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| AI augmented original sketch |
This is a blog about the use of generative AI artwork to progress a project from unrealised concept stage toward a commercially viable product, compared with traditional method of hiring of an artist, and the difference in quality and outcome between those two paths.
Project: tRust (with a capitol R) was first conceptualised in 2013.
By 2017 I had scrimped and saved enough money to hire an artist to do some developmental illustrations for it. Yes, it really does take that long, when you are living on the breadline.
The art is what it is. It does indeed illustrate the point. These are developmental sketches, they're not intended as grandiose and glossy AAA product standard. More than anything, I wanted to make an internal shift within myself. In part, as a patron of the arts with the experience which comes along with that, including learning business manager skills, but mainly it was to develop the project one step beyond imaginary and toward it eventually becoming an actual product.
At that time we did not have AI generated art. Short of making the illustrations myself, which I was unable to focus on doing; hiring someone else to do it was the only way available at that time of sharing my vision with other people. First I had to use words to share the vision with the artist. The drawback is that by hiring their skill and time, it means if the artist gets it wrong somehow, it would cost more money to fix that.
I was happy with the result. I am still happy with the result. He 'got it in one' and did art worth what I paid for it. A batch of key illustrations to show the people and creatures of the world of project: tRust. I will not discuss the amount paid by private contract because that affects him also and I do not have his consent to be public about that, whether he cares about it or not. Suffice to say it was more than a days work at national minimum wage in Britain at the time. I don't know how many hours it took him to make the art; the contract was for the pictures, not the time.
Those illustrations are available for your perusal, here.
Cut to 2026.
We now have AI art.
The cost of producing the batches of AI generated art to my custom prompts is significantly less than the amount it cost to hire a visual artist. The quality difference is self-evident. This is why I absolutely do accept generative AI as a valid tool in the production pipeline. The prompts have been fine-tuned and refined in a process which took several hours a day across several days and weeks; probably as long as it took the artist who I had hired to produce his illustrations. Not all of the illustrations are entirely accurate to my vision, this is counterbalanced by the number of them which can be produced for a general-average 'the viewer gets the concept' approach. The purpose of these images is for the viewer to understand the concept.
If I had not used AI to generate the pictures, there would simply be no pictures. It's that black and white a difference. I have not 'stolen money from an artist' by using AI. I would never have had enough money to hire any artist of that calibre. I have not 'stolen an artists visual aesthetic and claimed it as my own' because I have, as already mentioned, developed that aesthetic through trial and error over a period of days and weeks.
Those illustrations are available on the Project: tRust blog.
In accordance with British copyright legislation, all of those illustrations are intellectual properties of Ordo Octopia. All Rights Reserved.
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| this cost more than an hours minimum wage |
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| this cost less than ten cents |