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Sora AI: Unpopular opinion?
🕑 Added 2024-02-16 22:07:01 +0000 UTCFor those who did not visit social media today, a new AI video generator tool with the name Sora AI just surfaced and made front page all over the news globally. Everyone is panicking again and motion/vfx industry took one more blow. But is it really this way?
I know AI is no joke. And yes, one day life it self might be redundant: getting a pill instead of dinner? Having sex wearing VR headsets? Machines taking over the world? We all seen the same movies. And I honestly believe the world is taking a wrong turn on many ends. We pollute the environment, Trump is about to get elected again, Europe is at the brink of 3rd world war for the 3rd year and AI is here to take our jobs.
But should we give up and stop working? Stop learning? Stop evolving?
I started learning 3D on 2002 I think, where rendering was not even a thing. For reflections we were using a specific grey jpeg of a lake to imitate chrome haha. Computers, even the most expensive ones, did not allow anyone to learn anything. We were reading books about Photoshop. By 2006 I had completely abandon 3D altogether thinking im useless and only at the age of 33 (2013) took it seriously again. I felt too old, too irrelevant. But because I loved it, even without a clear purpose, I kept going.
Fast forward a decade later, I feel accomplished and full. What happened in between? Many many things that could easily put me off track. Was there AI at this point? No. But every era has different challenges, same as different opportunities.
Do not give up. I said this before: learning design/animation/vfx/pipelines/leading teams/drawing/being an artist, takes years to master. AI takes 1 day to be in the loop. Even if you feel one day that AI is essential for everything and our work is redundant, you can catch up in a heartbeat as every person out there that suddenly thinks he/she conquered the world cause they can type basic sentences into an algorithm.
There are many things I can discuss about Sora per se, but think of this: if AI gets for good in our lives, losing motion design industry would be the least of our worries. By then we would be living in a world where fake news would ve taken over, internet wont be a replacement of tv anymore, everything from ownership to authenticity would be down the drain, every job will be lost and probably societies would be to the brink of depression.
Thinking about implications of AI in motion design industry is shortsighted and selfish as the stakes are way higher than this.
Till AI becomes this existential threat, I urge you to continue doing what you love, cause this is the only way to move forward in anything. Sora is an impressive, yet unusable tool; it's lazy, it's flawed and has no place in pipelines. And do not forget the copyright lawsuits that are already pending against this heartless technology. We are not alone :)
As 3d scanning did not replace modellers, real time engines did not replace lookdev artists, motion capture did not replace animators, Embergen did not replace Houdini pyro (lol) AI will not replace human input, intention, personal experiences and individualism.
Ignore the hype, continue the hard work and everything will fall into place.
Cheers,
T.
ps. this image suddenly felt relevant to me. Let me know how you interpret it :)
Comments
Thanos Kagkalos
thank you so much my friend! glad to be on the same page
함 인식
I join you in your attitude that it is important to have the strength to push through what you believe in, as many enlightened people have already done!
Thanos Kagkalos
As an AD i have very hard time visualising anything out of MJ. I tried it again recently, no luck. When things are specific and you have a vision (especially something that does not involve characters) you will find it very hard to do anything with the existing tools. Stock photography has taken a big hit already but motion/design/vfx, cannot say I see something there. Even from apps like Runaway or Sora, they cannot really create but imitate stock photography.
Elliot Verhaeren
Originally, I am a web designer. When Midjourney came out, I found it incredible, but I never thought that I could one day use it in my job. Now, I sometimes fill pages with very specific visuals that I can't find in image stocks. For example, I had to find images of African scientists in the Congolese rainforest, which was impossible to find a photo of. There, I managed to create exactly what I wanted, and all this happened within a year. I would have never believed this last year.
Thanos Kagkalos
It will have to be production ready in order to be an actual threat. So far cannot do anything production ready neither iterate and in some tasks fails completely. People doing personal work or spheres floating or AI for that matter, does not mean they can adapt to actual needs in any job, from design to vfx. I would say observe but not fall into the mindset that things can already be done with AI, as the reality is they cannot
Elliot Verhaeren
You're right, but I'm afraid it's going to happen a lot faster than we think. I saw another video of a girl wireframe from blender, making circles in the sand with her heel. And Sora converted the wireframe into a video. And even the simulation of the sand dug by the foot was super well done.
Thanos Kagkalos
haha that is true right? Embergen is a tool that still is cumbersome to use despite all the hype. In motion design, need direct connection within our applications and not new standalone things. AI wont magically or overnight replace/perfect. It will be a process and even so, there are still so many legal questions pending around it.
FabioSai
I love your point i think the same we need to think in production way . IA can't give (yet) personal experiences and the love. ( Embergen did not replace Houdini pyro) i read this an I laughed out loud haha! thanks so much buddy.
Thanos Kagkalos
cheers Dan!
Dan
word.
Thanos Kagkalos
Curious as well. It develops very fast but not really. Has the same problems it had since 2 years ago (human hands/fingers) and has 0 art-directability. Clients barely know what they want in general haha so good luck presenting them options that are not iteratable.
Thanos Kagkalos
Thanks so much mate! Glad my thinking resonates with you
Ian Simmonds
Honestly - this was so thoughtfully written and it's a subject that due to popular reporting is definitely making a lot of people anxious. I found it very uplifting to read and thought provoking. It's not going away and people are.going to learn how to adapt to it, and live with it. Love your work and how think through all things, not just design.
Erik Major
I think it's more the stock sites that should be worried at this point, and like you said the copyright will be another issue. I am curious to see the final product. As we have only seen the tech demo so far. Thanks for sharing your opinion, really good point and smart perspective.
Thanos Kagkalos
no pun intended haha yea, let's trouble ourselves from Monday again!
Adam Zunder
My whole studio was talking about this today and my brain was so overwhelmed with what it meant that I feel like I still havent had a second to have an emotional reaction to it...or its a self-defense mechanism. So thank you for writing this Thanos, its extremely heartening to hear a leader in the field give their thoughts and opinion! And youre right, that styelframe is extremely apt XD
Thanos Kagkalos
haha thats the spirit!
Sinan
After reading this, i just said "he's f*ckn right" and back to fixin my jiggly simulation ❤️
Thanos Kagkalos
cheers Ian!
Ian Simmonds
Amen! This is spot on.
Thanos Kagkalos
thanks a lot mate! Its not fake optimism, its really my pov :)
Loshak3D
As someone I look up to in the Industry it fills me with confidence to continue learning our craft. Thank you for putting your opinion out to us, means a lot Thanos.
