Many years ago, a photographer friend came over to hang out. I told him that the day before, I’d gone hiking with a GoPro set to automatically take a photo every five seconds, and came back with hundreds of photos.
He asked, “What’s the point of that? Why do it?”
I said, “Surely I can pick out a few cool shots.”
He turned and looked out the window for a few seconds, then said, “Photos made without anyone’s involvement have no meaning.”
I laughed it off at the time. It took me many years to truly understand what he meant: your experience and your intention are essential parts of the creative process. For the audience, if the creator’s intentions as a human being aren’t part of the work, what they experience is something entirely different.
Now that AI generation has lowered the barrier to the absolute minimum, anyone can use AI to create beautiful things. The upside is that the technical barriers really have disappeared. In the past, many people were shut out by the cumbersome workflows of tools like 3ds Max and Photoshop when trying to make 3D models or edit images. Now they’re free of those constraints.
But one thing hasn’t changed: people have to be involved for genuine, clear intentions to come through. Take 3D digital idols, for example, like Yuki, created by the Hanqing team. Without the team’s thoughts, intentions, and the ideas they want to convey being infused into the work, Yuki would just be another little 3D character dancing online.
He asked, “What’s the point of that? Why do it?”
I said, “Surely I can pick out a few cool shots.”
He turned and looked out the window for a few seconds, then said, “Photos made without anyone’s involvement have no meaning.”
I laughed it off at the time. It took me many years to truly understand what he meant: your experience and your intention are essential parts of the creative process. For the audience, if the creator’s intentions as a human being aren’t part of the work, what they experience is something entirely different.
Now that AI generation has lowered the barrier to the absolute minimum, anyone can use AI to create beautiful things. The upside is that the technical barriers really have disappeared. In the past, many people were shut out by the cumbersome workflows of tools like 3ds Max and Photoshop when trying to make 3D models or edit images. Now they’re free of those constraints.
But one thing hasn’t changed: people have to be involved for genuine, clear intentions to come through. Take 3D digital idols, for example, like Yuki, created by the Hanqing team. Without the team’s thoughts, intentions, and the ideas they want to convey being infused into the work, Yuki would just be another little 3D character dancing online.