[ci skip] Draft update

content/post/2022-11-20-an-art-challenged-individual-s-perspective-on-ai-anime-generated-art.md

@@ -85,18 +85,71 @@ Clicking at random through the list of the "newly added" sites made me end up on
 
 {{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/maya-shocked.png" size="600x" caption="I'm... I'm the copy of someone else's memory!?" >}}
 
-However, I was never able to find the drawing again. I don't even remember the web page, and the image was not on any of the many backups I made. I remember saving it, but it was likely lost. So for many years, "Maya" was just an idea that kept going back and forth in my head. At some point, the concept of a "civilian Maya" (the one you've seen so far) and a "battle Maya", heavily inspired by 1980s anime like 超音戦士ボーグマン (often translated as [Sonic Soldier Borgman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Soldier_Borgman)), having the ability to transform and don some kind of powered suit (with a bracelet heavily borrowed from Borgman's Baltector).
+However, I was never able to find the drawing again. I don't even remember the web page, and the image was not on any of the many backups I made. I remember saving it, but it was likely lost. So for many years, "Maya" was just an idea that kept going back and forth in my head. At some point, the concept of a "civilian Maya" (the one you've seen so far) and a "battle Maya", heavily inspired by 1980s anime like 超音戦士ボーグマン ([Sonic Soldier Borgman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Soldier_Borgman)), having the ability to transform and don some kind of powered suit (with a bracelet heavily borrowed from Borgman's Baltector).
 
-{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/maya-suit.png" size="600x" caption="I'm also Maya, and I will fight whatever evil threatens this town!" >}}
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/maya-suit.png" size="600x" caption="I'm also Maya, and I will fight whatever random evil threatens this town!" >}}
 
+This is what allowed the character (and a few others around her) to "exist". No longer as a vague memory (which is also fading), but in something that can be seen. I wouldn't have asked an artist to do this, as the details were too scant to actually do anything. This way of generating allowed me not only to put form to my memory, but also to start fleshing out more details (although it is unlikely that it will become anything - there's already too much bad stuff out there).
 
 ## What AI art gets near-perfectly
 
+Being a system that is trained on existing art (and, due to technical reasons, to mostly square, low-resolution images), such a system can get some things right, and some things wrong. First, we'll focus on the good points. Remember, however, that this is from a perspective of someone who has no artistic sense.
+
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/satsuki-pretty.png" size="600x" caption="What are you saying? It's obvious that I'd end up being pretty!" >}}
+
+Certain models (like the leaked NovelAI, or its evolution, the "Anything" model) get most anime-related stuff almost perfectly. The images of Satsuki and Yumiko you've seen here are *extremely close* to the character designs that were commissioned years ago. Of course the artist style is different, but it's really *them*. Even other characters that existed only in textual descriptions ended up being "just right", like the fellow below (by the way, his name is Nindech: don't make him angry, or he'll eat you).
+
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/nindech3.png" size="600x" caption="I haven't eaten enough children this morning. Bring me more!" >}}
+
+So, getting good results is definitely possible, for the most part. However, that doesn't mean that they come out *easily* (more about this later).
+
 ## What isn't that great
 
+Of course, like all software, this method has some limitations, which can become even more evident with anime-style art. One of the major issues is that the data fed to it was in rather low resolution for the most part (512x512), which means that a lot of fine details are lost, and thus the algorithm has a hard time getting them right. Examples are fingers (you might have noticed in the images in this post), but also stuff like weapons, which barely end up in the characters' arms (the suspicious "Anything v3.0" model gets them much better, to be honest).
+
+Also, if there are not enough pixels to properly form the image, some details like faces are completely messed up. Photographic proof below.
+
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/derp.png" size="600x" caption="Hurr durr my arm is a sword!!!!!1111" >}}
+
+The more acute observers might also have noticed, sometimes, a lack of symmetry in clothing and backgrounds. Again, this is in part to due to how the algorithm works, and in part due to the low resolution of the input images. You can raise the resolution, of course, but that requires loads of video RAM on your GPU (around 16G or more).
+
+The AI also has no notion of what the elements in the scene are there. As such, multiple characters in one scene often share the same traits (e.g., if you have one with glasses, *everyone* will have them), and this is even more evident if there are characters of different gender together.
+
+In addition, most (but not all) anime-styled models have a *major* slant towards female characters. Getting male characters out that don't look like eldritch abominations requires some work.
+
+Work, exactly.
+
 ## Is it really low-effort?
 
+One of the major criticism of AI-generated art (in general, not necessarily anime-styled), along with the "stealing" of art (we'll discuss that later) is that it would, potentially, enable "low-effort" generation of art.
+
+While it's true that some (see on DLsite.com, for example) are selling AI-generated art that is of abysmal quality (low resolution and not even checked), getting pictures right requires quite a bit of work. For each of the images in the post, I've gone at least through 30 iterations each, adjusting the inputs, [blacklisting some terms](https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui/wiki/Negative-prompt), and adjusting resolutions so they would look fine (only to, sometimes, redo everything due to a mistake). I can say it takes about more than an hour for more complex subjects, and several hours for the most difficult ones.
+
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/better-result.png" size="600x" caption="I went to the plastic surgeon. It's all fine now." >}}
+
+There are tools to "help" the AI to generate images correctly, which involve either slightly altering a provided image (as opposed to pure text input) or by instructing it to only touch part of the image itself. These are considerably more complex to use. For one series of images I think I spent about six hours in total (cumulative) to get them right.
+
+Let's get this clear: it's not comparable to the effort one artist makes in creating a drawing, but it's not at the level of "push button, receive cookie". Absolutely not.
+
 ## Will the AI overlords replace humans?
 
+And this brings us to the main argument of AI-generated art, which is true even more for anime-styled one. Will the AI overlords make artists obsolete? Big question.
+
+{{< imgthumb src="images/2022/11/yumiko-kill.png" size="600x" caption="Lords? Who needs them! I'll just kill them all!" >}}
+
+(The above is Yumiko. Don't ask, long story.)
+
+I've had quite a long debate with [someone far more art-inclined than me](https://mobile.twitter.com/Designersan1) on this topic. The point this person made is that morally, if there's no effort involved, it shouldn't be really sold as "art", although with a distinction between  those who spread, or sell, generated images "as-is" and those who put effort in getting them better. Of course, I'm summarizing a lot (this post is already very long as it is!) but that was the gist of our argument.
+
+As I see it, the matter is undoubtedly complex and time will be definitely needed to sort most of the issues out.
+
+There are several points that will need to get cleared:
+
+1. This is not "stealing". At best it is plagiarism, or copyright infringement. They are not the same thing, as stealing implies a physical deprivation of something, not an unauthorized copy or modification;
+2. Whether AI art is a derivative work of the images it was trained on, it is likely a matter that will need courts to get involved, because at this point there is absolutely no clear way to call the generated art "original" or "derivative", in particular when no preexisting subjects are involved;
+3. There's the whole stuff of AI being used for stuff that people would find unpleasant, borderline legal, or outright revolting and creepy. Again, now that the models are out, while one can "censor" or "limit" them, other people may be still able to add whatever they want to them, so it may need law, or courts if such limits are wanted;
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+
+
 ## Conclusions