Alderian News (Important!)
Hey guys, we have a bit of important news to discuss some potential changes coming.
As some of you are aware, recently, one of our artists has been missing. While they have managed to make contact and deliver some work, communication lines with them are very difficult. We have managed to get a hold of them, maybe once or twice a month. We've been holding back on commenting further on the issue in the hopes that it resolves itself soon, but this does seem to potentially be a long-term issue.
Unfortunately, and while I can't delve too deep into their personal issues, for context, they live in a relatively unstable area in one of the south Americas, with both limited internet issues and rampant gang violence that seems to be having a flair up recently.
We've attempted to find an artist to fill in the void while hopefully things settle, and while the art produced was very high quality, unfortunately, for PB we fear it will just create more inconsistencies in the long run.
Furthermore, we're not exactly thrilled at the prospect of kicking someone while they're down, (aka, firing them and replacing them altogether), due to circumstances completely out of their control.
As such, when we did manage to have contact with the artist, with their permission, they agreed to allow us to use AI when necessary, based on their art to create new scenes possibly given the circumstances.
I want to stress that none of the art staff are being let go, in fact, we've hired on MORE art staff recently and their regular work will continue as normal.
Furthermore, any AI art produced, we plan to have the existing artists check it over to ensure it's the highest quality we can get it.
We further hope, of course, this approach will help speed up our production, but we are still entirely committed to delivering the highest quality we can.
We haven't made this decision lightly, we had many internal debates, and we're aware of the sensitive nature of AI, but we hope given the circumstances, and how we're handling things, you and the rest of our fans will be understanding.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If the situation changes for whatever reason, we will let you know.
Thank you.
Alysha (Above) - If she survives her encounter with the Slave Master, she might just find a new meaning in life under the wing of Captain Nyx and the city guard
As always,
thank you all for your support so far,
you guys are awesome, and we couldn't do this without you,
Love,
-The Damned Studios Team
Comments (10)
Taffy Tales AI slop 2.0. Not even any plans to replace them once the artist is back consistently. Horrible choice that will bite you in the ass later
Not even remotely comparable. We have actual standards and quality control that we enforce. Including multiple artists actively working on the project.
I pray that the talented artist can be safely back soon, and praise you for your integrity in the whole story. You deserve my patronage for this alone.
Sorry to hear about the artist's real life circumstances, it really is a shame for everyone involved. Looking forward to seeing samples of what can be achieved with AI. I feel there is fair potential if it comes with post-touchups by an artist.
Get your artist to the US. Have them apply legally. Not going to sing our praises in the US too hard, though if it is truly as bad as they have told... they can apply for Form I-589. They can download a copy and get the paperwork rolling now and turned in.
If they need further information for other forms related to it... here. Form I-730: Used by asylees or refugees to request that their spouse and unmarried children join them in the United States Form I-485: Used by asylees to apply for a Green Card Form I-765: Used by asylum applicants to apply for employment authorization
Can you post a few images as to how the AI will change the renders? Like a Current Vs New comparison? I've seen a lot of game try AI with their renders and sometimes they look worse than before.
If the Ai generated renders aren't up to standard, we'll reject them. There's zero point, in our opinion, putting in something we'd just need to replace anyway. We will, of course, post samples when they are available, but we haven't done anything with AI yet.
It's an interesting idea, achieving the artists permission is the bare minimum and telling the community is an important thing to comply with. Will you be training a bespoke model only available to your team for this, or will you be feeding it into a general model available to everyone and thus laundering the artists work forever for everyone?
Let me get back to you on this, as I'm just double-checking the information is correct and answering as I go.