Over many editions of Implications, we have discussed the impact of emerging technology on artistry and how it may advance the creative process rather than marginalize it. Since building Behance (a global platform for ~60M+ creative professionals), I have kept close touch with a large group of designers and artists I admire that are always tinkering with new technology for the purpose of creative expression. One thing has become increasingly clear to me. There are two types of people making stuff: content creators and artists. Both can be creative, but there is one distinct difference between content creators and artists that will define the future of creative tooling and artistic craft — from filmmaking to fine art and everything in between. Content creators are willing to trade control for speed. Artists are not.
Most tech headlines regarding AI are about the impact on content creators and the value of speed and efficiency. The majority of venture capital is invested in tools for the "creator economy" — making ads, making endless amounts of YouTube and TikTok content, making social posts, etc. The focus is on that sector because of its vast, if not infinite, size.
But lost in the shuffle is what artists need.
People conflate what enables creators with what might replace artists. People see the "AI slop" capabilities of new generative models and then declare the "end of fine art" and "RIP Hollywood," as if the founding of McDonald's would kill fine restaurants like French Laundry or Nobu.
As in the early stages of any new technology that impacts an industry, people are scared and confused. While the abuses and misuses get sorted out, a new breed of workflows are emerging that combine traditional and emerging technologies across the full-stack of creative storytelling tools.
These techniques are modern brushes and chisels. These new workflows don't start with prompts and they don't create slop. Instead they enable more creative risk-taking without compromising creative control. This isn't fast food, it's a modern sophisticated kitchen for fine cuisine using both traditional and new ingredients. Some of the world's greatest artists and most ambitious storytellers are modernizing their craft and raising the bar of world-class storytelling through a series of workflows and techniques that I've started calling Precision Generative Workflows (PGW) with friends and artists (and sharing my evolving view on this, for more feedback!).
As we peek over the shoulder of pioneering artists using Precision Generative Workflows, what do we see?
- Workflows evolved, not replaced. The Precision Generative Workflows being pioneered by technical artists I admire still involve products like Unreal, Nuke, Blender, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and the list goes on, but they also now involve building new techniques like LoRa models (small and tightly trained models that can represent anything from a fictional animal to an environment), key frame generation and control nets, generative style transfers over motion capture data, compositing generative layers with depth mapping in gaming engines, and new explorations in rigging elements of a production to equip artists with extreme precision as they express ideas. Much like computer graphics, and other innovations before it, PGW enhances the intricate pipeline artists use to explore new territory.
- Crafting, not prompting. Asking an artist to achieve exactly what's in their mind's eye through a prompt text box is like asking a painter to paint without her hands. In contrast, Precision Generative Workflows give creative professionals more control, not less. Unlike mainstream prompt-based creator economy generative AI tools, creations made with Precision Generative Workflows are increasingly non-destructive (edits aren't permanent and can be undone) and contained (one edit doesn't change other things unintentionally), allowing artists to seamlessly go back and make changes at any point in the process.
- Experimentation before commitment. While the technology and product world has long had prototypes and validation phases before formal product development began, the cost of production of some forms of art (like filmmaking) have always required a formal green light before real dollars are spent. Now, with Precision Generative Workflows that allow for accelerated exploration and discovery, storytellers are able to run tests to learn and become comfortable before taking more creative risk. These new tools become the ultimate sandbox to build confidence in the creative process.
- More surface area of discovery, fewer constraints. Precision Generative Workflows vastly increase the surface area and pace of discovery. Rather than being forced by deadlines and costs to choose and pursue just one direction, technical artists are able to explore a vast landscape of possibilities to find the best solution. Just as the designer Isaac Mizrahi once defined creativity as "a mistake of the eye," the increased allowance for play enables artists to discover variations that spur their creativity and reveal superior solutions.
It's exciting to see new tools and capabilities added to an artist's process.
But a few things won't change…
- The human story behind the art makes the art. Visit any museum, read any book, or watch any film, and pay attention to the human stories and histories that pull you in. Whether the art is digital, physical, or even generative, it is the story of those who made it, and why they made it in the context of everything around it, that gives the art value. Great stories that move us are as much about the people and the craft as the story itself. Take the recent acquisition of CryptoPunks by the Museum of Modern Art; some may dismiss these works as meaningless generative pixels, but these works are rooted in lore and deeply human stories about the what and why behind this collection (and some amount of doubt is a familiar pattern over the history of all modern art!). Art is a human endeavor, even as humans embrace digital tools. We are moved by the humanity and story of art, not its efficiency or the mere pigment (or pixels) on a canvas.
- Humans will crave more human art. As more AI generated content fills our feeds, humans will crave the craft and human-infused meaning behind art more than ever before. Not only will we want human actors and stories, we will want to see the humanity under the hood. That inclination will make us crave live performances. The process will become part of the product. We should question tools that compromise artistic vision and creative control, and embrace tools that enhance creative control in ways that strengthen the human component and encourage risk taking.
- Creativity advances only when artists gain more control. Just as we saw with the invention of the camera (definitively NOT beloved by portrait painters), tools like Photoshop (resented by compositors), the digital camera (initially despised by traditional photographers), and so on, new technology is, at first, doubted. But as new technology finds ways to empower artists, it advances creativity. Disruptive as it may be, technology is part of our evolution. For these new possibilities to coalesce, we must learn to distinguish between the uses and abuses of this new technology and look beyond the way things have always been done to find the better way.
What has motivated me throughout my career is the idea of outfitting creative people to make ideas happen. From founding Behance, leading product at Adobe, writing books like Making Ideas Happen, and now — still — working with artists as storytellers, I am inspired by creative minds who take risk and overcome obstacles to turn their vision into reality. As we navigate the opportunities and challenges of new technology, let's aspire for every piece or shot to be crafted with precision. Let's double down on original human stories. Let's choose technology that unlocks human ingenuity rather than compromising it. And let's make sure that new tech evolves in ways that empower artists with more control and more possibility than ever before.
