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Question about AI art replacing concept artists in game studios | AI Art Ethics - Vivisector

Question about AI art replacing concept artists in game studios

I saw this before and after difference over the past 18 months. A buddy of mine works at a small indie studio in Austin, and back in 2022 they had 3 full time concept artists. Now they have 1 and the other 2 got let go, replaced by Midjourney for generating early ideas. The CEO told the team it saves about $60k a year on salaries. But the remaining artist says the quality dropped because AI can't nail consistent character design across multiple angles. Has anyone else seen studios make this switch and regret it or stick with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_lane124mo ago

Has anyone looked at how this affects the games themselves, not just the studio bottom line? I play a lot of indie games and I notice when the art style wobbles. Like if the main character looks different in every scene. That's a big deal for immersion.

nancy_wood4mo ago

Wait but isn't art style wobble kind of part of the charm with indie games sometimes? I get that consistency matters but some of my favorite games have that rough around the edges feel where you can tell different artists worked on scenes, it feels more alive to me. I'd rather have a game where every scene has its own weird personality than one that's so polished it feels fake.

jason_stone594mo ago

Stuck with an indie game last month where the character's hair kept changing colors between scenes. Drove me nuts. Totally killed the vibe when I couldn't tell if I was looking at the same person. What worked for me was keeping a style guide for my own projects, just a simple doc with character proportions and color codes. Makes sure everything stays consistent even if different artists work on it. You ever try something like that for the games you play?