That’s The Way (uh-huh uh-huh) AI Like Art

STEP 1: UNDERSTAND THE BASICS OF AI

Before diving into anything to do with AI, you must understand the basics. It’s such a broad field that encompasses many different technologies, including machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks. You definitely don’t need to be an expert, that’s kind of the point, but having a basic understanding of these concepts can help you get started.

STEP 2: ETHICS

Once you understand the basics, there is no way you won’t have questions and concerns about the ethics of creating AI art. What counts as plagiarism? Should I use photos of my family and friends as prompts? Is it ‘wrong’ to reference artists in my prompts? Can I take parts of other people’s prompts? Can I use other people’s AI-generated images?

Believe us, there are a lot more questions to ask.

It’s really important to explore these – make time to have conversations and see what others think. Consume content from digital ethicists, and talk to artists.

STEP 3: CHOOSE YOUR TOOLS

There are tonnes of tools available that can be used. The tools are popping up everywhere now, there is almost certainly something that’s right for you.

Some popular options we’ve been playing with to create art specifically include:

RunwayML

An online platform that allows artists to experiment with machine-learning models and create unique art.

Artbreeder

A website that uses GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) to create new images by combining existing ones.

Deep Dream

A program that uses deep learning algorithms to generate surrealistic images.

Midjourney

A text-to-image generator that uses prompts and image references to generate four versions of an AI image. You can then ask for an upscaled version or more versions of the generated image.

These are just a few examples of the growing number of mind-blowing tools available. Choose the one that best suits your needs and skill level. Remember though, don’t get caught in the habit of delegating your imagination. These are tools to use, the output depends on your brain!

STEP 4: GATHER TRAINING DATA

AI for artistic purposes requires a large dataset of images to train the machine-learning model. The dataset can be your own images or a collection of images that are available online. It is important to ensure that the images are high quality and have a diverse range of subjects. Diversity is one of the core concerns we had when we used these tools but we have noticed Midjourney improving in this area.

STEP 5: GENERATE AI ART

This is where the fun begins! Time to experiment with different settings, prompts, and parameters to create. The process of generating AI art can be time-consuming, so it is important to be patient and try different settings. Even the smallest variation in your input can have a big impact. Impressively, using the same exact prompt twice will have different outputs because AI is always learning to interpret as it learns new rules and has its own new experiences.

STEP 6: REFINE AND EDIT THE AI ART

The final step is to refine and edit. This involves making adjustments to the generated art to make it look more polished or meet your desired outcome better. This step requires some artistic skill and an eye for detail. You can use different tools to refine the final pieces. If you have something that’s almost perfect, then you can always fire up Photoshop and make changes the ‘old-fashioned’ way.

GET GOING!

Creating art using AI can be a fun and rewarding experience. With the right tools, knowledge, and patience, you can create fascinating works of art. So, go ahead, and give it a try! See what wonders you can create using the dreams from your brain and the capabilities of technology! Show us the results by tagging us on our socials!