Do you use AI generated images in your comic?

[DarkSena]

Honestly? No and I don't see myselfever using them ever in future.

I'm mainly a traditional artist and I do every by my own hand, having experience by drawing over a decade and half I don't see AI being any useful to me at all.

[Mallory]

In theory I don't have an issue with ML-assisted creation, assuming the whole thing is based on the work of people who consented to having their work used that way. Mostly because ML image generation is pretty much just using software that traced billions of images and then used the data generated from that tracing to average it and spit out derivative results (which is why we're seeing watermarks and artist's signatures). But tracing is totally a-okay in comics - you just have to do it from licensed materials! So in theory, machine-assisted tracing would probably be fine too.

The issue is, even assuming the ethics angle is addressed, using ML image generation (it ain't "AI" when there's no "I") is actually, like... not that useful?

Before I understood just what ML image generation was, I played around a little bit with DALL-E's free Beta access, because I was theoretically interested in sometimes using ML-generated backgrounds to speed up the process (not for my webcomic, but for some other more realistic concepts I had kicking around). I had done a fun football sketch and didn't feel like drawing a background, so I decided to see what it might look like, if you were to use ML tools in art.

So after probably 13 attempts of it giving me all sorts of useless things, it eventually generated a usable image of a football field.

With the lines painted going the wrong way.

And the usual Cthulhu-summoning symbols where text would normally go.

And the stadium lights just kinda hung out in the sky.

I was like, nbd, I can just repaint it all.

So I did. And then I looked at my final image and was like "....you know, I think it probably would've just been faster to paint a football field from scratch..." because when I hid the layer with the original ML-generated image, I realized that in the process of fixing it, I had actually repainted the entire damn thing. Including the grass.

So... yeah. I don't use them for ethics, and I don't use them because they are useless to anyone with a single shred of art direction, which comics are just a bit dependent on.

[Chocolate]

I agree that AI generated art can be used for inspiration/references for beginners, but to an artist who has developed and established their own personal artstyle… it’s pretty much useless lmaoooooo.

[angie_draws_things]

First, if I stop drawing things myself, then where will AI get to steal its source materials from?

Next, relying on the "undo" button is about as much of a digital crutch as I want to use.

Lastly, I have seen my friends hurt enough from drawing digitally so much that they cannot as well draw on paper when in front of a fan of their work. I cannot even imagine being confronted by an adoring fan, only to have them realize that the "artist" they looked up to is an AI-using fraud who cannot draw a thing to save their life.

Sure, one can simply avoid all interactions with people if their work takes off, but what is the point of working hard to create art if one cannot take credit for it without the looming shadow of AI-fraud hanging over the whole body of their work? Art thieves are criticized harshly enough in the community as is, but to be recognized as an AI word cruncher when you have built yourself up as an artist would be catastrophic.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I use AI generated images
Because
AI = 愛 = LOVE

"Generated" with love

[Inspector]

I think AI is better off as a fun thing to play with when your bored, and not as something you actually would use in replace of a human being.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I don't just like being a person who's made a comic and seeing people read and react to it, and selling it, I actually love the process of making the comic, and expressing myself through the lines, showing off my skills. I don't understand how anyone would think comics were a good medium for them if they didn't.

I do. I mean, you can clearly conceive of someone who just wants to be a person who's made a comic and seeing people read and react to it. That's me.

Why do I think (web)comics are a good medium for me? Because it's the medium that can convey my vision of my story most efficiently, with high fidelity but not an outrageous amount of work like animation.

Is it that weird to want something to exist so badly that you'll bite the bullet and learn how to make that thing even if you don't exactly enjoy it? (Well okay, I enjoyed the learning part, but I dislike the 'execution' part after that enough to happily outsource it if there was an easy way to do so.) Comic writers who hire artists exist, after all.

and before any image generator defender comes, it is different to how a human artist learns - human understands what and why they're doing something, it's a difference of for example using a bunch of stones to write a word by putting them on the ground vs randomly throwing them to the ground - just with computer measuring the angle and strength on the throw so that if it does by accident spell out a word, it can do it again

Hahaha as a human, I've been channeling AI energy so much lately, esp. when it comes to drawing machinery Consider this drawing:

Do you think I actually have any idea how printers work? Nope, I just google image searched 'print shop' and looked at a bunch of printers in print shops, and drew some lines that I felt might convincingly look like commercial printers.

I did not understand what I was doing, or why I was doing it; I did not studiously examine the anatomy of a properly functioning printer and draw these printers based on any actual understanding of how printers are built. It was pure trial and error, throwing pebbles at the ground until they looked like printers to my eyes.

Certainly humans have the ability to actually understand what we're drawing, unlike AI. But there's a part of our brains that just takes info and spits out info that feels like the right info. Have you ever felt like in school that you were not taught to actually understand things; that you just need to put the correct symbols down on the page, and you get to pass the exam? Anyone who's gotten a high mark on a test without learning a thing knows what it's like to channel this part of their brain.

Are you saying we should not be allowed to do this?

I don't think anyone on an artist site is going to want to say yes even if they were. That's like asking "HEY ARE YOU A DEER?" in a field of lions. You're just ASKING to be swarmed lmao.

I totally would Unfortunately my drawings look nothing like AI-generated stuff, so that avenue of trolling is out the window :'D (If anyone would have believed me to begin with, considering AI content is not allowed on Tapas :P)

[darthmongoose]

Is it that weird to want something to exist so badly that you'll bite the bullet and learn how to make that thing even if you don't exactly enjoy it? (Well okay, I enjoyed the learning part, but I dislike the 'execution' part after that enough to happily outsource it if there was an easy way to do so.) Comic writers who hire artists exist, after all.

I find this a little confusing. You enjoyed learning the process, and I've seen you say elsewhere that unlike somebody like me who is okay to view my work as ultimately forgettable pop culture, you want to create meaningful art that could be remembered...
And yet you don't get satisfaction out of making art?

Perhaps it's just me, but this seems like a contradiction. To enjoy mastery of the process, but then to say you don't enjoy the process.

I don't have to be saying "wheeee! This is great!" with every single line I lay down to say I enjoy making art. Sometimes it's hard work, sometimes inking or flatting is boring, but I still feel satisfied when I finish a panel and it nails the emotion or action I wanted to communicate, or the colour scheme or angle I planned out, and imagined being good in my head looks good on the page. Enjoying art is like... being able to conceive of a thing, and then being able to execute that and to express it... so at least to me personally, I don't see how a person can feel satisfaction in that and motivation to master the craft to do it better, and pride in artistry, but then say they don't care about anything outside of gaining an audience. Especially when I've already seen you saying you want more than to just have an audience, you want your work to be regarded as meaningful beyond the level of mere entertainment.

[TheLemmaLlama]

To enjoy mastery of the process, but then to say you don't enjoy the process.

I guess it's like learning how the quadratic formula is derived vs applying that formula to a whole bunch of 'math' questions on a worksheet for homework. I like the 'aha moment' of when it clicks for me how something works (perspective, color relativity, etc), but I don't enjoy apply that knowledge over and over again when I've already learnt it ^^;

I still feel satisfied when I finish a panel and it nails the emotion or action I wanted to communicate

Maybe this is the crux of our misunderstanding here. I also feel satisfied when I finish something, and it matches my vision. But if I could push a magic button which causes my comic to poof into existence exactly as I envisioned it, to my full satisfaction, I will take it in a heartbeat.

I derive satisfaction from the thing existing. Whereas you derive satisfaction from you being the one to cause it to exist, through your own efforts. For me, that's irrelevant; the mere existence of the thing satisfies me, regardless of how it came to exist.

don't care about anything outside of gaining an audience. Especially when I've already seen you saying you want more than to just have an audience, you want your work to be regarded as meaningful beyond the level of mere entertainment.

Well, I want a lasting audience. An audience that, after they experience my thing, remembers the thing and feels so deeply impacted by the thing that they have an urge to tell others about the thing and analyze the thing and put some of the ideas from the thing into their own work.

But that's all I want. And I feel like that's compatible with not enjoying the process in the sense of 'happily pressing the magic button to make the thing poof into existence'.

---

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Maybe a better way to explain it is, I don't care about my comics because they're mine. I don't think of myself as the 'creator' of my comic so much as the 'lead translator', who has already 'read' the comic in 'ideaspace' and now has to translate it into actual physical format so everyone else can read it too. My passion for my comics is the passion of a fan.

I want my comics to go down in history as a classic for the same reason one would root for a particular favourite book/show/game/etc that they felt has deeply impacted them to go down in history as a classic.

I want to see people talk about/make fanart of/be inspired by/etc my comic for the same reason I enjoy looking at fan content for other media I'm a fan of, and seeing other works pop up that are similar to the thing I like.

If my comic already existed, as some else's work, I would just be super glad it exists and be a normal fan of it, and I'd be glad I don't have to make it myself. I may still end up 'reading' another story in 'ideaspace' and become a fan of that, and therefore work on 'translating' that, but if that doesn't happen, then I'm happy to call it quits on being a 'creator'.

Maybe that makes a bit more sense? XD

[darthmongoose]

I think I get it... It's a very different mindset. I personally could never feel motivated if I couldn't enjoy the process on something as time-consuming as comics, but I do wish you the best with achieving your aims!

[TroyVSTheWorld]

For a short minute I used AI art for backgrounds in youtube shorts that would have otherwised just used the basic white void. Some of them were kinda funny. Nightcafe was the one I used, and it was really cool when I first discovered it, but I wouldn't use any of that for my comic these days. My comics require a certain 'attitude' which is something the AI can't really provide.

[BoomerZ]

I'm with @darthmongoose. The finish product is great, but knowing you are the one that did it is even better. I love the fact of when a picture in my head I successfully transferred it to paper. I love the feeling of uploading an episode after a weeks work. I take pride that I have a weekly comics, and I have not missed a deadline in over a year. Every part of a comics, other than flats as I hate coloring, is fun to me. The script, layouts, roughs, inks. All fun. And if you don't find it fun, I don't understand how you could do it. as it's a lot of work.

AI just seems like a cheat. You want to make something but you don't want to put the hard work into actually doing it. I know I'm in a very small minority, but I see 3D models as the same thing. You don't want, or can't, take the time to learn anatomy and take life drawing courses, so you trace. Using a picture as reference or a background because its suppose to me an actual place I understand. But setting up 3D models for all of your panels just seem tedious. And the biggest problems with AI and 3D models is the final product looks dead to me. Either too perfect or very stilted. Comics are suppose to be larger than life, with squash and stretch to exaggerate emotion and action. Have two people in a scene with the same body type just punching each other is not dynamic. And until you can morph the 3D model it never will be. AI can never be exactly what you want as you have no real control with the outcome. And god forbid if you have to change a small detail. There is no going back.

AI is going to give us lots of really boring comics. With pictures that will be technically good looking, but wouldn't be exciting

[nofacedrawer]

I could use AI as reference material, but honestly, you'll take so long to tweak the ai to what you want that it'll be faster to draft it directly lol

[TAMAnnoying]

Not currently but I'm constantly mentally preparing myself for the worst. One day I will prob be unable to successful draw a panel anymore, I may loose feeling in my arm/hand or just have no way to make the lines smooth and easy to see what I'm drawing. One day I might not be able to draw anymore- when that happens I would like to have my own personal little machine that would take all my old comic pages and print out new ones.

I'm PRETTY sure I'll be done with the comic before that happens but I truly don't see why people can't use AI when they are using their own work to make their lives easier (as they should). It's hard for us normies currently to use ethically friendly AI but big studios are doing it. I believe spidervers had some AI tech to make the possess easier for the artist.

If you mean "do I use computers to make my job easier" then yes absolutely and everyone should.

If you mean "do I find one of these ai bots, throw a bunch of words at it till it spits something coherent out and then post it as my own." No.

[ThunderChicken]

I draw because I enjoy drawing. I find it relaxing. Using AI to do my drawing would be like asking somebody else to boink my husband. Even if they might be better at it, I prefer to do it myself.

[AmysGames]

I know I'm in a very small minority, but I see 3D models as the same thing. You don't want, or can't, take the time to learn anatomy and take life drawing courses, so you trace.

I may be in an even smaller minority, because whenever I use 3D models, I literally make the dang models myself, lol. Like my most recent pages had the characters in a school bus, and working out the correct camera angles with all those chairs was annoying to me, so I sat down and modeled an entire school bus by hand, while leaving it vague enough that I could work out the details in the art stage.

Is it needlessly time-consuming? Probably! Is it cheating? Maybe! But at least it means that 3D Modeling course I took in college isn't going to waste, haha.

[migxmeg]

Still on a very long hiatus and it seems that we cannot here on Tapas for when I get back anyway so I guess I won’t be continuing it… but I had been experimenting with AI adjusted images before going on break. Don’t expect it to generate good sequential images, story-appropriate compositions or character art that is even close to satisfactory, but it definitely has potential to add atmosphere back into 3D/asset-based backgrounds which are so helpful for speeding the process but can look so clunky and clash with the character art.

After putting in the work to set up a scene and point a camera in Unreal Engine/other 3D software, I ran some of the images through stable diffusion to add warmth/remove stiffness and straight lines for a nice subtle painterly look that felt appropriate to my character art style. The whole process took less than a minute, helping me get that part of my comic panels done very quickly in a way that I found much more appealing than screenshots of 3D scenes. It was super promising!

As a solo artist that doesn't get paid and doesn't have much time, finding ways to spend it on the parts that I love (expressive characters, panel composition and flow) and cut time on parts that don't give me joy (backgrounds) while keeping them to a standard that satisfies me is a no brainer.

As for the ethics of it… sigh. I’m well aware that the AI models weren’t created in an ethical manner. That said, I think there are better and worse ways to use it now that it exists and I have a hard time answering who is being harmed by me in this case (though open to arguments!). It’s quite obvious when used for competing with artists directly using their own style, replacing jobs, etc. - feels like there is a bit more nuance when you start using it for other things like generating ideas or making adjustments to images that belong to you. I can’t pretend to be a saint either in other areas of my life perfectly avoiding unethical consumption - such as owning a cellphone , occasionally buying things from companies with icky politics, eating meat/dairy etc. Can’t say this feels significantly different.

Anyway, moot point since it’s not allowed.

[GodbreakerComic]

So apparently AI art is having a problem...

AI art pulls from other art, but now there is so much AI art, that its pulling from itself and yielding worse and worse results.

AI art is inbreeding.

[AmysGames]

Somehow I didn't see it coming, but I really should have seen it coming, haha.

[katycoolnin]

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