In April, my research led me to discover the anamorphic sculptures of Patrik Proško. Someone used Stable Diffusion to turn a real person dancing into an animation and I made a selection of AI-powered tools for creatives, from ideation to business design. Dove released a powerful short film to advance The Kids Online Safety Act. Meanwhile, Jack Black delivered an impressive performance for the Peaches video clip. And to conclude this month with a little reading, does distinctiveness has given way to “The age of average” in the creative world?
In other words, another month filled with amazing new design discoveries, some of which are listed below.
.
AI Stable Diffusion video
By using Stable Diffusion and ControlNet, Neil Wong was able to turn a real person dancing into an animation.
For more details about the AI tools used, ‘ControlNet’ is a technology that supports output by adding contour lines, depth, image area division (segmentation), etc. to pre-trained deep learning models such as Stable Diffusion.
Although the outcomes are not perfect, the rise of AI appears to be accelerating at a breakneck pace in the animation/VFX space as well.
.
Anamorphic Illusions
Czech artist Patrik Proško uses old electronic appliances and other found objects to create anamorphic sculptures that look like portraits when viewed from the right angle.
Anamorphic techniques have been used in art for centuries, but he has elevated them with the use of found objects in his pieces.
His works are nothing short of amazing and demonstrate his talent for creating illusions through trompe l’oeil techniques.
.
Dove Self-Esteem Project
“Cost of Beauty” is a short film recently released by Dove that is incredibly powerful and somewhat distressing. It tells the true story of a young person whose mental health has been affected by social media.
7 in 10 people ages 10-17 have been exposed to social media content that encourages weight loss or body transformation, with more than half of people ages 14-17 exposed to content that encourages restricted eating or disordered eating behaviors.
The main goal of this campaign is to advance The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that calls for more transparency of social media apps and algorithms and a duty for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate several harms to minors.
If this bill matters to you, you can sign the petition here.
.
Jack Black – Peaches
Only a couple of days after the Super Mario Bros movie was released, actor Jack Black, who voices the villainous Bowser, unveiled a crazy video clip that earned 25 million views in just two weeks.
Connecting solo piano and wacky choreography in a pale pink capsule, Jack Black takes up a real challenge and delivers an unusual – but nevertheless -impressive interpretation.
.
AI-powered tools for Creatives
AI-powered tools have been projected to disrupt the creative industries. But this disruption doesn’t have to be a bad thing because knowing these tools will help you get ahead of the curve.
Here is a selection for creatives that I have been playing with recently, from ideation to business design, through user research and product design.
Are you using any of them? Any other AI tools to recommend? Please share them in the comments below.
.
The Age of Average
Distinctiveness is dead and has given way to “The age of average”.
As this insightful article by Alex Murrell argues, convention and cliché have taken over and defined creative fields such as film, fashion, architecture, and advertising.
If we extrapolate this concept further, it is easy to notice the role of AI-generated tools if furthering this trend because of what they feed themselves with.
As an example, an AI-generated face rendering (without specific command) will often translate into a plasticky pseudo-anime look that is most likely the result of every filtered selfie that beauty influencers have ever posted to IG and which are swirling around in the AI dataset stew.
Our audio-visual culture is flatlining and the only cure is creativity.
.
If you like what you read, please tell your friends about Pixels of the Month.
