WotC WotC: 'Artists Must Refrain From Using AI Art Generation'

After it was revealed this week that one of the artists for Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants used artificial intelligence as part of their process when creating some of the book's images, Wizards of the Coast has made a short statement via the D&D Beyond Twitter (X?) account.

The statement is in image format, so I've transcribed it below.

Today we became aware that an artist used AI to create artwork for the upcoming book, Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. We have worked with this artist since 2014 and he's put years of work into book we all love. While we weren't aware of the artist's choice to use AI in the creation process for these commissioned pieces, we have discussed with him, and he will not use AI for Wizards' work moving forward. We are revising our process and updating our artist guidelines to make clear that artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their art creation process for developing D&D art.

-Wizards of the Coast​

Ilya Shkipin, the artist in question, talked about AI's part in his process during the week, but has since deleted those posts.

There is recent controversy on whether these illustrations I made were ai generated. AI was used in the process to generate certain details or polish and editing. To shine some light on the process I'm attaching earlier versions of the illustrations before ai had been applied to enhance details. As you can see a lot of painted elements were enhanced with ai rather than generated from ground up.

-Ilya Shlipin​

​

 

[Faolyn]

There are other pieces that were noticed that have yet to be mentioned. This one, for example, is so obvious that it feels unconscionable that someone could see this and say "Yeah, that should be in a major AAA RPG production."

View attachment 291925

Seriously, look at the person in the corner and try to figure out what is going on down there.

Frozen and being encased in ice?

My problem is the giant's legs. He looks like he has digitigrade legs, and they're so close together that a stiff breeze would knock him over, especially considering how top-heavy he is.

If the giant is actually supposed to be made of ice--have they changed frost giants to be elementals?--then I could possibly excuse the rest of the body for its disproportionate lumpiness. But the hands also look like they're positioned so the artist didn't have to draw the fingers. Which, as an artist myself, is always a very tempting thing to do. But feels lazy for professional art, even if it were hand-drawn.

 

[Faolyn]

Weird thing: Artists keep telling me that they look at other artists art for inspiration and to learn from other techniques. I really have difficulties seeing the problem. Yeah, AI is bad for artists. But cars also were bad for horse smiths. And DTP was bad for typesetters. And computers were bad for typists. And so on.

When I use another artist for inspiration, I don't cut out that artist's work, paste it on my own, and then claim I painted it (that might be OK if you were doing a collage and only using a small sampling of that artist's work--but even then, credit is important!). And if I were to copy another artist's style, I at least would say that my work was painted in the style of whomever it was I copied.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

If the giant is actually supposed to be made of ice--have they changed frost giants to be elementals?--then I could possibly excuse the rest of the body for its disproportionate lumpiness.

No comment on the art specifically, but my understanding is that this image is of a "Rime Hulk", hulks being a branch of the giant family tree that have split off and more or less become fully elemental beings. So while it is a "giant" made of ice, it's intended as a fundamentally different type of creature than a classic frost giant.

 

[Parmandur]

No comment on the art specifically, but my understanding is that that image is of a "Rime Hulk" - hulks being a branch of the giant family that have split off and more or less become fully elemental beings, so yes, that's essentially a "giant" made of ice rather than a classic frost giant.

And I mean, who is tonday that a Rime Hulk shouldn't have deer legs...?

The whole thing is stupid, ridiculous that Ilya did this, but the more I look at it the more it makes sense that he could get it to pass.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The Lary Elmore's who really paint by hand with real paint and brush for weeks are long gone (sadly).

Looks at my living room wall…I’m not sure that’s true.

The wolf art in case anybody has yet to see it.

Definitely not human feet. Not even remotely. Weird or not, the claim folks keep making about it is nonsense.

 

[Parmandur]

Looks at my living room wall…I’m not sure that’s true.

It strikes me that people are paranoid that WotC will resort to AI to cut costs...when it seems more likely to me thst they will lgo the other way, and use "100% human made art!!" as branding to charge more than competitors who do use AI in the future. Go in a more Elmore-ish direction.

 

[MockingBird]

This whole thing has a weird witch hunt vibe to it.

 

[orial]

This whole thing has a weird witch hunt vibe to it.

Exactly. WOTC can’t do anything good anymore. If you dive into other publishers you’ll find the same ‘problems’.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Agreed. Something has te be worked out. But in this case it was enhancing.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I'm confused. Are the greyscale drawings his? Because if that's the case, that's terrible--he's doing a rough sketch and claiming he did a finished product. Or did he actually paint the colored art and just use an AI image as reference?

All the drawings are his. The grey and the colored ones. He then put the colored ones through an AI to texture it.