In his view, anyone can pick up a brush and create something poor-quality without much thought.
Fangamer recently released the soundtrack of Riven, the sequel to Myst, on vinyl, but the reaction has been divided this time. The gatefold cover art created by composer Robyn Miller, depicting the mysterious Age 234, appears to have been made with generative AI. In his response, Miller confirmed that he used AI tools to create the cover, but defended their use, saying that he began the process of finalizing the cover with an old-fashioned method: pencil sketches. Miller, who co-created Myst and Riven, also defended himself against accusations of creating “AI slop” with the bold claim that most actual slop has nothing to do with generative AI.
“The tools are advanced enough that, once one has a concept – especially a sketch – arriving at a final image is not so difficult. This involved iteration after iteration, adjusting small parts of the image and shifting portions of it. Even once the final design was complete, I could shift elements such as the angle, type of film used, age of film, film grain, time of day, weather, camera lens, camera used, and ISO, changing the image slightly each time. It’s a process of two steps forward, one step back. Dozens of iterations.
From the beginning of my career, I have always been an early adopter of tools. Tools do not make art. The artist makes the art. Any artist can take a brush and create slop without thinking. In fact, the internet is flooded with endless amounts of ART SLOP. And 3D SLOP. When artists design without intent, copy other people’s styles, or create without thought and care… the result is slop. And it’s everywhere,” Miller wrote.
Fangamer responded to Time Extension’s original report with the following statement: “Our internal policy prohibits the use of generative AI art in our products, but this was not an issue we had directly addressed with all of our outside artists, especially for products like this one, whose development began well before the widespread use of image generation. In this case, our role in the soundtrack was limited to layout and production, so we were not aware of what tools were used to create the gatefold illustration; anyone who ordered the soundtrack and is unhappy with the product is welcome to contact our customer service and request a cancellation or return, which we will process no questions asked. We have begun updating our contracts with artists and partners to reflect our AI use guidelines, so we can proactively address this issue with everyone we work with in the future.”
This response will certainly be divisive as well…
Source: PCGamer, Fangamer, Time Extension
