Pokemon School Days: Giratina Rising

Character Art 1

NOTE: All of the images have been generated using ai (I am sorry, but I can't draw to save my life). I know the entire ai in "art" debate is still very much on. Personally, I'm not against using ai as a tool, because I do not believe the artifical intelligence is capable of creating art. It's capable of generating content, but not art. With that in mind, I still feel the need to disclose that these images are generated and are not my own work in that sense.

Still, this story is supposed to have a large cast, and the ai has made it possible for me, a person who cannot draw a proper stick-man, to actually attempt creating the visual representation of these characters. So, obviously, that's what I did.

This is how I have (almost) imagined the main 5 characters, with Teo being on the far left, Joe next to him, Sam in the middle, Ves is the fourth one, and Ace is the blondie on the right end. Now, I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out, but this took way too many prompts and re-clicks on the generate button. I used perchance.org/ai-character-generator , and while the tool itself is easy (and free) to use, it does lack so many things (and better believe that I will get into all of them). 

This would be Sam. He turned out the easiest one for the ai to get right. It was the hardest one for me, though, since I had no idea how to describe what I want (re-discoverd the fact that I can't draw on this one, lol). Anyways, I wanted him to look like your usual boy next door/soft type, but also look kind of sporty. The ai really had no problem with it, but I was dissatisfied, since most of the designs looked rather plain, and he seemed like he had no character at all. In the end I managed to land on this, and I'm pretty satisfied. The only things I could complain at ai for this one was that it many images it generated made him look older/sexualised, and that gettinng the hair right was a hellish process (oh, you will hear a lot about ai giving me trouble with hair...). But yeah, anyways, this is Sam, and I absolutely love him. 

This is Teo, and yeah, I really like his design as well. The fits are great. (I did the whole "style stealer" series of images where the main characters dress like each others, and I'll probably post that as well at a certain point). Either way, generating him was HELL, he was probably the hardest one for ai to get right. Firstly, once again, making him older/sexualising him was an even bigger problem than with Sam. Second thing, the ai apparently doesn't know what a buzz cut is, it just kept giving him long hair, even dying it a few times as well (though, blonde Teo is cool as well, in my opinion). Well, Teo has become my number 1 argument FOR using ai, since you know what, the ai is REALLY NOT THAT GOOD AT THIS, so I think we don't have to worry too much about ai generated art becoming a widespread thing... But yeah he was way too hard for the ai to get right, I had a terrible time clicking the generate button, and have discovered I have anger issues, so take that as you might. Still, those few times the ai got him right, he looks good, I think it's a cool design, very basic punk/bad boy vibe from the clothes, and it contrasts the face of a 14 year old. Basically, I love Teo as well. 

Here we have Joe, who dresses like a sailor grandma, in my opinion. I like his personal style the best, I find it very artsy and stuff. Anyways, yeah, it's a simple design, as I mostly focused on making him look unreadable, so to speak. The tan on this pick is not right though, again, the ai is very very very bad at giving people the right haircuts AND the right tan. But yeah, honestly, I'm satisfied with the design, and it didn't give me too much trouble (except for the skin tone...).

This is Ves, and honestly, I imagined him much differently at first, but I ended up liking this design the most. Surprisingly, the one character the ai didn't struggle to give the right haircut to. Again, aging him up and sexualisation was the biggest issue. And yeah, as far as the character generators go, I've definitely noticed that sexualisation of minor character is way too common. Which is concerning since the ai tools learn from humans...but hey...this is not a time or place for this conversation. Anyways, this is Ves (and this is how I would love to dress).

This is Ace. This is basically how I dress personally (so obviously his style is my fav). I like how his designs turned out, kind of a retro vibe. Had a problem with hair again, his hair is supposed to be much shorter than this, but the ai just wouldn't get it, so I gave in. Also, had the problem with the ai making him into a girl multiple times (also sexualising him..) or just turning him into a fem-boy (Ace is not a fem-boy). But yeah, I'm happy with the design, thank you ai.

Anyways, those would be the main characters (I have way more pictures btw), and this was the first time I've tried using ai. It was a sombering experiance, fun at times, but mostly rage-inducing and concerning on more than one occasion. Hope you'll like these boys as much as I do.