Fall 2024

From an article at Techlearning.com (Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay)

 

    Welcome students. You arrive in the midst of strange times. This semester I anticipate greater challenges with AI generated imagery appearing in the classroom space. While there may be appropriate use cases for AI tools, there are a few of the issues we must navigate

Ethics

    Some of the tech is inherently unethical, trained using scraped data and stolen images, without informed consent, credit or compensation. When we use these tools we become accomplices in the theft. Google faces a lawsuit for this and Midjourney is under fire after the leaking of a list of artists they trained their image generator on. This is just the some of what we've learned.

Academic Integrity

    In using these tools, great care must be taken to attribute what part of the work is being completed with AI and what is uniquely created or authored. Failing to do so would be an academic integrity violation. 

Artist Learning

    In order to make any meaningful art, core skills must be developed or the artist risks limiting their own growth. We must be able to generate greater than what the tools present us with. For example, using motion capture clips effectively is only possible with a solid foundational understanding of animation, especially if you need to modify the performance.

             So, how do we navigate this?

Best practices going forward

    1. Show your work
    2. Be transparent

    3. Remember: you're here to learn

    Showing work in progress and making changes based on feedback is essential. Sharing your process makes it possible for your teacher to see that you're developing the necessary skills. When a student is unable or unwilling to show their incremental steps it's a big red flag and will provoke closer inquiry. Prevent this by showing your progress regularly.

    If you are considering using AI tools: ask your instructor beforehand and communicate clearly how/where/when they are used. A substantial component of plagiarism is the intent to deceive. Passing off AI content as your own by omitting this information can needlessly place your academic standing in peril. If you are aware of someone else doing this, remember that failing to report it makes you an accomplice. Avoid these pitfalls by communicating clearly

    While your instructors are very good at spotting work that isn't authentically authored, it's a poor use of their time to spend every minute scrutinizing your activity. I'd rather trust that you understand: the purpose and value of education is the learning of new skills. Completing the task isn't as important as the techniques you used to get there. Inappropriate use of automated tools robs you of the opportunity to learn those techniques. Remember: you're here to lean.

    Here are the classes I teach this term:

ANI 3d Animation 3 (5020)

5020 - Polishing Scene (PS) or Melee Attack (MA)
5020 - Weight Lift (WL)
5020 - 30s Reel (30S)
5020 - Short Lip Sync (LS1) or UbiSoft NEXT (UN)
5020 - Creature Animation (CA) (includes checkpoint) and Dailies

ANC Animation Intro (6012)

6012 - Rigid Pendulum (RP) or Change of Emotion (COE)
6012 - Bouncing Balls (BB)
6012 - Ball with Tail (BT)
6012 - Leg Ball Jump (LBJ)

ANC Preproduction (6020)

6020 - Storyboard (SB)
6020 - Conversation Movie (CM)
6020 - Simple Rig (SR)
6020 - The Chase (TC)

Winter 2024

Adapting to 'ride the waves of change' sounds great
until you consider that waves come in many sizes.

    Over 30 years ago, I got my first email address. The internet was a rising topic of conversation, and might be less of a fad than I initially thought. I couldn't imagine how extensive and ubiquitous 'the net' would become. Over 20 years ago, I got my first true smart phone. The idea of accessing email from a phone seemed silly and impractical. I never guessed what would later be possible using a handheld device. Building consensus and concern over climate change has been in my peripheral view since the late 80's. While I grew up thinking these impacts would arrive in some vague and far-flung future, the last decade has shown profound results we're experiencing firsthand whether you believe it or not.

    My inability to see the future is evident. Change is arriving more quickly and acutely than I expected.

    I've been reading a lot about the rise of AI for the last few years. The impact on creative tasks and the folks who perform them is already being felt. Creative companies are already finding ways to adopt these new tools and reduce the time and people needed to generate a product. I maintain that it is an inherently unethical technology because of how the tool is created (training AI models by scraping publicly viewable art, using it without informed consent or fair compensation and then concealing the theft.) (see the infamous spreadsheet archived here).

    It raises a difficult to answer question: how do artists adapt to it?

    My lack of precognition provides little insight, but experience suggests: this challenge will only deepen and become more profound. Like climate change: the wider the impact is felt, the more motivated we all become to find a way to manage this change.

    At least, that is my hope.

Here are my classes this term:

ANC Animation 2 (6017)

Leg Ball Turn (LBT)

Short Lip Sync (LS1)

Melee Attack (MA)

Weight Lift (WL)   *alternative assignment

Thesis Animation (TA)*
30 Second Reel (30S) *end of program

ANI 3d Animation 4 (5023)
UbiSoft Next (UN) ~or~ Shot01
Change of Emotion (COE) ~or~ Shot02
Mocap Cleanup (MC) ~or~ Shot03
Final Animation (FA) ~or~ Shot04 *under construction

ANI Client Studio (5025)
Dailies
Checkpoint (HW)
30 Second Reel (30S) *end of program