was going to post something different but saw all the fuss about portraits and the silence from studio leadership. there are better ways to respond without hurting anyone. on the list of priorities, responses should:
- Avoid Witch Hunts.
don’t throw your employees under the bus. if an employee was using AI, handle it internally. we don’t need to know unless leadership was involved in such a deceit. the game hasn’t released yet so no customer has been harmed.
- Address Customer Concerns.
its clear that regardless of whether they are AI generated or not, customers are not happy with the current portraits. remaking them is the fastest way to calm people down and leave them satisfied regardless if the previous portraits used AI or not.
- Regain Trust through Proper Crediting Of Artwork.
have each portrait properly credited and uploaded to a website like ARTSTATION with signed copies. have multiple Work In Progress(WIP) sketches or videos of the artwork alongside them. if you can, have an artist draw a portrait on a platform like twitch or YouTube live while also interacting with fans.
other companies such as Blizzard, Creative Assembly, Riot Games and Bungie already have artwork credited and available on such websites. by linking the portraits with Artists alonside WIP you can avoid any reasonable suspicion of AI generation or sub par results.
examples of credited artworks from other companies:
Riot Games
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Pe5zOB?album_id=5864787
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lG2Dk
Bungie
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rwewa
Creative Assembly
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xY0J92
https://www.artstation.com/maniaks
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gQvZL?album_id=848810
Blizzard
https://www.artstation.com/samalicea
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https://www.artstation.com/bayardwu
https://www.artstation.com/sidwill
even aoe3 credited its Artist on this very website along with an interview that has a link to his artwork The Art of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio
Interview with Craig Mullins – An Age of Empires Illustrator - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio https://www.goodbrush.com/(as in all art websites contains bare humans)
an ideal webpage for the redone artwork would be similar but more detailed than this https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yJK13J adding in more snapshots of the work in progress.
no one is going to accuse that of being AI generated.
actually, why not contract this or other artists for a portrait to get hints and tips on snapshotting your work for the fans to avoid something similar in the future.
tldr: don’t scapegoat employees, redo artwork, credit artists and post proof of human effort. profit, everyone happy. its something Microsoft and the AOE team has done before anyways, we have proof on this website. and its the ethical thing to do, you should always credit artists if morals are something you care about.
