but I do worry (given recent trends) what an AI assisted portrait generator would yield, or what that would signal in terms of art general direction. Working Artists would instantly balk at that move and rightly so, if it tried to cut them out, in favor of Skynet on the cheap. I think something like that could tank the game's reputation overnight if it wasn't handled correctly, so not sure I'd tempt those fates.
Oh, yeah, I wasn’t thinking of an AI that scraped images from the internet when I saw that suggestion, but one trained specifically to create fantasy RPG portraits using concept art produced by the studio (plus probably other licensed art) as inputs and capable of placing a likeness of a character generated in game (by the player or devs in the cases of NPCs) in a portrait. I definitely think something like that has potential and, given the in-house art team couldn’t feasibly create hand drawn portraits for every single combination of CC choices, let alone every goblin, duergar, etc, it doesn’t feel as though it would be doing anyone out of a job.
I do think there’s potential there, though as you say it’s not actually required in order to create better portraits than we have currently.
