Topic: It's all AI-generated: Blaze-Lupine

Posted under General

It seems that all content from the artist Blaze-Lupine newer than March 2023 is AI-generated.
post #4039706

While this is just one particularly bad example, all of the newer art shows the signs of being ai-generated (inconsistent lineart and shading, wrong coloring or missing elements etc.)
The sudden jump in quality is also remarkable. Especially so considering they haven't been drawing since ~5 years, with their last post from that time (on this site) looking like this:
post #3957626

I thought their Inkbunny account would explain this. The older pictures weren't present, as they seem to have migrated from FA to there. However, there was still an explanation for this improvement in following comment under their first post there:

This was the very first picture I did with what I'd learned during a six month hiatus from drawing...well, by that I mean a hiatus from POSTING drawings.
I've been drawing furry stuff since 2001. Everything I've ever done from then to 2022 was self-taught. I even went from using pencil and paper to Photoshop and teaching myself digital. However, near the end of 2022, I felt stagnant. My faces felt flat, my coloring was meh, and my shading consisted of using burn/dodge and calling it a day. I was also still drawing using the mouse pad on my laptop.
So, I enlisted the help of three art friends, one in the fandom, two outside, who gave me suggestions, recommendations, and most of all...I caved in with a tablet! The biggest things I wanted to focus on were facial structure and coloring/shading. I was amazed what happens when you learn to use different color contrasts and actually use LAYERS in Photoshop. I'd never used them before.
I still do and use things I shouldn't be, such as the smudge tool, burn and dodge might come in to play now and then, and I forget what layer I'm on at time and fudge something up, but I feel I've come a long way now that I actually committed to learning something that wasn't self-taught trial and error.
Trust me, that explanation was needed, as you shall see coming up. Especially for those who haven't seen my work in a while.

The reason for the migration seems to be that many posts have been removed from FA for containing AI (resulting in broken links here on E621). From the FA journals:

I'm well aware of the content allowed there, but truth be told, I'm simply looking for a place where I can upload what I do without having unneeded anxiety attacks.

Furthermore, all content uploaded there (and should the fates allow here) will now be coming with a disclaimer in regards to the backgrounds I use within my art unless I myself specifically make it. It will basically consist of "The background used may or may not contain Ai influenced material. I will do my best to seek out backgrounds that do not use it, but in the event it does against my knowledge, my bad." And looking into Inkbunny's rules, it'll be tagged as such simply to cover my behind and to abide by their rules should that be the case.

I also plan to start saving the linework of my WIPs on occasion as well, just to have SOME proof that I'm the one working on them. It's sad that Ai has made such a thing a necessity, but starting that extra step again is better than not posting at all, I suppose.

I am of course not the first to notice, and the journals offer more reading material:

1. Yep! The eyes are blurry. Why? I use the smudge tool. Despite new techniques, I still use old ones. The smudge tool blends well enough, but has the side effect of, gasp, making things blurry.
2. The one thigh is darker because I made the brown of Balto's ass show, where as on the other thigh, I made the gray extend too far. Looked okay at first, but eh, messed up lol
3. Anatomy error! Oh no, how dare I?!
4. Anyone who has watched me long enough knows hands and toes are my weakest point. Especially top views. And yep, the toes on Balto aren't even. I make anatomy errors, who knew?
5. More blurry lines because more smudge tool. He's a good friend of mine and we hang out often. I'm still new to layers and often forget I'm using them. My process used to be sketch, outline, paint bucket tool, outline, dodge/burn, outline, and all on a single layer. I'm still learning, but when it comes to fixing mistakes, I'm lazy lol

Their remasters are affected as well, hinting at the use of an image-to-image model (which has likely also been used for their sketches):
post #696071 post #4308693
post #668076 post #4408793

Disregarding the uploading guidelines on AI-generated content, having a tag for it would already help.

I commented on this on a pic of theirs awhile back and was highly downvoted so who know if anyone cares :/

Huh. It kind of looks like it but I seriously hadn't been able to tell at a glance for a long time.

The integrity of the site must be maintained, the ai content from this creator must not stay on the site as per the rules.

Updated

felicity_longis said:
Thank fucking god. The attitude around here about this seems to have been pretty volatile for the last few months, so I just figured it was better to blacklist them and ignore it. So nice to see positive changes!

mood. people are oddly defensive of them i got downvoted to fuck just for pointing out the discrepencies in their stuff a few months ago lol.

it's sad because their real artwork is actually really good and charming.

manitka said:
mood. people are oddly defensive of them i got downvoted to fuck just for pointing out the discrepencies in their stuff a few months ago lol.

it's sad because their real artwork is actually really good and charming.

Right? I used to be a big fan of Blaze's work since way back in the early days, with all his traditional stuff. Such a shame.

Also not a fan of his obsession with cuck and infidelity content, but that's more a personal taste issue.

I'm honestly extremely glad that the recent announcement happened. I've had more than my share of people down voting things I've said to try and hide them, when all I was doing was pointing out AI-generated stuff.

manitka said:
mood. people are oddly defensive of them i got downvoted to fuck just for pointing out the discrepencies in their stuff a few months ago lol.

it's sad because their real artwork is actually really good and charming.

Same thing happened with Twinkle-Sez's recent stuff. I think it's a mix of people interpreting any mention of AI as an attack on the artist, and people who just don't seem to grasp that E621 isn't for that sort of content (even moreso now!), so they just pile on. Although in fairness, I think some folks see mentions of this stuff as attempts to start drama. Which, in this fandom, isn't the most unreasonable assumption to make. We've seen plenty of great artists getting pushed away because of stupid bullshit. But really just pointing out that an actual artist has started relying on AI shouldn't be one of those situations.

And honestly, in my view, if AI is so important to their process that making a stink about it forces them to stop making art... well, too bad. If you're so devoid of passion and creativity that you'd decide to go down that road and won't come back, you stopped being an artist a long time ago.

Ruppari

Privileged

Well this explains a lot. A lot of it looks traced as hell, and I have been trying to do my best to locate originals because I can't really accuse artists of tracing with no proof. I was never able to find anything, and it being AI based explains why it looks traced with no originals to be found.

rupikonna said:
Well this explains a lot. A lot of it looks traced as hell, and I have been trying to do my best to locate originals because I can't really accuse artists of tracing with no proof. I was never able to find anything, and it being AI based explains why it looks traced with no originals to be found.

I am 100% convinced that one of their earlier pieces like this was posted to IB or something with a description from them explicitly saying that they were using AI to touch up older pieces. But I couldn't be arsed to find it and it seems they since really shied away from being upfront about that practice.

felicity_longis said:
I am 100% convinced that one of their earlier pieces like this was posted to IB or something with a description from them explicitly saying that they were using AI to touch up older pieces. But I couldn't be arsed to find it and it seems they since really shied away from being upfront about that practice.

Yeah, there's about 20-30 pieces with (AI) as a name suffix. These are img-to-img of the artist's old works for the most part.
I do find it rather odd that they have both openly acknowledged AI pieces, and also ones that they insist were not. If it weren't for the fervent denials, I would have assumed a good-faith sloppiness in tagging, rather than any intent to conceal.