AI in Affinity

[Raven_DZ]

 

Will they introduce artificial intelligence tools in affinity photo and designer? It is undeniable that it is here to stay, and I think that if many design or illustration tools are not included, they may become obsolete.

[Affinityconfusesme]

@Raven_DZ 

 

[Affinityconfusesme]

Hi @MEB do you have any estimation of when they will become available? I was thinking of getting the on1 plugins for the AI sky replacement tool but if the apps are getting AI tools within the next couple of months then I will wait.

[MEB]

Hi @tzvi20,
I don't believe we will have anything to show in a couple months time in this area, sorry.

[loukash]

My secret wish is that more Natural Intelligence is being seated in front of computer displays.  

[Callum]

30 minutes ago, loukash said:

My secret wish is that more Natural Intelligence is being seated in front of computer displays.  

But then I'd be out of my job!

[Komatös]

1 hour ago, Callum said:

But then I'd be out of my job!

I don't see it that way, because there are enough people who aren't exactly the brightest candles on the cake. 🤣

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, Komatös said:

there are enough people who aren't exactly the brightest candles on the cake.

Mmmm... Cake....

Oh, and speaking of candles, a friend of mine pointed out that "non-toxic" is just another way of saying "edible".

Mmmm... Cake and Candles....

Ow, Ouch... It burns.

[Komatös]

9 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

a friend of mine pointed out that "non-toxic" is just another way of saying "edible"

The quantity makes the poison. 🤢

[Bit Disappointed]

10 hours ago, Raven_DZ said:

Will they introduce artificial intelligence tools in affinity photo and designer? It is undeniable that it is here to stay, and I think that if many design or illustration tools are not included, they may become obsolete.

I am truly looking forward to the time when AI is not just fancy features, but when companies' approach to its application matures, allowing AI to quietly take the burden of routine workflows off my shoulders and those of others. There is so much that can be replaced or supported in Photoshop, and thus in Photo as well, that books could be written about it. The companies that succeed in this will become so unreasonably better that the alternative will seem ridiculous. And at some point, it will not even be premium features. So yes, companies like Serif Software need to be alert now.

And this also applies to Serif's opportunity to use AI in the development of Affinity in terms of new features, optimization, usage and feedback analysis and bug fixing. It's about getting started and utilizing the potential.

Of all the factors I've encountered that limit what I can do, time is the greatest, with no close competitor.

And thus the day ended, phew. Let me see what I can and cannot accomplish tomorrow. Any assistance will be appreciated. Any significant help will be implemented as opportunity arises.

[Dave.Kelly]

On 12/11/2023 at 3:16 PM, tzvi20 said:

Hi @MEB do you have any estimation of when they will become available? I was thinking of getting the on1 plugins for the AI sky replacement tool but if the apps are getting AI tools within the next couple of months then I will wait.

As an On1 user I can say that the sky replacement works very well (usually) The Effects plugin will give AI selection options too

[kirk23]

I yet have  to see something AI  in Photoshop that would  help me  to do something  meaningful  related to my actual job.       Not even AI selection  that's sucks really, rather annoying and not improving.   Their new "generative" tool  is totally useless toy doing blurry  and mismatching picture  insertions.   A dice  throwing , a roulette  that never  really do what you ask.      

Never tried sky replacement since usually  I need to  replace everything BUT the sky  and it even can't do clean masking along a skyline.

I wish Adobe would focus on actual tools. Make something like Substance Designer working as filter creator  without destructive rasterization.  The filters are outdated like dinosaurs.    Procedural  masks,  content aware move  that would allow to puppet wrap image to match  neighboring details    and so on and on.    

Instead they stopped to develop the soft  and decided  to focus on glorious  task of killing their own user base  by replacing all them by robots.

The only AI in Photoshop that I use is chatGPT .  it writes  simple   jsx  scripts.   Takes it hours   although before you get something really working  because its also dice throwing  and you have to explain it  every step thoroughly. No chance it makes it on its own out of a blue. 

 

[thebodzio]

12 hours ago, kirk23 said:

I yet have  to see something AI  in Photoshop that would  help me  to do something  meaningful  related to my actual job.

My sentiments exactly! All those glorified examples have little to do with the reality. Remember content aware resizing? Looked great on feature presentation videos, but rarely it simply works. Sure, AI tools can help, but hardly ever they take out the burden of manual labour. In effect AI is more of a hype for heuristically generated programs, than anything else. That is not to say that we do not need them—quite the opposite—but… let's just keep calm.

[Granddaddy]

When I first purchased Affinity Photo six years ago, I remember it being heralded by some as the future of photographic editing. Users of APhoto were said to be part of a revolution in photo editing. It was quite exciting.

Whatever your opinion on that claim may be now, it does seem that Serif has a major problem. Every one of its competitors now touts AI functionality, including those products held by many to be beneath consideration even by serious amateurs, .

Because it lacks any AI functions at all, APhoto on first glance now presents to the public as being a few years behind its competition.

It reminds me of my predicament when trying to sell my house 15 years ago. We had lived in the house for 25 years without air conditioning. None of the houses built at the same time were air conditioned. In our mountain climate it was totally unnecessary. We usually slept under blankets even in the summer. Most older houses even lacked duct work because they had baseboard or radiant ceiling heat.

Then new housing developments began springing up where all the houses were air-conditioned. Buyers coming to our town would not even look at a house that lacked air-conditioning. So we had the house retro-fitted with duct work and heat pumps in order to attract potential buyers. 

It seems Serif soon will have to retrofit APhoto with AI features to remain in the market, whether or not any of us actually find those AI features useful. 

[PaulEC]

So you're saying that Serif should include unnecessary things that some other software has, just because it's the latest fad, even if nobody actually needs it!!!

[Affinityconfusesme]

Hi @PaulEC an AI sky replacement tool would be very helpful as a landscape photographer to replace blown out skies.

[loukash]

Why do people even still shoot photos if they can't face the reality and require "intelligence" to artificially alter it? 
Do they lack the intelligence that might be necessary to shoot pictures themselves?
I'm puzzled…  

[Murfee]

Experienced photographers don’t get blown out skies, they bracket and use exposure blending

[Bit Disappointed]

1 hour ago, PaulEC said:

So you're saying that Serif should include unnecessary things that some other software has, just because it's the latest fad, even if nobody actually needs it!!!

This could be you - and a few others in this thread with black and white opinions - in a not so distant future:

[Sigurt]

KI die schleichende Macht, macht den Menschen bald überflüssig?

Ich bin froh das afPhoto ohne KI auskommt, da fühle ich mich noch gebraucht und gefordert.

Es macht auch Spaß mal den Kopf anzustrengen.

Und wenn das Bild am Ende so ist, wie ich mir das vorgestellt habe, kann ich mit Stolz sagen, dass ICH wieder etwas dazu gelernt habe, ohne KI.

[Komatös]

8 hours ago, Bit Arts said:

This could be you - and a few others in this thread with black and white opinions - in a not so distant future:

No, this is what the future will look like if we need new hardware for every new technology because the old hardware is not powerful enough. And AI will accelerate this process.

I think AI is good if it is used for vital tasks. But calculating a tree from an image is not one of them for me.

Thanks to ChatGPT, most children are losing the ability to formulate essays themselves or simply solve math problems.

And AI will further reduce the social balance. 

 

[wonderings]

On 12/15/2023 at 1:18 AM, kirk23 said:

I yet have  to see something AI  in Photoshop that would  help me  to do something  meaningful  related to my actual job.       Not even AI selection  that's sucks really, rather annoying and not improving.   Their new "generative" tool  is totally useless toy doing blurry  and mismatching picture  insertions.   A dice  throwing , a roulette  that never  really do what you ask.      

Never tried sky replacement since usually  I need to  replace everything BUT the sky  and it even can't do clean masking along a skyline.

I wish Adobe would focus on actual tools. Make something like Substance Designer working as filter creator  without destructive rasterization.  The filters are outdated like dinosaurs.    Procedural  masks,  content aware move  that would allow to puppet wrap image to match  neighboring details    and so on and on.    

Instead they stopped to develop the soft  and decided  to focus on glorious  task of killing their own user base  by replacing all them by robots.

The only AI in Photoshop that I use is chatGPT .  it writes  simple   jsx  scripts.   Takes it hours   although before you get something really working  because its also dice throwing  and you have to explain it  every step thoroughly. No chance it makes it on its own out of a blue. 

 

AI has become a great and powerful tool in Photoshop. Not sure what you do, but the ability to add to photos to give me space to the centre focused object is amazing and so easy. Removing elements just as easy, circle and tell AI to remove, it is gone and replaced with what AI thinks would be seen behind the removed piece. Not always perfect but from my experience I would say 9/10 it is usable and no one can tell there was something there before. I rarely ask for something to be inserted in a picture, generally I need to get more image added, like if a client supplied a picture in portrait but I need it in landscape. AI does an amazing job with landscapes and nature. The image below was almost entirely done with AI in photoshop. The magenta rectangle is the real and original image, everything else was just extending and letting AI do what it does. It has been a regular used tool for me.

 

 

I do wish AI could be used to trace objects better in Illustrator. Corel has long been the champion for tracing. If AI could be harnessed to trace objects it would be a great asset. 

 

[kirk23]

19 hours ago, wonderings said:

AI has become a great and powerful tool in Photoshop. Not sure what you do, but the ability to add to photos to give me space to the centre focused object is amazing and so easy. Removing elements just as easy, circle and tell AI to remove, it is gone and replaced with what AI thinks would be seen behind the removed piece. Not always perfect but from my experience I would say 9/10 it is usable and no one can tell there was something there before. I rarely ask for something to be inserted in a picture, generally I need to get more image added, like if a client supplied a picture in portrait but I need it in landscape. AI does an amazing job with landscapes and nature. The image below was almost entirely done with AI in photoshop. The magenta rectangle is the real and original image, everything else was just extending and letting AI do what it does. It has been a regular used tool for me.

 

 

I do wish AI could be used to trace objects better in Illustrator. Corel has long been the champion for tracing. If AI could be harnessed to trace objects it would be a great asset. 

 

The problem is it works  ok  maybe  with such generic subjects  . A landscape    . But I never do anything like that. I always work with very specific  subjects .   Like a sky  to be  bend into spherical projection for 3d scene  .AI does repeating wrongly illuminated details . In you picture it's ok because it's just not a complete sky  .  Not specifically the sky.   

For me whenever I try to use it ,   it's something like  left bottom corner of your landscape , not consistent shadows and light,  arbitrary placed "patches" etc.   And always slightly blurry.    

Maybe not completely useless  but still not up to quality standard  to be competitive. 

[brentpruitt]

i, for one, don't want AI in Affinity products.

i am moving away from adobe products due to their push to AI, without improving core features & long standing bugs.

AI has been trained on stolen artwork. adobe profits from AI-gen photos that are being used to create misinformation online. adobe does not give artists in their stock art store the ability to opt out of their AI training theft.

despite the ability to opt-out of their firefly software features, i can't continue to financially support anti-artist policies/behavior.

there is nothing intelligent in AI algorithms.

focus on improving core features & make a solid product that will outlast the AI trend.

surpass adobe's stale offerings.

[woefi]

I think, it would be necessary to differentiate what kind of AI you (or the OP) mean:

I'm not entirely sure I need an image drawing robot (except maybe a bit of picture extension in AfPhoto when you just need a little bit more room going from landscape to portrait...)

But I would really benefit from workflow additions powered by AI, like:

• finding missing linked images when the image folder was just moved a little in the file system's hierarchy (AfPub)
• repeating tasks already done several times (working with multipage documents or complex illustrations)
• and so on...

Computers have always been an artificial extension of our drawing hand, and to get work done more efficiently so you can concentrate more on the "creative" side of your work. (I definitely don't want it to hallucinate anything I can dream of by myself)