Devlog 44

I have been learning about AI art. The main reason for that is that I feel limited by Daz3d, in terms of assets, such as environments, hair, clothing, so I have been exploring whether using AI art can help, or even replace Daz3d. Now, AI art can generate all sorts of art, from anime, to a specific art style, to photorealism. Daz3d is somewhat leaning towards photorealism, but not quite there, giving it a distinct appearance. Technically, AI should be able to generate art in the Daz3d style, if somebody makes such an AI model. Right now, there is one, but the result was pretty bad when I tried it. So, I figured going for photorealism or some other very realistic art style is probably the closest I can get to a Daz3d style right now. I think it doesn't look too out of place, especially when you compare it to high quality games such as Desert Stalker, where the Daz3d renders are significantly more realistic than mine.

Now, AI art, probably your impression of it is that it's all portraits. That is not true. There are ways of making more interesting camera angles. There are still many things I need to learn with AI art, and there are new features coming out every day that help artists better control what they want to make. Right now, there are some limitations such as wearing the same clothes in every render, or being in the same environment. You can get the AI to make very similar clothes or environment, but it's hard to be the same. I think in some areas, Daz3d will always be better because it's a full 3d environment. There is no guesswork involved when it comes to taking different camera angles or lighting. Whereas AI is like a comic artist that draws every panel from scratch. It is up to the artist, or in this case the AI, to imagine the character's face and body, clothes, environment in every panel so that they look like they are just taken from different camera angles. Right now it is possible to produce a consistent face from different angles, but not the others yet. 

AI art really does have a lot of potential, because I am not limited to what faces, bodies, clothes, hair, environments, that have already been made by other artists. I can make a lot more things, although it's also harder to control exactly what I want. In contrast, Daz3d is totally deterministic. But the downsides are you are likely to see the same characters, hair, clothes, environments, used again and again in different games. I am quite often frustrated at having to find environments that I have in mind but couldn't, or using the same milk assets in Daz3d. Hopefully AI can change that. Even if it cannot fully replace Daz3d, AI can be used to modify existing images, so it can be used to enhance renders made in Daz3d, a bit like using Photoshop.

Now, who do you think the woman in the image is? She is one of the characters in HDF, or at least she would be if she was photorealistic.