Harvinger Studios, Savage Crucible

[BumblebeeScuba]

I‘m an animator. I can answer the question right away, a human would’ve done better than what the ai did.

Also I know the red hand video seems simple enough, and it is, but jobs like that literally fill in the gaps between big projects. In the past I’ve done videos like that for 40-80, a little more if I need to make all the assets. That’s including edits and updates. I could charge more but it’s usually small businesses and it’s a great way to build relationships. I’m not trying to say that I deserve to make money from animating simply because I want to, obviously I provide a service and it’s up to people to decide if that’s worth it. It’s just a bummer to see people go for an inferior product that doesn’t put money in everyday peoples pockets.

I don’t think it’s a money thing, I think it’s a trend of people devaluing creative work and the people that do it. Sucks even more to see from people that are in a business that leans heavily on creatives.

 

[Dek]

I‘m an animator. I can answer the question right away, a human would’ve done better than what the ai did.

Also I know the red hand video seems simple enough, and it is, but jobs like that literally fill in the gaps between big projects. In the past I’ve done videos like that for 40-80, a little more if I need to make all the assets. That’s including edits and updates. I could charge more but it’s usually small businesses and it’s a great way to build relationships. I’m not trying to say that I deserve to make money from animating simply because I want to, obviously I provide a service and it’s up to people to decide if that’s worth it. It’s just a bummer to see people go for an inferior product that doesn’t put money in everyday peoples pockets.

I don’t think it’s a money thing, I think it’s a trend of people devaluing creative work and the people that do it. Sucks even more to see from people that are in a business that leans heavily on creatives.

Thank you for enriching my context and giving me something to think about and consider for the future.

 

[docsilence]

It truly isn't a money thing. They'll say it's a money thing, but AI convinces people with money that they have talent or taste so they use it to feel special and powerful and to show people with actual skill and talent they don't need them. Fuck I hope this bubble bursts so bad that we have tech bros jumping off buildings, because they're actively killing artists with this bullshit.

Would've loved Harvinger to jump on the AI train either long before or long after I just paid for three figures and had them shipped from Big Bad so I don't have this greasy taste in my mouth about the company when the figures get here in a few days. I swear the only people who are really into it are wildly ignorant or complete garbage and I'm losing patience with the former every fuckin' minute every fuckin' day.

 

[Niko (protozoalord)]

Using AI generated content for your business, ESPECIALLY any brand imagery or advertising, just leads me to feel like you do not give any literal shits about your brand or product. It is laziness and corner cutting that is as in your face as possible, as destructive as possible, and as anti-artist as possible.

 

[JakeEkiss]

I’m not trying to say that I deserve to make money from animating simply because I want to, obviously I provide a service and it’s up to people to decide if that’s worth it.

And by the same token, nobody "deserves" animation or images of their product to help them sell more.

They'll say it's a money thing, but AI convinces people with money that they have talent or taste so they use it to feel special and powerful and to show people with actual skill and talent they don't need them.

As an object lesson in this psychology, fun story I heard:
So Matt Colville (for those who don't know, the former lead writer at Turtlerock games and Pandemic games) was at one point in early production on a game he'd written and the publisher came in and said they were bringing in a hotshot prose scifi writer to replace all his work. He goes to his boss and says "boss, what don't they like about he writing? I'll fix it."

Boss says "Matt, they don't have any problem with your writing."

Matt "What? Then why-?"

Boss "Matt, they haven't even seen your writing. They can't. Because I'm the only one who could give them access to that database and I haven't. The quality of the work has nothing to do with this.".

And that's when Matt realized all his work had been scrapped and his job given to someone who had never written for games before because someone at the publisher wanted to get credit. And that's it. It wasn't money at all, because scrapping and starting over was more expensive. It was purely to flex muscle over the developers.

 

[docsilence]

Yeah, don't forget that it's not a question of "does an animator deserve the work" but that it's all built on stolen/scraped work of human artists in the first place. But we've hashed that out for 40 pages in the AI thread already. I'm at the point I'd rather get eaten by velociraptors than talk about how all my work was scraped by Anthropic and OpenAI and we all have the receipts.

 

[Alt]

I don’t think it’s a money thing, I think it’s a trend of people devaluing creative work and the people that do it. Sucks even more to see from people that are in a business that leans heavily on creatives.

It is very much the minority but I have had clients tell me they were going to move forward with AI for copywriting and editing only to have them return within 6 months because it turns out even AI prompting isn't as simple as they thought and it doesn't do what I do.

The flip side is, in my main field of experiential design, most clients and managers don't give a f***, they just want content.

I mentioned the elsewhere but I blame social media. Even people who would brand themselves creatives don't actually want to put the time into drawing or learning an instrument or whatever other skill. They just want the engagement and validation and monetary rewards that come with. It's a very broken system.

And it's very frustrating when there are people who kneecap themselves claiming they can't write a book or learn to illustrate, but they don't even try because again they just want the immediate results and reward. So strange to maim yourself creatively.

And it's extra frustrating when you work in a creative field and the creatives are drinking the Kool-Aid. I hope you fight it as long as you can.

It sounds really cheesy but AI has shown me that there is a human soul because anytime I see anything made by AI it is missing that certain.... Jenny Sequoia.

 

[Damien]

For those that don't know, Jenny Sequoia is part of the more creative... branch.. of her family.

 

[docsilence]

Tangentially, I once had a player in a D&D game show up with a gnome wizard named Janney Seyquah and he said NOTHING about the play on words, I knew it but never acknowledged it, and it took a SOLID 8-10 sessions for the rest of the table to realize the joke.

 

[TheSameIdiot]

AI is anti-labor. You might not be an artist, but the number of fields/jobs it consumes expands every day. It isn't coming for your livelihood today, but it will tomorrow. Stand together or hang alone.

For me, this is the second strike against Harvinger.

 

[docsilence]

Stand together or hang alone.

Been saying this (or rather swim together, drown alone) since the beginning when authors were begging publishers not to use it, narrators were begging authors not to use it, cover artists were begging publishers and authors not to use it... like if you don't want it to come for your livelihood, you gotta fucking stand up for the other guy. You don't get to be selective about it. It's the Nothing from Neverending Story.