Mediaboss Marketing

What Base was developing at this stage was a series of visual imaginings in relation to the opera being created. Developed in tandem with the opera house, the Base team would input parts as they received them into Dall-E, which was chosen as it provided the best results in terms of its weirdness and imperfect generation, adds Arthur Dubois, Bases motion designer. Arthur then used Google Colab to inject life into still images through animation, also working with Tokkin Heads, an AI that generates characters and the facial features to apply a templated animation, or just record with your webcam to create an animation of the face, he says. Runway was then also used, due to its framing interpolation, which generates in-between frames for a type-to-image transition. The final AI tool the team employed was Upscayl, used to upscale every image generated to principal resolution.

Although these steps appear simple when noted down, the actual process of working with AI in a design context wasnt without its challenges. Firstly, the imagery generated by Dall-E tested the creative limits of an identity system such as this. It really allowed for an aesthetic that felt less corporate or commercial, says Bruce Vansteenwinkel, a designer at Base. But at times these images werent appealing from an aesthetic standpoint. Thankfully, the animation techniques used really helped us to increase the weirdness of each visual, adds Aurore. Even more so when we werent really fond of an image, adding motion could help bring the result we wanted.

The process of then delivering the work also proved harder than originally anticipated. When it came to collaborating with La Monnaies team we realised that it was a bit more hassle, explains Bruce. We sold it as a toolbox. A way of collaborating where we could create images, they could create images, but that creates a lot of opportunities for new misunderstandings and new frustrations. Things became out of hand.

However, losing control led Base to realise the necessity of human-led design when collaborating with artificially generated artworks. Its funny. We sold them a concept of losing control, but then we lost so much control we had to gain it back, Bruce says. Right before launching there was an internal crisis because some of the images wed developed were less striking than the originals we had presented. That was the concept, but because were designers neat freaks, control freaks we wanted to regain control of the image. The delight we had in the beginning turned into despair, and maybe even disappointment.

The final visual not representing an art director or designers initial vision is a possibility on any project. In the end, Bases team placed themselves back in their usual role in a brief such as this, inputting details like the aforementioned animation techniques to tie the campaign together. We were a bit naive, says Aurore. A tool where both we can create images, and the client can create images sounds wonderful, but looking at what theyd done we realised we were a very important part of the process. We have a culture of image. They have a culture of content. We understood that we were still needed, which is the whole question around AI.

Like Sebas communication approach, since completing the La Monnaie project Base has been extremely open, and proud, of this use case of AI as art direction and design. As pointed out by Manon: Its our duty to use these tools and see where they can bring us to. There has also been little backlash towards the agency, even though its team have used it so obviously.

Arguably this is due to the fact that AI was only implemented due to its relevance for the overall theme of the opera season at hand, rather than an excuse not to work, or have AI as a buzzword, says Bruce. On this project I received a lot of questions about whether AI is going to replace our jobs. In our personal experience, I think in many ways it can. But thats more of a choice than an actual fate you have to accept. There are a few agencies working towards owning AI as their unique selling point, but Im not sure whether thats the strongest way to move forward with design at large. Choosing when and how to use it, maybe a little sparingly as well, evades the question of whether it will take our jobs. Interestingly, since completing the project Base hasnt used AI tools to this extent again, because, with this experience in mind, the concept hasnt called for it.

The rest is here:
Art direction vs artificial intelligence: A helpful tool or an added hassle? - It's Nice That