Let me establish, though: I hate the idea of using AI art for book covers and tabletop RPG illustrations. I’ve already checked with the artists on my current projects, and they don’t like using AI art, either. So this isn’t some kind of fig leaf, or anything. I don’t jump off a cliff just because everybody else is doing it, either*.
I am curious as to just how much people really care about this issue, though. I may be having an intemperate response. Hence, the poll.
*I believe that I have demonstrated this on occasion.
No twitter. So…
Pretty meh, TBH.
It’s a useful tool, if you’re already decent at digital image manipulation. (It’ll give you an interesting base image to start work from. Eventually. But the output is far from a finished project.)
Otherwise? It’s a toy. And a pretty aggravating one, at that.
(Granted, I’d totally use the heck out of it for “feelies” in a game I was running. Woodcuts look pretty rough to begin with, having them come across an image of “octopus man wielding axes” would be fun for ratcheting to the tension a bit. Especially if octopus man doesn’t exist.)
https://madgeniusclub.com/2022/08/13/cover-art-tool-midjourney/
A different perspective, from a different artist.
I dunno: maybe I’m finally too old to be cool, but I don’t want to commission covers that look like that and I don’t want to buy books that have those kinds of covers.
But at that point, it’s not really a question of quality.
(Shrug). If it looks as professional as what the Big Three push out into bookstores, notch it as a win.
And given the minimalistic trend that the industry is thankfully starting to move away from, I’d say the examples are clearly superior. At a glance, you get a lot of information about the type of story being told.
It’s not my favorite art style, but who cares?
The only time I’ve bought a book strictly on the strength of the cover art was GURPS: Faerie.
As someone who doesn’t do illustrations, I can see using AI art to generate a rough prototype that I can take to a real artist and say, “This is sort-of what I want, with these differences…” I’d use it as a jumping-off point for the art. Assuming it’s not excessively time-consuming to dial in the right scripts to get the prototype, at least. In that case, I’d stick to my engineer-art as the prototype.