Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion Divinity - General Discussion

I'm sure not all of their Concept Art will be Gen AI (most of it will likely be 100% human-made, or the well-known and well-disliked "Draw over the AI art and fix its mistakes". There is a reason even Vincke says it hasn't improved efficiency), but indeed.

It's incredibly rare that concept art simply becomes the finished product.

Most often concept art looks nothing like the final product.

If generative AI is used for concept art, it would most likely be for what generative AI is actually good for. Which is quickly turning a vague idea into something tangible that people can look at. Not for creating actual art designs.

I.e. If someone was like "What would it look like for a T-rex to be riding a mecha-shark that's shooting a laser mini-gun at Adolf Hitler?" instead of having to spend time sketching and drawing this, they just plug it into Gen AI and get a few mocked up scenes which can be used as a prompt for an actual artist if they decide that's a concept they want to include.

This being what Gen AI supposed to be, a tool to help artists. Rather than a replacement for them.

This is also what the purpose of concept art is about. You visualize concepts that will help inspire your final product, maybe you reuse certain details you liked from some of the concepts, but the main thing is just getting the ideas down to see what they look like before you make up your mind and start to create and refine the final product.

@Taril Concept art does indeed eventually turn (or mostly turn) into the finished product. Just because it is iterative does not mean it does not end up picking a direction. The BG3 artbook has many examples of this. It is not always 1:1 as technical limitations pop up, but, like I said: If the root of your visual direction has the centrist approach AI takes, that's not good at all for the final product's artistic vision.


As for the artists, if I am allowed an argument from authority fallacy: as an artist myself, and knowing the general stance of other artists (and former concept artists that worked at Larian that have popped up after this reveal), this is not helping them. They generally don't like working with it.

@Jinetemoranco would you have a link to this by any chance, I am curious.

As an owner of many artbooks and a watcher of many artists...

I stand by my comment that most concept art does not turn into a final product.

If BG3's artbook has many examples of concept art being directly turned into finished products, then that is an exception (Or it features more early iterations of final art than actual concept stage ideas)

From my experience with the many iterations of concept art, rarely does it directly become a final product and even when it does, it's never an amalgamation of ALL concepts


That may be the case. But it doesn't mean that AI generated art is being used as a final product, nor does it mean that the ethical use of Gen AI isn't focused on supporting artists by means of allowing them to generate concept art more quickly.

The problem with the AI topic is that there are so many negatives associated with it. From how the many different engines have been developed, to then how everyone in society has decided to use it.

Currently, it is telling me that my sentence structure is terrible, maybe it is but I'm choosing to ignore it for the moment.

Then there is its use to write articles, make videos, create pictures, help develop ideas, be voices you talk with in everyday life or even in computer games, write code along with some other stuff. Is it all bad?

Everyone has their own opinion and there is nothing wrong with that. But that said what is the correct approach, if using AI to help speed up the initial development process shaves 6 months off the time it takes to get the game completed and released to the public isn't a good thing? Should it be used at all? (just a guess by me, I honestly have no idea how much help it actually would be)

I lean towards the idea that it shouldn't be in the finished product, there is something intangible to the art, writing, and design that AI can't replicate but that's just my thought.

Break free from the AI dictatorship! Break the chains! dshfskdfhs

But seriously, I think jinetemoranco said it perfectly


The product loses personality. I would rather they employ a real and talented consept artist of the old school.

It is not true that artists needs months and months to make a consept sketch. Good artists can whip one up in a matter of minutes.

I peeked at *hitterhole (X) and see what's the fuss is about.... Holy God.

- One side clutching pearl about any AI use that even remotely related to final product is unethical. Because there is actually an ethical consumption under Capitalism, obviously.
- #Them (code name: Rat King/Cockroach Leader) obviously dipping their toes to it and support AI usage.
- "Larian Content Creator" like WolfheartFPS scrambling for "Centrist" conclusion.
- The "I hate AI no matter what but I love E33 and now that somebody reminded me that the Dev mentioned they used AI, I moved the goal post to "I love the game but condemn the use of AI"".

meanwhile:

Cromwelp says: X
GameRadar/PCGamer/Kotako: "LARIAN DEV SAYS X".

Not sure what to think about this. I accept Swen explanation, but feels bad that this inevitably will start hearsay like "Larian use AI for their game" for years to come.