Harvinger Studios, Savage Crucible

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Jesus Fucking Christ…

I just got my Big Bad order with my first Savage Crucible figures (the Albino lizard, the Battle Cat Lizard, Elric, and the Bobcat guy) and was coming in here to be all “Wow! These are pretty great! Can’t wait to see what’s next from these guys…”

Sorry my finally buying some cursed them to embrace AI slop since I can’t have nice things…
 
People get discouraged AND know that they won't have the collection they want to have so don't bother to continue. It's letting selling out of Aragorn in seconds and saying you won't make another one. You can certainly do it. But you're gonna struggle to sell the rest of the Fellowship.
Would have bought a full collection of Mezco Star Trek TOS if I thought there was a chance in hell of completing the crew, but Sulu is literally the only one I've ever seen available.

The AI shit is disappointing but I'm always willing to cut people some slack for first offences as long as they genuinely listen to people. (On a positive note the local market I mentioned in the AI thread has established a no-AI policy now)

This week has seen Harvinger's first major fuckup cascade, blowing their previous issues like weak ankles and minor delays out of the water in terms of the bad will they've earned. I'm imagining Rob coming back to their social media from his break like Donald Glover in the Community room on fire meme lmao.

I still consider picking up Vala's figures occasionally and those are much worse toys made by much worse people so it would take a pretty major mishandling of this to turn me against Harvinger completely. But if they keep fucking up I could start treating them like Boss Fight where I am extremely selective about my purchases and only buy from third-parties.
 
The AI shit is disappointing but I'm always willing to cut people some slack for first offences as long as they genuinely listen to people. (On a positive note the local market I mentioned in the AI thread has established a no-AI policy now)
There is something to be said about how the whole AI industry is built on lies so people are going to fall for it once or twice. I'm as anti-AI as you can get but I give someone an oops if they don't get it, though as the years progress "oops" is very rapidly becoming less acceptable, especially with businesses. If someone's 75 year old aunt sends them an AI cat meme I mean, shit happens. (I'm far less forgiving with people asking for my money, though.)
 
If someone's 75 year old aunt sends them an AI cat meme I mean, shit happens. (I'm far less forgiving with people asking for my money, though.)
I also think it feels a bit different with a toy company in particular, because they have physical product they can photograph. Like, no AI ad for your toys will ever be superior to just... showing us your toys. It's not like TV or movies where the product is largely digital and ephemeral now. These are things people can hold in their hands.

We'll see what the company does because I believe over half the comments on the most recent post are just people hating on the AI and several of those committing to never buying SC again. Plus the one guy who is just an asshole going around saying "ha ha your tears". Always got to have one of those.
 
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