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by simonw 638 days ago
Sure, Midjourney's work looks visually impressive, but have you seen evidence that it really is displacing professional 3D artists?

Are legitimate companies genuinely switching to Midjourney over hiring artists now, or is Midjourney usage still mostly happening in places that previously wouldn't have commissioned custom illustrations at all (instead using things like stock photography)?
2 comments
bugglebeetle 638 days ago
I used to be an illustrator and I know from speaking to my former colleagues that they have, in fact, lost work to AI image generation services. Illustration is seen as a cost center by anyone higher than front line art directors and taste normally stops at that level as well. I think this will eventually end up with a bimodal distribution of undifferentiated AI slop and those who use high-quality human illustration to signal a commitment to taste, design, or maybe even luxury, but the economic consequences of that shift are already in motion.
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htfy96 638 days ago
It raises the bar of 'professional 3D artist'.

There're hundreds of thousands of '3D worker' working behind the scene to create the 3D models for makeshift ads, and as far as I know many of them (including my high school mate) already got displaced by Midjourney and lost their job. This used to be a big industry but now almost entirely wiped out by AI.

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talldayo 638 days ago
> This used to be a big industry but now almost entirely wiped out by AI.

To my knowledge, 3D artists weren't that huge of an industry to begin with. One of my friends went to college researching 3D physics models, and never landed a job in the field long before the AI wave hit. Unless you're a freelancer or salaried Pixar employee, being a 3D artist is extremely difficult with extraordinarily low job security, AI or no AI.

I think "almost entirely wiped out by AI" is hyperbole, because the primary employer of these artists will still be hiring and products like Sora are a good decade away from being Toy Story quality. AI will be a substitute product for people that didn't even want 3D art in the first place.

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