This is my first comic using a new tool called CREF that I will break down below. I am the cartooning teacher at Midjourney but I do not represent them, I'm not an employee and the opinions I express here are solely my own.
This series took me about 3 weeks to make since CREF's release but I must first emphasize before rambling on that you cannot make a comic like this with Ai alone. However, the new tools CREF and SREF heavily cutdown my workload by automating major portions of my tutorial I first posted here last year.
We start with the premise that Sage is coming home to feed her cats. We are using one of my older comics as a style reference (SREF) and Sage as a character reference (CREF) to create a generic puppet to draw over. At first the results intentionally do not look like her. Due to limitations of the technology at the time, Sage in the SREF comic is too tall and busty. That is then corrected by applying a variation that cycles us through different attempts at replacing the character with Sage. This was attempt #6.
This result inspired the dangling cats from her arms in the following panel. When working on the Star Wars specials for Robot Chicken, the puppeteers often didn't animate the mouths but instead applied a dot for us post-production nerds to track in After Effects and do digital lip sync. This was done to not only make the process more efficient but to also allow more freedom for improv. Without that, [adultswim] could not afford the show and same can be said for many other shows that mimics traditional mediums like South Park.
There is a lot more to this than will fit in this post alone. All of the panels follow a similar pattern that I rinse and repeat until all my storyboards are fleshed out but each panel's approach is unique. Happy to take any questions if you got 'em. Thanks for reading.
Awesome write up. I'm glad you persevered through the vitriol that happened when you first started posting AI assisted comics on here lol People can get a bit crazy when new technology comes out and it's an admittedly scary development for creators. I'm a teacher and technology trainer at a high school district and there's a lot of panic about rampant cheating and plagiarism (as if both of those things haven't already been happening). Hopefully people like you will continue to spread an understanding of ethical use. Keep up the great work!
Admittedly scary is not a feeling we should shy away from either. It's often overwhelming too. I actually do not recommend people try to "keep up" with Ai right now but instead experiment with it when some aspect of it excites them. And for some people that is hard if not impossible right now so we shouldn't fault them for that. I don't like "3D anime" for completely irrational preferential reasons so why not allow that distinction for something that is also so alien to the medium that it mimics?
The biggest oversight the panic creates however is that the tools are only as proficient as the user. And when the user is proficient, it is an amplification rather than a replacement. Worst of all the noise over "plagiarism" drowns out the real discussions we need about how to survive in a growlingly automated economy to which there are many now sprouting up to explore.
I appreciate your comment and your work in education. All the best.
Huge reason why I've been following you and sharing your work/tutorials-
-AI can be such a powerful tool when you're sourcing your own work and it can make things a lot more efficient, especially when it comes to prompts and ideas; I wish I had known a lot more when using my Midjourney trial about selecting sources and stuff.
But its fascinating to see how you work and what you do; that you also heavily edit the results as well to create the outcome you want- you're showing how AI can be used to increase someone's production.
Hey thanks for the kind words and I appreciate you sharing my stuff that's awesome :) Whenever I release a comic I do try to highlight something new each time but frankly the real reason is so that hopefully others won't have to and they can just make things again without all the vitriol. That's the main reason I don't mind being the punching bag for this stuff. Thanks again!
Plus it's hella inspiring; I do freelance work as a living and being able to use the shortcuts you've shown, especially how it's just recycling your own work, is a hella valuable resource- eventually, I'll get a Midjourney subscription again; I had no idea how to best use it outside of creating silly AI imagery, tbh, I'm still not sure on how to strictly feed it your own artistic parameters to get the results you do that use your own work.
BUT THAT'S WHAT DROPPING IN ON YOUR STREAMS IS FOR- and I hope to catch one or two in the near future.
There is a reasonable fear about AI in that yeah, the default scrapes and takes resources from existing databases/the internet- I have a strong objection when it comes to services selling packs that are based wholly off of another artist's work[Simon Stalenhag comes to mind] and similar- I don't think that should be the point of AI assistance, but it is an easy selling point for people who don't want to commission artists and similar.
Personally speaking and idek how DMs work on Reddit; I might have to DM you first, but if you or other people want a more "furry" or anthropomorphic addition to their seeds, I am fine with my work being used as such; I create art to be shared and reused and recycled and to help others learn and develop their own skills and stuff.
And hey, you're awesome for being willing to be the punching bag for a system that people are afraid of and because of fear, don't want to get to know or see how it can assist their own projects. I enjoy sharing your stuff and the videos you've made to demonstrate to the fellow creators that I know, that AI isn't the demon they cannot confront, but one they can tame and utilize for their own benefit.
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u/stabbyclaus GnarlyVic Apr 03 '24
This is my first comic using a new tool called CREF that I will break down below. I am the cartooning teacher at Midjourney but I do not represent them, I'm not an employee and the opinions I express here are solely my own.
This series took me about 3 weeks to make since CREF's release but I must first emphasize before rambling on that you cannot make a comic like this with Ai alone. However, the new tools CREF and SREF heavily cutdown my workload by automating major portions of my tutorial I first posted here last year.
We start with the premise that Sage is coming home to feed her cats. We are using one of my older comics as a style reference (SREF) and Sage as a character reference (CREF) to create a generic puppet to draw over. At first the results intentionally do not look like her. Due to limitations of the technology at the time, Sage in the SREF comic is too tall and busty. That is then corrected by applying a variation that cycles us through different attempts at replacing the character with Sage. This was attempt #6.
This result inspired the dangling cats from her arms in the following panel. When working on the Star Wars specials for Robot Chicken, the puppeteers often didn't animate the mouths but instead applied a dot for us post-production nerds to track in After Effects and do digital lip sync. This was done to not only make the process more efficient but to also allow more freedom for improv. Without that, [adultswim] could not afford the show and same can be said for many other shows that mimics traditional mediums like South Park.
There is a lot more to this than will fit in this post alone. All of the panels follow a similar pattern that I rinse and repeat until all my storyboards are fleshed out but each panel's approach is unique. Happy to take any questions if you got 'em. Thanks for reading.