AI Art Extravaganza 1 (Patreon)

NOTE: There are some NSFW art pieces in here. I'll give warning below.

Wrote out a whole post and forgot to make a proper intro. I have decided to dabble in AI art. I understand there are those who have ethical concerns about AI art. I discussed this at some length on my discord, but here is the gist:

I think AI is ethical, so long as it follows the current laws of the US concerning copyright.

There are many unethical AI programs out there and I agree with people who state that those pieces are stealing.

NovelAI has documented their diffusion process is ethical and that diffusion doesn't actually copy anything. You can look at their explanation here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1564878372185989120.html 

I do not think AI art will replace the need for artists nor do I think it is going to destroy the overall art community. It is going to change it. YouTube didn't destroy cable TV, but it certainly made companies reevaluate how to make a profit moving forward. Amazon making it easy for anyone to publish a book didn't eliminate traditional publishing companies, but it did make it so they needed to adjust their business from a monopoly to a shared economy.

I have high hopes for AI art in the future, because making comic books is a lifelong dream and I see this as a way to do that. I will continue to dabble and monitor the progress of technology and laws.

I understand this is an ongoing issue and I hope y'all will understand that I'm open to being swayed one way or another, so long as you understand it is a polite discussion and there will likely reach points where we will just have to agree to disagree without being disagreeable. 

On with the show!

This was an interesting experiment. And I know Annabelle reads these and I gotta say, she makes this look EASY. SO EASY.

Ahem!

Using the system provided by NovelAI, I attempted to make AI art of my characters. Mostly Honoka. I am too much of a perfectionist to think these are perfect, so I'll show an image and then I'll make commentary on it, specifically how it is WRONG. And for every image here, know that there is minimum 10-30 images that went into the dumpster pile. Often more. Anyone who thinks generating AI images would replace artists is insane and hasn't actually done it.

NovelAI allows you to use an image as a starting point. This is my old DAZ render I made as baseline art while I was writing the first book. I started with this picture for many of the Honoka images but you'll see I eventually moved past it. In my head, this is the closest visual I have to what Honoka looks like, mostly in her face and hair.

My first attempt at Honoka. I say first, but this was actually image 20 or so. This was the first one I looked at and said "I think I can see this working." Face is too pretty and looks more Oceanic, and the skin tone is all wrong. Which, getting African skin color on this program has been my biggest hurdle for Honoka. You'll see other examples of failures ahead. Also, no matter how many times I tell the AI to reduce breast size, this is what AI considers "flat chest." 

One thing it could never get was bangs, which disappointed me. And there is a LOT of these weird back curves, so ignore that. I think I liked the skin tone on this one the best, though the face wasn't the right shape and my few attempts at trying to get cheekbones were not pretty.

I liked the body shape on this one a little better, and the face has more of that essence of the hesitant Honoka, but the skin is too light and my attempts to make it darker were really bad. And of note, this is much closer to the color of her famous bag. Ignore all backgrounds.

This one is my favorite of the first batch for face, and it really works on the body and especially the expression. There's a defeated feeling there that I always saw Honoka having for the first book. But once again, skin color.

This is all I did the first day I played with this, which was I think last Friday. Today, I burned through a couple of hours and about 1/3 of my monthly points that let me do this.

Ignore the bag. For some reason, this round of AI arts, even though I used the same tags, it decided to make the blouse pink and the bag whatever. In this image particularly, it also went haywire, but I loved the face. Yes, anime, but for AI this looks really good. Also, she's on a roof, not flying.

One option in the process is to have the images build off images that you like. This is one of them building from the last one you see above, and I think it better captured that Honoka vibe. Skirt is too short, but you take what you can get with AI.

Wanted to get her into the hakama, and that was a trainwreck for at least 30 images. Nothing in those efforts even remotely looked like clothing much less something out of Edo Japan. This is the best one, and I heavily edited the lighting in PS to get is as visible as you see here.

I actually don't see this as a failure. Most of the images were Honoka at the beginning of Book 1. This is most definitely a Book 2 Honoka, and while it isn't perfect, I like the energy. Honoka is very much a dynamic character, and the girl we meet in Chapter 1 is a different person than the one leading a team of delvers into the depths of a dungeon in the middle of Book 2.

Getting into the sexy attempts, and some will notice a certain something is missing. That's fine, I'll get into that next. For now, this is Honoka pre-Change. Maybe with more hip that she actually has, and pre-Change Honoka wouldn't be caught dead wearing this even in the privacy of her own room, but you can get the idea.

NSFW WARNING

Adding a futa tag was a problem. HUNDREDS of failed attempts, dozens of different tags or tag phrasing to get this. I am not happy with this, and at least this one looks like an adult. There were some failures that did not. Mostly, though, the worst part of it was when a dick was added and was in the correct place, it was mostly tiny. I will continue to see what I can do to get a proper Honoka, but just getting this picture and the next one took up the majority of my time and points today. I'm only showing so people get the idea that while AI can do some things well, once you enter the realm of niche art, it gets infinitely more difficult.

NSFW WARNING

I am showing you this one and the last one to say, yes, I did try. These were the best ones. I'm not going to share some of the nightmare fuel where dicks (plural, you heard me) were growing sideways out of biceps and ejaculating (yes, that was an actual failure I got, and no, I didn't save it). Not a single futa attempt had darker skin than this and this was the largest cock I could get until I shifted to the Furry option for fun. The cocks in the furry option, this one is about half the size. Tells you a bit about the furry community.

Look, a program starts somewhere. I have Diane art, so I threw it on there. This was the first result and this time I saved it so people could see there is a process and it isn't often pretty.

Adjust a few tags, pick out a few examples moving in the right direction, and the abomination above turned into this. So you can see, there is a way how you move from one thing to another.

NSFW WARNING

I added a single tag, "NSFW". And none of these really do Diane justice. She is as much someone who projects sex as someone who looks sexy. And no matter how many ways I say I want her covered in freckles, no one has gotten that yet about Diane. Head to toe, sexy freckles. Can't even really get artists to do that either, so why should I expect AI to do it? Horns are also a bit much, but eh.

NSFW WARNING

Funny story! I legit didn't notice that her hand was janky, or the armpit looks like a stretch Armstrong until just now! I did notice how the carpet didn't match the drapes and the ear. Whatever.

The rest were done very quickly because I still have work and so didn't try and narrow the focus down as well. WAS using the furry option for all of them and I hope to see better results next time I try.

Biggest disappointment is the nose. Eve has a giant honking snoz, it takes up as much space as half her head. The hair isn't dark enough either, and the clothing decided fantasy chique was in. I also put down fighter and the AI decided to give her a club thing, whatever. I did do one attempt before this to give her the shark teeth, but that just made a shark goblin hybrid. It wasn't bad and in retrospect I should have saved it, but I think this got a lot of Eve's personality so not a total loss.

NSFW WARNING

It almost feels there is more wrong than right in this picture. First, the coloring. I got black and white cow pattern, but not brown and white in other tries. Actually, I settled on this one because most of them, they all looked like a second holstaur stuck her head into Banda's vag, tits hanging between her legs with another cow body there. They were really weird. Also really hard to express moe with AI. So it lacks coloring, it lacks energy, and even the clothing didn't do what I wanted it to. The face is there, but the eyes are wrong. And while I have always tried to explain that Banda's hair is more of a long mane down her back and shoulders, good luck telling the AI that. Also, her nipples are more teat than nip, so whatever. And believe it or not, she doesn't have enough muscle. Banda is a force of nature with the hesitant personality of a loving sister too afraid to hurt anyone. And what is with that hoof thing? It is fine, a LOT better than when someone tried doing a free commission years ago.

I actually did the most little edits on this one, tried to get the coloring of the fur a bit closer. Didn't really work out, but it was better than the golden color that it was. First off, it isn't bad. Overall gives a good sense of Quinn and general physique. I also can't off the top of my head remember her eye color (sky blue!). It kept giving her shoes, so I eventually gave up. I would have liked a bit more eagerness, Quinn is always trying to prove she is good enough. Boobs and muscles are about right, Quinn is constantly thinking she is not as good because she compares herself to Banda. Biggest issue is that torso and legs ratio. Pull her pelvis down to where her knees are, short stubby legs and elongated torso, and it would be right about perfect. Also, her fur is black and white, not this gray, but allowances can be made.

I did attempt Padmava. It didn't work, not even a little. A 4 armed, cobra headed MILF with a 50ft snake tail dressed in Indian clothing was not happening, and I won't even show the attempts. Not that some of them were bad, but none of them were Pad.

I am really liking the experience, and I want to try and do something like this once or twice a month. Eventually, I hope to get better at making consistent models and just launch variations of the models so y'all can see what I see in my head. I have a large cast of very eclectic characters and for those of you who haven't realized it yet, I'm more furry than most mainstream stuff out there. Which I like, but it makes it harder to get just the right kind of artist or AI to latch onto what I'm trying to convey with my text.

Back to work! Y'all stay sexy!

EDIT: Tried Padmava today, and while I had to add in 2 more arms myself, it isn't TERRIBLE.

Not perfect, and the extra arms are clearly chopped and shopped. Coloring isn't on point either, but this was the first image I looked at and went "this is a good start." Wanted to have the complete set for this post. Aside from the 4 arms, the weirdest part that they kept doing is giving her a cloak and hood...it was weird. Not a single iteration had all 4 arms, despite using every possible phrasing I could think of to have multiple sets of limbs.