What’s your name and how would you describe your work in generative AI?
Hi I am Tridib Ghosh, I am an Artist, Design Thinker and a UX UI evangelist.
I use Generative AI partly to explore newer possibilities and suggest the same to my clients whom we cater to from my design studio Chlorosynth: design.inspired, by, nature. I have already started serving real clients by providing them Generative Ai based creative solutions.
How did you first become interested in AI?
Well, I have been one of the first explorers of generative AI tools mainly working on Dalle, Nightcafe, and some of the mobile based very basic Ai apps. I was extremely disappointed with the output quality. Dalle 2 continuously kept us hooked with new advancements but they were taking too much time. When we all were getting impatient, that is when Midjourney came up with their invite and then the rest is history. better versions of Stable diffusions started rolling in and the game began. I was initially reluctant to adopt stable diffusion as the learning curve to install SD on my Laptop was a herculean task, later better/ easier versions of stable diffusion came in and then majorly Midjourney and stable diffusion started ruling the field. Dalle -2 still disappointed. With the release of Dream diffusion and better versions of Midjourney, the artist community started noticing the possibilities of AI.
Can you share with us your journey into the world of AI artistry? (When did you start, what inspired you, etc.)
When I started, as it was very early at that point of time, there were hardly any people seriously venturing in this field, AI was more of the new kid on the block and like parents, we all were expecting a huge potential in it. My initial renders/ generations were pretty lame. And I was rather disappointed. I thought I am better with my real life paintings. Then suddenly one day noticed a serious group with very few members started by Seth Pyrzynski and started following them. Found that like me many of us were still trying to figure out how to do what and then came the Midjourney era and things started getting a form. people whom I made friends with were Seth, some Indian guys like Pratyush Sur, Tapan Aslot, Jon Porter, and then started knowing Brian Sykes, Big AI Grustwitz, Josua McMohan, Xander sims, if I am not mistaken, David Alvarez, Nesj Susec, Jonathan, Roberto, Kristine Tripit, Kristina Kashtanova, Marta Paulavičiūtė, Sherry Horowitz some of the amazing family members I started building. Generative AI have not only open a new horizon for me , gave me these next level talented guys, whom I proudly call my extended family members. While all these were happening, a fear loomed large with each progress of Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, that AI will one day take our jobs. Artist started resisting as they saw most of the engines were feeding their art to train the engines. And all hell broke lose. Petitions, placards, people came out to show demonstration son the roads. AI CC people took a solid stance at that time to grow the community. The stronger the community, the stronger say we will have. I once had a discussion with Seth and he was bullish, this Generative AI field is going to grow huge. At that time I was also doing some videos on my YouTube Channel @learnwithtridib and I once popped the question to Brian Sykes, if he is willing to talk on a video podcast on my channel on the journey from Fright to Flight. He readily agreed and I remember we launched a discussion video on my channel on a evening over a cup of coffee. Both of us decided, that to grow the community we have to share regular stuff on AI, tutorials, prompts, ideas etc. everyday. Brian was already doing that, he started speeding up. Brian launched his first book which garnered a lot of eyeballs and people started taking serious notice on AI. I also started to post everyday prompts, tid bits, tricks and tips, version news, ideas, how generative Ai can be used in UX and UI and people started appreciating the hard work. Content started coming up regularly, I started combining my natural medium drawings with AI ART, Started feeding the engine with wireframes to see how it churns out final output, Loads of discussions started happening and the community started growing at a breakneck speed.
What is your favorite piece(s) that you’ve created and why?
I have created many AI art work and photography, I always love to create series of images or a set of images, but What gives me pleasure when I can actually bring in a campaign out of my creativity, A meaningful whole, a purpose and not just blindly creative stuff that has no meaning or very few utility in real life execution.
Some of my favorite pieces are:
- Food Explosion that was featured in Artificial Inspiration group and seedily headed by Chris Branch and garnered more than 4600 odd positive reactions and thousands of comments and hundreds of shares.
- MY initial discussion of using Midjourney in creating UI designs also garnered a good number of eyeballs
- I created a series of Love in the animal world
- A Black and White series of Photographs of Kolkata, my native. People actually took it as real photographs and when they understood that they were all Ai generated then there was awe and shock
- the Underwater scenes
- Neon holographic series
- Isometric dioramas
- some story books that I have created with my Art – The Hunt, The World of magical Powers, and some amazing Children books
Can you share a bit about your creative process? How do you approach a new project or piece?
This is a nice question. My creative process differs a bit when I am doing stuff for my clients or I am doing it for myself. For clients it is always sticking to the brief and the objective of the exercise. What type of output the client is looking for. Basically working under a set of constraint. However, when I am doing the same for myself, I generally plan what story I want to tell, based on that the set is created, the camera is set, lighting adjusted, if it is a photography output, I prefer mentioning DSLR and the model, f-stop, ISO, long exposure or a short burst etc. If it is painting, them is it impasto or oil or watercolor or acrylic, dry brush, wet brush, square of pointed so on and so forth, I also plan it as if I want a cinematic shot or a natural life shot, portrait will have different lighting and landscapes will have a different composition and lighting. I believe ( read strongly believe) that if AI falls in the hand of an artist or a photographer they can craft miracle. And I still believe in Miracle after spending 26 years in the industry
Which AI platforms and tools do you primarily use in your work?
Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Leonardo Ai, Kaiber, RunwayML, Flair, Chat GPT to name a few
On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your level of expertise in AI artistry?
5
What challenges have you faced in your journey and how did you overcome them?
Initially many, low quality images, aspect ratio constraints, prompts not working the way it is supposed to, not too many people to discuss or look up to as every body was experimenting, then obviously wobbling fingers, twisted hands, double heads that led us to use as much as negative prompts that is possible and also we weren’t clear how much this generative AI could be scaled. For that a big community was needed for sharing and nurturing each other, which we have now.
What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their journey in generative AI artistry?
Don’t be over dependent on Ai, use it as a employee rather than it becoming your master. Make your creativity work miracle for you, AI can be used as a facilitator to give wings to your creativity. The main hustle you have to do. Can AI create a scene that you have in your mind, if you cannot visualize properly and give the correct prompt to AI? That is not possible at all. Second, I would suggest, you need not to learn every tool that is launched in the market, but learn aa few and Master them till the end. Stick to them, follow their upgrades and various versions. If you jump from one App to other you will not learn anyone of them. Do not succumb to FOMO. It is easier to enter but difficult to master it.
How can people follow your work? (Social Media links, website, etc.)
Linkedin ::: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tridibghosh/
Instagram ::: https://instagram.com/tridibghosh
Youtube ::: https://youtube.com/c/learnwithtridib
Resident of ::: Mumbai