mind for years to come. Notably beaucuse of how nonsensical and devoid of compassion his arguments are. But also the fact he tried to send me NSFW Ai generated Mona lisa as a counter argument.

[sumikatt]

frankly, i think your point about "some people train their own AI art models" is inherently flawed because rhe vast majority of people are not training their own model. they are paying for a service which was trained on art that was taken from the internet and used without permission in order for a machine to try snd recreate something similar bit by bit. i havent gotten a commission from someone who isnt a friend of mine in well over a year because people are just choosing to generate art with AI. i dont think AI art isnt "real" art because yeah, i agree with you, the whole idea of real art or not is complex. however, it is an undeniable reality that AI is trained on the work of artists all over the world who do not even get asked for permission before a tech company makes money off of their hard work.

I agree it’s a small, small portion of people making their own models that ensure that all art involved is used with consent. Many people buy a subscription or credits to generate what they want. Most people probably use free credits on Discord to make a meme or anime girls. Many people use it many different ways, yes.

I’m sorry you’ve lost a client over it. I know commissions are hard. Freelancers without dedicated clients would be the ones to suffer most from the popularity of AI art. I can’t say I’ve felt the impact myself, since it’s also very popular to be anti-AI.

Actively searching through job boards, I also feel like it has barely affected those listings. Maybe one of like 300 art jobs in the USA/Sweden asked for AI experience (Prompt Artist), and it was an AI startup. The “normal” art jobs like UI/UX, Environments, Materials, Concept, Technical, Animator, etc all still asking for 3 years experience for entry level lmao. Saw an intern position that required an “industry-standard” portfolio. So still a pain as it was before advanced AI gen.

Many paid AI art services have takedown options for their training sets and can block names from being prompted. If you were a popular enough artist to be in a training set, you can remove it and block the majority of AI art users from copying you—like you said, a majority of people use these services instead of self-hosting.

(Sending DMCA takedown requests are actually pretty easy. I had to send one to an old teacher who reposted my art and a bunch of classmates’ art on her ArtStation. that was funny lol)

I’m not sure how I felt when I went to search up my art on haveibeentrained. Because I’m a nerd, I’d preemptively blocked scrapers on my portfolio, so nothing was there when I looked. Searched up my legal name, my old Twitter (which had some popular pieces), my old DeviantArt usernames. Nothing there, either. I was probably pruned from the set for being low-quality. Kinda funny, I thought I’d be good enough to include at least once. Maybe next time.

.safetensors / .ckpt files (which are the models Stable Diffusion runs) have no image data in them, by the way. It is all math and numbers in there. There is no way of telling what was included in the training set, unless the dev(s) that made the model release it publicly. The models themselves are usually around 3–6 GB, though there’s larger ones and mini ones.

Like my own silly brain, there’s no way of tracking down the exact art pieces the software was referencing off of when it generates something. Am I making money off of another artist’s hard work when I remember how to draw heads from a Proko video? Am I ripping off photographers when I recall their pictures when drawing my characters? I’m not a tech company, but I still make money off of the things I copy and filter through my mind and hand.

I’m rambling at this point, sorry. Of course, the core issue is capitalism. How different would people see this medium if money were not an issue? How futuristic, how exciting it is to visualize something from words alone. It’s that art machine I’d always wanted as a kid, where I think of something and it pops out on the page finished.

I think it is worth to uplift those who use the medium as ethically as they can, as @are-we-art-yet is doing—having a do-not-use artist list, avoiding corporations, don’t try to undercut traditional artists. Like with any medium, there’s a variety of artists. Some are nice and do their best to have a good impact, some don’t care at all about the ethics of their art.

I’m still pretty firmly a “traditional” artist. I won’t stop drawing or give up because of AI. I play with AI on my own hardware and power for fun and for getting ideas (is that stealing?). It’s mostly replaced scrolling through Pinterest for me, but I still save people’s art and photos that I like in my computer, so I can look at em later, maybe get inspired. And steal like an artist, I guess.

[3hks]

Hello. What kind of AI cover generators do you use for stories? Are they free?

Hi! Thank you for asking! These are the a couple ones that I use/recommend:

^ This one is rather simple but super efficient; and like it states, there is no sign-up needed and it's completely free! There are tons of different art styles including tattoo designs, manga, and pixel art!

^ There are a couple of limits on this site; you must sign up and if you don't want to pay (like me) you can generate 5 images per day. However, I would definitely consider this one much more complex compared to the preceding recommendation! (You can not only use text-to-image, but there's also image-to-image, pose-to-image, face swapping, and real time AI painter)

^ Not sure if some of you guys know, but Canva actually released an AI art generator! Since it's Canva, I believe you must sign-up, but the first fifty tries are completely free! I used up all my tries a year ago, so things may have changed (but I doubt they have).

^ Also no sign-up or pay needed! I haven't experimented with it much, but it seems to run pretty smoothly!

^ Saw this recommended somewhere on social media, but when I attempted to try it, I got told that it was down due to updates and would be back up later. Feel free to check it out! (Says there's no sign-up or pay needed, either).

As of right now, these are all that I got! Please keep in mind that using AI art as a cover should only be utilized online, but other than that, I hope these were what you needed!

Happy writing~

3hks :)

[scruffyssketchbook]

how do you feel about Ai

I don’t like how Ai “art” steals from artists, so I don’t support that it, but I do like stealing from people who have already used Ai imaging software cause TECHNICALLY, the “art” is not theirs. >:3 it’s free to use as reference for actual art.

But at the same time I also in general just don’t like seeing Ai images. I saw cute pics of my favorite anime character and people said it was Ai and I was so upset broooo.

I do use Chat GBT to do silly stuff like write stories about the ssec characters tho. And I’ve used Chat GBT as a tool to help me fix my coding projects, so that at least has been helpful. =w=

[anonymouscomrade]

love scrolling through the Switch eshop sales because to get to anything worth playing you have to scroll through an endless sea of garbage

Big Titty Mahjong Legends Hentai Edition: There's Nothing In This Game That Couldn't Run In Maxim

coloring app

[Insert Job Here] Simulator game from Germany because in Germany video games aren't legally allowed to be fun

coloring app

who the hell is buying all these fucking clocks

Big Titty Match Three Superstars Panties Edition: You Guys Know The Internet Exists And You Can Just Search For Porn There Instead Of Playing This For Three Hours To Get An AI-Generated Picture Of An Anime Girl In Her Underwear, Right?

coloring app

"what if this way more famous game was made by jackasses who absolutely don't have the skill to pull it off? that was the question we dared to ask"

game from 30 years ago that you might have heard was good but the Switch port is the least optimized piece of software ever produced in the history of the human race, seriously this ran at 60 FPS on a fucking 486 HOW IS IT STUTTERING ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOD DAMNED SCI-FI LEVEL SUPERCOMPUTER BACK WHEN THIS WAS FIRST MADE

indie """""pixel art""""" game that uses tweening like it's a flash game from 2002

actual flash game from 2002

yet another survival game with graphics ripped straight from Minecraft

coloring app

coloring app

how are they charging seven dollars for this when it's free on mobile-- oh right they can't interrupt you with an ad every fifteen seconds on the Switch version

Big Titty Golf Heroes: Super Hot n' Sexy "Remember Those Faux-Raunchy Teen Comedies From The Early 2000s Who Desperately Wanted To Be The Next Animal House But Didn't Have The Balls To Follow Through, That All Had UNRATED DVD Releases With A Cover Of Like, A Bulldog Looking At You Quizzically, And Implied This Version Had A Ton Of Nudity The Theatrical Release Didn't But The Only Actual Additional Content Extended The Already Torturously-Long "Hilarious" Diarrhea Scene By Ten Minutes? It's Like One Of Those" Edition