Japanese aesthetics have been an interest of mine. I decided to see how Google Gemini would handle generating historical Japanese scenes.
The Gemini Prompt:
Generate image of a Japanese princess in her room with her brother at the same time in the 1810s.
Marathon, Bungie’s new Extraction shooter was released today and one thing that I found really interesting was the artistic style of the game.
The original game, which was released in the 1990s was made in a style about the internet before the internet ossified into websites. Cyberspace was seen as a place not as infrastructure. That shows up in how the game appears. The neon lights and high contrast colors are divisive but to be honest, I rather this game have this style than having the earthy style that almost every high budget game seems to have in this age.
Marathon has been struggling with some players, who just see as more content than a creative vision being brought to life in our stale age. People have a right to be cynical here. However, I think that this game is better than all those independent games which are just copying those 16-bit games.
I think that games with a unique visual style is what we need more of in this age.
Growing up with Web 1.0, I think that that era gets unwisely maligned by people now. There was a lot more experimentation in that age and some styles would work and others would not. I think we need to be more charitable. The internet was seen as a place not entirely yet as a place dominated by money. We need to remember that mentality and I think we should try to recapture some of it here.
Marathon is a niche game, and I think Bungie was right to put the price at $39.99. This is the right price for a game which will be getting more content in more seasons. In comparison to Battlefield 6, they need to make sure that the player’s choices actually have an impact on the game and they respect the player base.
Too many games have been issues recently and it would nice to see AAA game have some success here.
Adobe is company that been in the creative industry for many decades at this point. Photoshop is one of their most premier products and they are continuing in that tradition by leaning heavily into AI.
There are many generative AI models out there. Some are stronger than others at depicting certain art styles. Google Gemini is great at creating unvarnished photorealism. ChatGPT is great at certain kind of photorealism that leans more into Hollywood style here.
Adobe has an AI model known as Firefly and its honestly really great at its job here.
It is free and there is no subscription except to create an Adobe account here.
What I like about Adobe Express is that it centralizes the many AI models that are in use here. If you do not want use Adobe Firefly, then you purchase credits or have a subscription in order to use those models.
I think this is better than having so many separate apps for different models here. Three years ago, there was really only a couple AI models available publicly. Now, there are so many that it is becoming tough to keep up with it. Some of them have the strengths and weaknesses. Gemini in my opinion, is the best for photorealism. However, Adobe Firefly is also great here at creating photorealistic images though there is daily limit if you are not subscribed to it here.
Another aspect which is enhancing Adobe Express is its AI assistant. This allows for more precise prompts on one’s photos and art. I think that is better than Open Art Ai tools in that it has more precise editing here. Open Art’s Chat editing tools seemed amazing at first for me, but it is slow and there is still the issue of having to exit an app and go to another one if you are having issues with that model.
Much as many companies are now selling all-in-one management systems for particular industries, I think Adobe has the right approach here.
The Adobe Premium plan starts at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. I think that this more affordable than their previous plans which were Photoshop or Premiere Pro bundles.
I highly recommend getting this subscription as this is a great digital art and AI hub for creatives.
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