The Boy and The Heron — The AI and the Nature and The Animation
I think “being an artist” (and doing animation) is not exactly “normal”.
I watched latest Miyazaki’s and Ghibli works “The Boy and The Heron” and there are a lot of strange things happening in this animation! Some parts I thought this is almost too “horror” like but all drawn and (hand) animated beautifully.
All those, besides the beautiful motion and complex animations of people, birds, frogs, liquid, smoke, waters, fires, — that together work within the “Ghibli style” of charming character designs — while telling the stories of LIFE and DEATH and being REBORN.
I watched this animation piece on IMAX screen (Sydney, expensive $40, but worth it for this type of movie). Would be nice to rewatch “Totoro” and “Spirited Away” on IMAX. They are all very human, very Japanese, very Ghibli, very Miyazaki Hayao, but deeply very universal:
- forest spirits
- green earth
- human life living everyday life: working, playing, having shower, cleaning, singing,
- family, parents, sisters
With emergent of “AI Arts” which seem to “generate” artworks, styles, but also to perhaps “animate” or “diffuse” between 2 state of frames — we seem to be seeing “remake of life at super speed”.
The early generic example is to have DANCE and ACTION animations being “remixed” and assign into characters. They are mostly generics, but I think AI Arts are in general “generics” unless specifically trained for certain unique animations or styles.
Being Artist (then Animator) is not normal, because we want to study everything (visuals). Just like scientists, without too much of math.
Says, simple things: religions probably against nudity, but being Artist and Animators (dealing with visuals) we are seeing everything. Yes, EVERY THINGS. Artists (minds) have to be 100% pure, but we are also humans with needs sometimes. So we gotta filter our thoughts time to time. No violence, no bad thoughts, things can be raw.
So I supposed the AI Arts also the same. Some things cannot be seen too much that might become nightmare — not for common people (supposedly avoiding violence, graphics, and sexual imagery).
My point is that Artists see and recreate what they see, same point with AI arts, depending on the training data, it can recreate things based on those.
“Real” Artists — a really good artists — are amazing and could recreate things from their minds, from the ethers. From their study of nature for example, the motion of leafs by the wind, the raining water, etc — probably from the mind of Miyazaki Hayao.
I supposed we artists and AI are studying BEAUTY and UGLINESS of everything and trying to censor UGLINESS parts of humans, but sometimes raw things are also humans.
So in the end, we — animators, artist — try to focus on living and keeping thing alive and animated, and to continue be in motions and to live and create an illusion of life.
