u/Breech_Loader

People say AI never changes or evolves, but this is the difference between a character's picture made with the AI skills I have today, and a picture made with the AI skills I had seven months ago.

Same character. Same style. (Oil) Roughly the same pose.

It wasn't a BAD picture before.

But even if I do say so myself, a far better picture has been made with the experience I now have. All of these characters are going through an update to have better pictures, just to see how my skills have improved.

This is the new background for my mobile phone. It's actually a place in one of my stories, a legendary waterfall-spring known as the Hahaizumi, (Mother's Spring) in the depths of the Mayoi No Mori (Forest of Lost Paths).

Or at least it's one of the pictures I made. I then made much nicer ones.

I didn't feel like paying $200 for somebody to paint it.

Actually I think a lot of AI artists make much better art than me. Then again, I'm not exactly making a professional book cover here.

The thing is, I make a lot of this stuff just randomly for fun. Nobody ever complained when Sonic fans made endless weird fanart for free without AI, and I always wanted to do so too.

Thanks to AI I finally get to join in!

I made this pair of pictures back when Hazard didn't wear trousers. Also he's a living tentacle suit, or at least he was.

True, they're not very GOOD disguises, but mythologically Kappa are not shapeshifters. Lots of other Yokai ARE shapeshifters though.

You can make pictures of random anime chicks and call them original characters but it won't give them a personality. That's why I don't throw random anime chicks at the screen - I like to make scenarios instead.

Making an actual, genuine original character takes a lot of work and creativity.

The picture is just an anchor

Do THEY have dozens of different characters wander around with opinions? No?

There's a Fursona and there's a Spokesman.

So, why make these pictures? I had a story in my head and wanted to see what it looks like and because I used AI, you can too! And you can see who does the art and who does the creativity that fuels the art.

Anyway, this is my OC Hazard with a long and complex story to him. He's leading Sonic and friends safely inside a Dead Zone - an area polluted by Eggman's creepy failed experiments.

Amy: "These flowers are beautiful! Did Eggman really plant them?"
(Hazard grabs her and pulls her back)
Hazard: "Don't touch them. I recognise this genus. When I was nine Eggman tried to reprogram flower-seeds as sentient spies and the lab ended up with flesh gowing on the walls. It would be better to burn down this whole forest." 
Sonic: "It's quiet here."
Hazard: "It's quiet here because there are no insects or Critters. There are no Critters because there is no pollen or seeds or berries. There is no pollen or seeds or berries because these plants are not alive. See this?" (Hazard picks what looks like a perfectly normal daisy. He shows Sonic the stalk and it leaks oil) "These 'plants' are plastic. Their seeds are infertile and they have machine oil as sap. That's what it's spreading into the ground. A single spark in this forest and it'll go up like a fucking oil refinery." 

And you want some 'research'? Because me, I am an intelligent person? Well, this is what happened.

The trees - which in the scientific intent plan should tap refined oil like maple - are all dead because they are failed. The flowers are colourful but artificial - they're a bioplastic full of toxic chemicals and oil by-products, so they don't biodegrade properly, they only further pollute the soil. They have no pollen or scent, so there are no insects. Because nothing else grows there, they've made the toxicity of the soil so bad, their own seeds are 9/10 infertile so they are contained in a highly localised area. As they fall apart, they drop plastic petals into the river so the microplastics kill aquatic life and clog the river downstream.

They were meant to be sentient spies that could be planted easily, spread, and report back to Eggman. Indeed, they still pick up the sound frequencies - but they don't spread. They were meant to create oil reserves and chemical reserves the fast and efficient way, rather than waiting for thousands of years for oil to form under the ground naturally. Infinite resources. Plastic to make badniks. Oil for the battleships.

It didn't work. It just killed everything. Even itself.

And that synthetic, dead landscape is just the ugly scar. Nothing lives there, because the soil is poison, the water is toxic, there's no plant life to live on, no insect life to spread it. Under it all there's the secret bunker lab where things were researched and manufactured and tested. And that is even worse. 

Because Eggman has also previously been trying to 'grow' robots with programmable brains that will outlast computers and not brick up.

Hazard: "Don't. Touch. Anything."
Sonic: (dryly) "Dude. There's dead brains floating in vats and flesh rotting on the walls. I don't exactly need a lecture."
(Hazard turns and gives him a sour look) 

So that's why I created the prompt that had a free generator construct these pictures...

As you can see I get a little touchy when people say I have no imagination.

I don't use AI because I could never pick up a pencil. I don't use it because it can give me exactly the image I envision or because it's the best artist in the world.

I use AI because I LIKE using AI. Because I find it fun. Because it is the pencil that is the bottleneck and AI allows me to get my ideas out constantly, bounce at the wall, see what something might look like.

Because I'm creative, and I want to create NOW.

First, I use a free AI to make the picture. It's free, it's local, it's uncencored, so I can do whatever I want and take my time, little by little. Sure, the quality isn't top notch, but... it's free. Completely free. That's the point.

Then, I take it to ChatGPT. ChatGPT costs money and needs tokens. This is where I'm on a budget. And I can give it not so much details but "This is what I want people to think when they look at the picture". I literally discuss the picture as it is and as I want it to be.

And I have my 'propaganda portraits'.

I mean, what kind of nutter has a portrait of a dead girl in his throne room which is bigger than his own throne and then includes it in his own propaganda portrait? Thanks to using BOTH a free AI for the draft and ChatGPT, I can get exactly that.

ChatGPT has no imagination. I mean even compared to other AI, it gives you a combo of what it sees and what you say without being inventive at all. That's why I use it for tuning, not building.

Sonia: "If you ever harm my brothers I'll snap you like a twig. How's that for diplomacy?"
Shadow: "You're amazing."

After creating these images, and then forgetting which kind of rock-metal I made them for, I asked ChatGPT what it would say about them. It said:

"A high-energy alternative metal band with punk attitude and glam-showmanship."

Aura Farming. The true art of looking badass on entry.

You don't spend your whole 18 years of life as Eggman's adopted son without learning a thing or two about the Art of the Badass Entrance. The Egg Fleet. The lightning. The wind and the rain. And everything else.

It literally has the words 'Aura Farm style' in the prompt.

Somebody will always go, "Oh my god, how could you put Amy and Sonic in Japanese School Uniforms?!"

And in return I will say "Do you know who first put Amy in a school uniform? That's right, SEGA. Rosy the Rascal was in what could be interpretted as a Japanese school uniform. The flow of Amy's modern red dress is also loosely based on Japanese school uniforms.

You know who else Sega made who wears a Japanese school uniform? Cream the Rabbit.

And I seriously doubt that I am the first ever person to put Sonic characters in school uniforms.

(also, my prompt says 'university')

I love making AU versions like this in AI. I know they're not like, officially original characters but I like making this kind of thing regardless.

Because I love you all so much.

A Sonic the Hedgehog Police Drama. Not exactly the entire cast, but it's a start, right?

Because everybody does Cowboys and Indians sooner or later...