WotC: 'We made a mistake when we said an image not AI'

It seems like AI art is going to be a recurring news theme this year. While this is Magic: the Gathering news rather than D&D or TTRPG news, WotC and AI art has been a hot topic a few times recently.

When MtG community members observed that a promotional image looked like it was made with AI, WotC denied that was the case, saying in a now-deleted tweet "We understand confusion by fans given the style being different than card art, but we stand by our previous statement. This art was created by humans and not AI."

However, they have just reversed their position and admitted that the art was, indeed, made with the help of AI tools.

Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI. Read on for more.

As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image.

While the art came from a vendor, it’s on us to make sure that we are living up to our promise to support the amazing human ingenuity that makes Magic great.

We already made clear that we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic products.

Now we’re evaluating how we work with vendors on creative beyond our products – like these marketing images – to make sure that we are living up to those values.

This comes shortly after a different controversy when a YouTube accused them (falsely in this case) of using AI on a D&D promotional image, after which WotC reiterated that "We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final D&D products."

The AI art tool Midjourney is being sued in California right now by three Magic: The Gathering artists who determined that theirs and nearly 6,000 other artists' work had been scraped without permission. That case is ongoing.

Various tools and online platforms are now incorporating AI into their processes. AI options are appearing on stock art sites like Shutterstock, and creative design platforms like Canva are now offering AI. Moreover, tools within applications like Photoshop are starting to draw on AI, with the software intelligently filling spaces where objects are removed and so on. As time goes on, AI is going to creep into more and more of the creative processes used by artists, writers, and video-makers.

 

[Art Waring]

I use Photoshop both for work and for personal use, and currently there's no way to accidentally incorporate AI into my work. I have to consciously choose to use the AI tools. If WotC is getting images with AI bits in them, it's because the artists chose to put them there.

Fair enough.

I for one, will not touch the tools with a ten foot pole.

Adobe adopting the tools is fine for them, but not for the way I make art. My personal reason for making art is both to have a creative outlet, and as a therapeutic activity to get my mind off of daily stress and routines.

That means that I actually enjoy the entire artistic process, from start to finish. I have no interest in cutting corners or taking away from time that I use to create. I also have no interest in seeing my ability to illustrate be perpetually degraded by becoming dependent on technology that could potentially supplant or replace my work.

I would rather spend an entire year on a single piece of art (that I own the rights to with 100% certainty), then spend the entire year generating sub-par images that can potentially put me and my work at risk.

 

[trappedslider]

sub-par images

this treads close to "what is art"

which part of any of the following is sub par?

 

[Scribe]

which part of any of the following is sub par?

As usually happens, the eyes, background faces, and hands.

 

[Art Waring]

this treads close to "what is art"

which part of any of the following is sub par?

Sub-par because in your examples, the text is literally illegible, eyes don't match, hands in the third pic are mutant hands, I could go on and on... The work it takes to fix these pieces, you might as well just start from scratch, and not put yourself at risk of violating another artists copyrights.

Sub-par because I do line art, not digital painting (from what I have seen, ai tools are terrible at making clean line art).

They can make pretty colorful images, but they can't (to the best of my knowledge as I don't use the tools) ATM, make line art (this will probably change, but I still wont be using the tools).

 

[trappedslider]

Sub-par because in your examples, the text is literally illegible, hands in the third pic are mutant hands, I could go on and on... The work it takes to fix these pieces, you might as well just start from scratch, and not put yourself at risk of violating another artists copyrights.

Sub-par because I do line art, not digital painting.

AI tools are pretty terrible at making line art. THey can make pretty colorful images, but they can't (to the best of my knowledge as I don't use the tools) ATM, make line art (this will probably change, but I still wont be using the tools).

All of those flaws can and I'm willing to bet have been put towards folk who have just started out painting.

Here's another pic that I had commission

EDIT: also from the same artist the other commission I had her do

Both were done based on basically what would be considered prompts. In that I gave her some general ideas as to what I wanted and she did it.

 

[Art Waring]

All of those flaws can and I'm willing to bet have been put towards folk who have just started out painting.

Here's another pic that I had commission

View attachment 342899

Absolutely no offense intended, but as a (former freelance & currently active) visual artist, and the current art director for my project, I would not accept art that is what I would consider unfinished.

Missing fingers, mismatched proportions, mismatched eyes, poor composition, all of these are going to be rejected by me for a final project.

If I am paying another freelance artist, I lay out my expectations clear as day from the beginning. Especially with ai generated images being more prevalent, I will not accept art that I commissioned that has missing fingers or other indications that it may have been made using ai tools.

 

[Scribe]

All of those flaws can and I'm willing to bet have been put towards folk who have just started out painting.

Yes, and the expectation is that a trained artist who lives based on their craft will have improved beyond that point. To the point of what you had commissioned, well yeah that person is already out of a job assuming one is willing/able to use AI generated items.

 

[trappedslider]

Absolutely no offense intended, but as a (former freelance & currently active) visual artist, and the current art director for my project, I would not accept art that is what I would consider unfinished.

Missing fingers, mismatched proportions, mismatched eyes, poor composition, all of these are going to be rejected by me for a final project.

If I am paying another freelance artist, I lay out my expectations clear as day from the beginning. Especially with ai generated images being more prevalent, I will not accept art that I commissioned that has missing fingers or other indications that it may have been made using ai tools.

so, i took a look at the prompts for the first pic and the user did the following: "<lora: purgatory:0.8>, <lora:Realanim:0.8>, Travis Charest, Emile Friant, Adam Hugues, Spider Gwen as Lisbeth Salander, cyber café in Amsterdam, white and pink hoody, blue-grey, very contrasted, bright colors, distinctive face, expressive look, detailed texture, detailed skin, depth perspectiv background" for the negative prompts:
"ugly, tiling, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn feet, poorly drawn face, out of frame, extra limbs, disfigured, deformed, body out of frame, blurry, bad anatomy, blurred, cg, fruits, flowers, fruits, pearls, necklace, grainy, signature, cut off, draft"

The second on was "neo-impressionism expressionist style oil painting, smooth post-impressionist impasto acrylic painting, thick layers of colourful textured paint" with no negative prompts

The third one was
extremely_high_res, masterpiece, photorealistic, 1girl, classroom_setting, vibrant_colors, flower_motifs, colorful_posters, sitting_on_desk, goth_style, black_lace_outfit, black_lipstick, piercing, dark_eyeliner, leather_boots, wavy_hair, shoulder_length_hair, asymmetrical_pink_highlights, thick_figure, contrasting_aesthetics also no negative prompts.

Yes, and the expectation is that a trained artist who lives based on their craft will have improved beyond that point. To the point of what you had commissioned, well yeah that person is already out of a job assuming one is willing/able to use AI generated items.

The commission weren't AI related at all, I lost the WIP sketches she sent me of blondie but here's the stuff of the other girl

Spoiler

This is what I asked for when i commissioned it "5'7 female wearing a white t-shirt, short black hair with Olive skin tone, black choker around the neck, black jeans, and black sneakers, with brown eyes with a confident expression on face."

 

[Scribe]

The commission weren't AI related at all, I lost the WIP sketches she sent me of blondie but here's the stuff of the other girl

Yeah, I assumed those were either not AI, or had been done over a year ago.

We both know AI has surpassed that already with the assumptions/risks I noted.

 

[Art Waring]

so, i took a look at the prompts for the first pic and the user did the following: "<lora: purgatory:0.8>, <lora:Realanim:0.8>, Travis Charest, Emile Friant, Adam Hugues, Spider Gwen as Lisbeth Salander, cyber café in Amsterdam, white and pink hoody, blue-grey, very contrasted, bright colors, distinctive face, expressive look, detailed texture, detailed skin, depth perspectiv background" for the negative prompts:
"ugly, tiling, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn feet, poorly drawn face, out of frame, extra limbs, disfigured, deformed, body out of frame, blurry, bad anatomy, blurred, cg, fruits, flowers, fruits, pearls, necklace, grainy, signature, cut off, draft"

The second on was "neo-impressionism expressionist style oil painting, smooth post-impressionist impasto acrylic painting, thick layers of colourful textured paint" with no negative prompts

The third one was
extremely_high_res, masterpiece, photorealistic, 1girl, classroom_setting, vibrant_colors, flower_motifs, colorful_posters, sitting_on_desk, goth_style, black_lace_outfit, black_lipstick, piercing, dark_eyeliner, leather_boots, wavy_hair, shoulder_length_hair, asymmetrical_pink_highlights, thick_figure, contrasting_aesthetics also no negative prompts.

The commission weren't AI related at all, I lost the WIP sketches she sent me of blondie but here's the stuff of the other girl

Spoiler

View attachment 342903
View attachment 342904

View attachment 342905

View attachment 342906

This is what I asked for when i commissioned it "5'7 female wearing a white t-shirt, short black hair with Olive skin tone, black choker around the neck, black jeans, and black sneakers, with brown eyes with a confident expression on face."

Honestly, you lost me at the long prompts, I don't use the tools, and when I send a commission to an artist, i use natural language to convey what I am aiming for with the piece.

Looking at the bottom of your post, what you asked for in the commission is absolutely fine, just that in the future you might have to specify that you require completed hands and anatomy (if that's what you are aiming for) for the finished piece. Aside from the three fingered hands, these are fine (if that's what you are aiming for) for your project.