Choose to go home and sell men's clothing, a basin of cold water! Game original artist forced to a corner by AI... Zhejiang guy repeatedly encounters obstacles when looking for a job | Game | Corner
Two months ago, Mo Dada probably wouldn't have thought that he would eventually return to his hometown in Taizhou to work in men's clothing e-commerce. At that time, he carefully prepared his resume and past paintings, and enthusiastically planned to find a job as a game original artist.
Reality poured a bucket of cold water on this post-00s generation: within two months, I searched for over 100 companies online, but none of them were successful. Among them, many recruiters directly mentioned the need to be proficient in using AI drawing tools.
Due to the development of AIGC technology, many industries have begun to be affected to varying degrees, and game original art may be the most affected area at present.
From a future game original artist to opening a men's clothing online store
Mo Dada, who is studying Digital Media Art at a university in Shaoxing, will start studying game original art in 2021 and is eager to find a game company to work as an original artist after graduation.
As a relatively advanced development position in the gaming industry, the original artist's responsibility is to depict the characters or scenes described in text in the form of drawings based on the art style set in the early stages of the game project, in order to provide blueprint reference for later 3D modeling and production.
In early May, Mo Dada began to frequently appear on online recruitment platforms, submitting works related to the original artwork, many of which were internship positions. However, after repeated communications, he realized: "Many companies clearly require experience and knowledge of AI, making it difficult to find internship positions."
During this time, a small-scale outsourcing company offered him an olive branch, offering him a salary of 1000 yuan/month for the internship period and 3000 yuan/month after becoming a full-time employee. This salary level clearly does not meet psychological expectations.
The experience of Mo Dada has also sparked a group of game original art practitioners and netizens who are learning online.
Someone sympathized with him and encouraged him, saying, "I haven't been in the industry for many months, and the original game artwork is indeed very difficult this year. AI has a great impact, so come on."; Someone enthusiastically suggested to him: How about trying to transfer camp posts? Nail art seems to be doing well too? After reviewing his collection of paintings, several seniors pointed out their shortcomings: "Your line drawings are good, and I suggest strengthening and refining them to improve completion.".
Some exercises for Mo Ta Da
Although the young man still couldn't let go of his love in his heart, he turned around very quickly. After thanking all the encouragement and suggestions from netizens, he decided to temporarily change his profession. After going to Hangzhou Sijiqing and other places for a 4-day study and inspection, he returned to his hometown in Taizhou and partnered with his friends to open a studio and Taobao store, selling trendy men's clothing.
Free Original Painter Accepts Unit Price
From 20000 yuan/sheet to 4000 yuan/sheet
Modada happened to have caught up with a year of drastic changes.
As early as early March, Huang Yimeng, the founder of Heartbeat Network, revealed: "Recently, I chatted with two game teams, and team one cut off the original painting outsourcing company and team two cut off the translation outsourcing company."
On May 27th, Raya Games was embroiled in rumors of firing its artists after switching to AI creation, sparking heated discussions.
On June 11th, Shi Yuzhu, Chairman of Giant Network, publicly stated that almost all of its game projects currently use artificial intelligence for research and development.
……
A well-known game company recently optimized its art team, leaving only a portion for post production photo editing and providing more training materials for AI. Zhao Jiecheng, the head of the Boundless AI Content Ecology Center, travels around the country on a daily basis, contacting some game and animation companies. "I have worked with seventeen to eighteen large-scale game companies, and it can be said that 100% of them have used AI in their workflows, which may also become a mainstream industry trend."
Besides the number of positions, the salary level is also affected.
"A few years ago, for senior original artists, those with higher salaries could reach 30000 to 40000 yuan per month," said Shen Minyue, General Manager and Chief Consultant of Hangzhou Mingju Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. "However, with the maturity of AI technology, the salary for this position has dropped significantly. If the applicant's level is average, they may not even be able to find a job."
According to another industry insider, in the months leading up to the explosion of AI painting, "a freelance artist took over the artwork, which was originally priced at 20000 yuan per sheet, but has now dropped to 4000 yuan per sheet."
Where is human value reflected?
However, everything has two sides, and AI can also bring some new opportunities to small and sophisticated teams and even individuals: they can create explosive products without requiring a lot of manpower and time, and the distance between large and small teams will be further narrowed.
As early as the second half of last year, when Fei Peng first tried AI painting tools, he seemed to have foreseen the current scene: "AI will definitely replace some human painters in the future. Its strength lies not in what kind of images it has made now, but in its endless learning, and the generated images will definitely get better and better."
He admitted that he had also been anxious and anxious, and his thinking shifted from "what AI can do for me" to "what I can do for AI". Later on, he realized and was relieved: "I don't need to do anything for AI, because it will eventually become a one click operation, tending towards perfection."
Characters created by Fei Peng using AI painting tools
"But there are some things that AI cannot learn no matter what, such as the emotional value of humans. Painting is an art, and every stroke reflects the artist's understanding, which belongs to humanity itself. And when we appreciate painting, we actually communicate with creators." He compared AI painting to fast food, and artificial painting to private dishes, and suggested that practitioners "embrace change and accept it optimistically.".
The portrait painting painted by Feipeng as his mentor. In his view, the emotional value of human painters cannot be replaced by AI.
Mo Dada is also learning. Recently, he came across a video of AI opening a Taobao store on Bilibili, where AI participated in a series of processes including store design, naming, decoration, and marketing, which he found very novel. "I tried using AI to generate model images and promotional texts, but the actual results were far from the ideal state and the benefits it could bring were unclear. I need to continue learning and researching."
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