
Suggestive Drawing Among Humans and AIs - swannodette
http://nono.ma/suggestive-drawing
======
aresant
Humans - for the moment - still drastically lead machines in the realm of
creative output.

But I love the author's idea of the machine as a "collaborator"

Tools like the Source Filmmaker are a good analog. (1)

That platform packaged together powerful animation tools along with free
assets and a simple UX to empower largely non-technical creators to make
awesome CGI clips, movies, and memes.

The function of the software referenced in the OP is simple - it colors your
photos, it helps to extend or add texture and depth.

But you can see the potential for a future where damn near anything you can
think of, and draw in stick figure form could come to life as a fully realized
image, painting, animation, or experience.

(1)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Filmmaker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Filmmaker)

~~~
westoncb
> But I love the author's idea of the machine as a "collaborator"

My understanding is that this idea was at the very heart of how/why modern
personal computers developed from batch-processing systems.

I remember reading a quote from one of the central figures in this development
(I believe it was J.C.R. Licklider —definitely from the book "The Dream
Machine" which has a good bit of focus on him), which suggested that the ideal
role of computers was to leave us in a position where our thoughts are purely
creative, where all thought in support of some direction we've decided on is
dealt with by a computer instead, and we just make creative decisions.

That said—this is of course some cool new progress in that direction :)

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searine
Neat article, but I'm skeptical of machine learning to make art easier.

I spent some time using PaintsChainer, a ML tool to autofill colors based on a
few starting choices and the results were... rough.

The problem with ML art, is that it lacks the ability to polish. 90% of the
impact of art is in the the last 10% of work, where the artist meticulously
refines the piece to turn it from a loosely colored sketch, into a cohesive
and complete picture.

Many of the tricks and tools to create this polish are heuristics that are not
quantifiable or teachable via image sets. They come from an understanding of
the "Gestalt" of a picture, or what the "gestalt" should be and then doing the
necessary steps to get it there.

The other problem is you can't teach an ML algorithm about the hidden volumes
in art. Much of drawing/painting is about tricking the eye into perceiving
volume when none exists. An ML algorithm can perceive volume and identity
after color/light have been applied, because those categories carry data.
However, an ML algorithm can't infer what color/light a circle should have to
give it the correct volume/perspective. A circle can be a doorknob, a pie, a
ball, an eye. Each needing different data applied to it, which the ML
algorithm doesn't (and won't ever) have.

Personally, I'd welcome a tool to make painting easier. It'd be amazing.
However, I don't think we are all that close to a machine creating polished
artwork.

~~~
sulam
Every time someone makes a statement, or series of statements that involve the
words "can't" or "not" (or others) regarding the capability, adoption, or just
general progression of technology to do a particular thing or reach a
particular goal, my spidey sense starts tingling and I think to myself "well
that's going to happen." Unless it involves basic physics, then I think "okay,
probably not going to happen, but you never know."

~~~
lainga
You can't determine if an arbitrary computer program will halt on some input.

~~~
sulam
Probably falls into the category of physics. ;)

~~~
zaarn
Nop. The halting problem is a purely mathematical problem. You don't need any
bit of physics to define it and prove it's not solvable.

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tw1010
If there's anything I would bet money on taking UX to a revolutionary new
point, it's this.

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tropdrop
Even in this relatively crude form, I already see a wide range of application
for fashion design. For instance, you could take some of the textured flower
designs the author presents and place them on graphic tees that could easily
sell at Uniqlo, or H&M - and in bulk, these new designs would cost much less
than paying multiple designers to create them.

(Though as the author points out, you would still need at least 1 designer to
train the machine)

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sandebert
This site repeatedly crashes my mobile browser, I can't even remember when
that happened last. (Chrome on Android 8.1)

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majewsky
> You can use the arrow keys to navigate this page, _but then you cannot read
> it anymore_.

FTFY

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jc763
Awesome article.

~~~
IAmGarrett
Very impressed by the author's effort, particularly in making the topic easily
digestible.

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padthai
I cannot read the article unless I turn on Reader View in Firefox. The text is
almost white.

~~~
sp332
The text color is almost black - 34,34,34. It uses a webfont called Minion Pro
[https://typekit.com/fonts/minion](https://typekit.com/fonts/minion) which
isn't especially thin. The fallbacks in the font stack are just serif and
sans-serif.

~~~
padthai
That is not what I see in my Firefox:

[https://imgur.com/a/v3Oo1uy](https://imgur.com/a/v3Oo1uy)

It is probably some kind of weird configuration in my computer though.

~~~
eridius
You hit an arrow key. This page has weird scripting that tries to let you
navigate with arrow keys, but I noticed it ends up skipping most of the text
that way.

~~~
systoll
I'm _guessing_ they used this document as their 'slides' while presenting. The
text is what they'd be saying, while the arrow keys hide the script, and flip
between annotated graphics.

That said, the keyboard navigation is pretty much useless outside of that
context.

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fallingfrog
Was hoping for ai generated crudely drawn penises. Was disappointed.

~~~
fallingfrog
Oh come on guys, it was at least a little bit funny!

~~~
aparadja
One of the best things about HN is how joke comments aren't usually upvoted,
even if they were funny. It makes room for other kinds of conversations.

