AI Can Be Used To Aid VFX Processes, Not Replace Humans

Hollywood writers have been on strike against the use of AI for quite a while now. With the growing use of artificial intelligence in the creation industry, writers fear that they might soon be out of work with machines replacing them entirely.

However, the recently concluded SIGGRAPH event threw light on the fact that AI has already been in use in Hollywood for a long time.

Several papers and research presented at the event highlight that AI can be used to aid in the creation process but cannot be exploited to replace human efforts altogether.

One such recent example is Pixar's movie Elemental. The movie portrays abstract characters made of fire, wind, and water. Creating these characters would require tons of labor hours and technical expertise.

However, with the use of sims and sophisticated material shaders, creators could cut down on the required efforts.

It's important to note that even after the use of artificial intelligence, the whole process was carried out in simultaneous collaboration with several engineering teams.

If anyone ever tells you that Pixar used AI to make Elemental, that's wrong.Pixar's Paul Kanyuk

Paul Kanyuk from Pixar stressed the fact that these characters were not made by AI". Ai was simply used as a tool to get the desired creative outcomes.

AI Has Made The Creative Process Faster

Making a movie is a creative process that requires intensive dialogue between the directors and the creators - a process that often takes months or even years. AI can be used to accelerate these conversations by producing design templates and prototypes that are nowhere near the final product.

People don't realize that there's an enormous amount of time wasted in the creation process.Martine Bertrand, a senior AI researcher at DNEG

For example, if the process involves making a haunted castle, AI can be used to generate various models of the castle to help creators visualize what they are looking for. In its absence, it can take weeks to build 2-3 castle prototypes, with no certainty of a definitive outcome.

Currently, machine learning has the ability to overtake 80-90% of the objective VFX work, leaving humans enough space to deal with subjective decisions.

Wonder Dynamics, mentioned in several presentations, also pointed out that artificial intelligence is used in production processes to automate redundant tasks and not creative ones.

However, the creative VFX community hasn't completely rejected the AI replacing artist" theory. Bertrand admits that AI has become smart enough for humans to consider deferring decision-making processes to it, which is where the problems start.

It remains to be seen what emerging AI technologies have in store for the VFX industry. However, there's an urgent need to strike a balance between the use of AI and human input in creative processes.

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