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Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

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Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#31

Post by ilaksh »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #21
ilaksh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this view the purpose of creating art is self-development? I suspect we could drill down into what you are trying to say for a whole thread but the result is just going to be a specification for pretension.

In all views. It certainly isn't a checkbox. Why don’t you shelve the pretentious corporate rhetoric yourself and re-read what I’ve suggested. Get off the computer and pick up a pencil, or mound of clay, or whatever, and give it a few years of regular practice. Theres nothing pretentious about that. It will do everything and I will need to say nothing.

"In all views".

"It will do everything and I will need to say nothing".

Those are the pretentious parts of your reply.

It's just not true that everyone feels that practicing art is the main point. Sure, it can be developmental for an individual.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#32

Post by thomasfromcdnjs »

tikkun wrote: post #13

> What resources would you point your friends to who both want to learn about generative AI and assuage their fears that AI will make artists obsolete? Step 1 - get them to sign up for AI image tools. * Midjourney is best for quick images * Playground AI is good if they need to modify images but the quality doesn't need to be perfect * Leonardo AI (now owned by Canva) is a good full suite * Photoshop AI feature is be…

Thanks for sharing. My sister has been asking about AI for art, shes a canvas painter, she likes to play around and get inspiration or play with her own ideas and seeing what the model does with them.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#33

Post by ilaksh »

coldcode wrote: post #20
ilaksh wrote: post #4

The technical explanations are going to be technical. Based on what you said it sounds like you want to search through ComfyUI tutorials to find the one that seems just right to you. AI will eventually basically make artists obsolete just like every other job. You should focus on the creative possibilities of the present. Things like tools or ComfyUI nodes or whatever that allow you to do things like "auto complete"…

If you make art in postcards, then maybe you will be replaced. Diffusion based AI image generation is limited to a little over 1 megapixel, or double if you use an expander, or you can infinitely grow an initial image with more of the exact same sort of thing. 1 MPx printed at 300 dpi is similar in size to a postcard. Diffusion being able to generate meaningful printed images at 50-200 Mpx is impossible. My art is ma…

I will give you the possibility that some text to image generator models of the moment may not be able to create images that compete with Quanta magazine artists. Maybe. These systems have limitations but I think if you study your own logic you will see that you can't be sure that they will not overcome them in the next 2-20 years.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#34

Post by 1209412comb »

I don't think these artists need to go through a full course of how these modeling works under neath. It's a lot of effort if you don't already have a good background in STEM. I don't think they would gain more appreciation for GenAI even if they see how hard to make these models.

There are a lot of other interesting Computer Generative Art that are not Diffusions. Maybe those a more genuinely interesting to your artist friends.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#35

Post by jasonlotito »

echelon wrote: post #12
52-6F-62 wrote: post #3

[flagged]

> Obsolete… The fucking hubris There are some real dangers here that need to be navigated. Junior artists who get their start doing commissions are not going to have that path anymore. Reddit's job boards for junior artists are a literal desert now. In a sense, the activation energy gradient to producing good results has lowered such that the economic reward for up and coming artists has deteriorated. > Why don’t you…

> Artists who get their start in AI early can build recognition and clout within the community.

The non-artists community? The "I don't have anything I can show I own the copyright to" community? The "I made this with genAI so now the company can't even protect it's copyright?" community? The "tech-bro NFT fraud" community? The "do it for the exposure" community?

Which community?

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#36

Post by text0404 »

ilaksh wrote: post #31
52-6F-62 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all views. It certainly isn't a checkbox. Why don’t you shelve the pretentious corporate rhetoric yourself and re-read what I’ve suggested. Get off the computer and pick up a pencil, or mound of clay, or whatever, and give it a few years of regular practice. Theres nothing pretentious about that. It will do everything and I will need to say nothing.

"In all views". "It will do everything and I will need to say nothing". Those are the pretentious parts of your reply. It's just not true that everyone feels that practicing art is the main point. Sure, it can be developmental for an individual.

> It's just not true that everyone feels that practicing art is the main point

then it's likely that you're discussing people who don't consider themselves artists. i used to know some folks who did graphic design for advertisements - they didn't consider that art, as the point of the banners etc that they made was to attract attention and get people to spend money on a client's website, not to express themselves in some meaningful way. they were under no delusion that they were creating anything that could be considered near the same category as a Picasso (for example).

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#37

Post by 52-6F-62 »

ilaksh wrote: post #31
52-6F-62 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all views. It certainly isn't a checkbox. Why don’t you shelve the pretentious corporate rhetoric yourself and re-read what I’ve suggested. Get off the computer and pick up a pencil, or mound of clay, or whatever, and give it a few years of regular practice. Theres nothing pretentious about that. It will do everything and I will need to say nothing.

"In all views". "It will do everything and I will need to say nothing". Those are the pretentious parts of your reply. It's just not true that everyone feels that practicing art is the main point. Sure, it can be developmental for an individual.

Tell me, why dont you “drill down” and explain what is so pretentious about suggesting you might need to commit yourself to a practice in order to understand it. A pencil and paper are far cheaper and more accessible than a laptop and online subscriptions to “gen ai platform of the month”.

As I said elsewhere, if you think the artifact is all that matters then you are lost.

And I have better things to do than get mired in rhetorical bickering.

Once software has “eaten the world” then it will starve with nothing more of value to consume. I will still be here.

And for some bloody reason still doing my taxes by hand while some energy hungry machine churns out Rembrandt imitations that I don’t bother viewing.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#38

Post by 52-6F-62 »

text0404 wrote: post #29
echelon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obsolete… The fucking hubris There are some real dangers here that need to be navigated. Junior artists who get their start doing commissions are not going to have that path anymore. Reddit's job boards for junior artists are a literal desert now. In a sense, the activation energy gradient to producing good results has lowered such that the economic reward for up and coming artists has deteriorated. > Why don’t you…

> job boards > activation energy gradient > producing good results > economic reward > build recognition and clout > big advantage > a16z is investing > bootstrap production you're saying a lot of things about commodification and mass production, which are completely unnecessary to the expression of the human condition.

a16z of all things!

I like technology. I hate how its being used, especially by groups like that.

Software needs a soul revival. Holy shit

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#39

Post by achenet »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #28
cdrini wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said he's trying assuage his friends' concerns that artists are obsolete. Ie op agrees that artists are not obsolete.

Obsolete for what purpose? I dont think any aspiring artist, professional or otherwise, was ever deeply concerned about their future prospects in creating corporate graphics or mechanical pop songs. It was a fast buck, that’s all. Attempting to seduce them into committing ever more of their creative efforts in the service of a machine that only seeks to churn out more artifacts misses the entire point of ever startin…

I'm an amateur musical artist and writer of literature, and while I agree with you on the importance of the creative act - fundamentally speaking, I've come to accept that my music practice, like a good diet and exercise routine and spending quality time with loved ones, is just something I have to do if I want to be truly happy - I disagree that artifacts don't matter.

I think that in my case, and I suspect the case of many of people, one of the most rewarding things is someone connecting with a piece that I made and having it greatly improve their lives. I can understand wanting to optimize the process of creating artifacts in order to have more people thanking you for making their day/week/month/year with your art ^_^

The road to mastery, while yes there is that whole spiritual journey aspect of mastering yourself via mastering a craft, is also supposed to end in a place where you have the skills to give joy to people via your art. Via making something that they'll love, be it a painting, a song, or some software.

Wanting to optimize this not only makes sense, but is probably part of the process of mastering the craft. It is for me in any case, I do give a fair amount of thought to how I can improve my creation velocity when I make music, drawing inspiration from artists like JuL and Lex Luger who are known for their ability to rapidly compelling new tracks.

Re: Ask HN: Generative AI Courses for Artists

#40

Post by libertine »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #28
cdrini wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said he's trying assuage his friends' concerns that artists are obsolete. Ie op agrees that artists are not obsolete.

Obsolete for what purpose? I dont think any aspiring artist, professional or otherwise, was ever deeply concerned about their future prospects in creating corporate graphics or mechanical pop songs. It was a fast buck, that’s all. Attempting to seduce them into committing ever more of their creative efforts in the service of a machine that only seeks to churn out more artifacts misses the entire point of ever startin…

You're on point.

A good exercise anyone can do is to question why X or Y artists became a reference at a certain time.

You end up finding out it was about: the historical context, cultural disruption, influence during or after their life, consistency in pursuing their artistic expression... the list goes on.

In some cases the final outcome, the artifact, is "cool" on its own without the context, but in all cases, it's the artist that makes their body of work valuable and "cool".

Technology at the service of artists has played its role in new media and different ways to work with it, but it's mainly as a tool.

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