Just thought I’d get that blog title on record as a sort of insurance policy for the future. Truth be told, despite Keith’s impressive and creative use of AI (over at his Bydand blog) my own output has so far been less than stellar.
My upcoming VBCW project has a fair amount of background fluff, so I thought that rather than writing a wall of text to boggle the reader I’d present the backstory in a couple of neat faux newspaper front pages from the period.
Being me, nothing ever goes to plan of course, so I thought I’d share my “creative experience” in the hopes that more compétant people can point out what I’m doing wrong,
First off I was trying to create a copy of the Daily Mail, infamous for its real world headline “hurrah for the blackshirts”. Given that it looked like I was trying to create something promoting fascism with prompts like…
“Generate front page of Daily Mail May 3rd 1937. Headline «GOOD RIDDANCE » Picture of worried 1930s women and children under guard. Text around the picture Northampton has now been cleansed of communist agitators. Oxford, Cambridge and Leicester have also seen the back of these troublesome malcontents. New paragraph, WE BACK THE BOYS IN BLACK. Insert text in a border at the bottom of the page in the style of a period advert Farrington’s Bile Beans. The Perfect Restorative 2d.”
…I got a lot of “this image generation request did not follow our content policy” responses, which was actually quite heartening to be honest.
Being sly, and a lot less specific I pressed on and gradually worked my way through dozens of iterations where either the text was okay but the pictures were ridiculous or the pictures were okay and the text utter nonsense.
Unable to get the bugger to do what I really wanted I made a collage of the bits that were okay and created a Frankenstein version of the Daily Mail using cut and paste.
The problem with the cut and paste was that it looked like…well… a cut and paste. Uploading my image to the AI I asked it to make it look more homogenous (ie make the background a uniform colour) which as you can see it did. The trouble is that in the process of doing that it corrupted the text, turning it into utter garbage and rendering my attempt at story telling useless.
As you can see from the original cut and paste variant (below), it covered the deportation of communist agitators from Coventry (obviously just women and children) and Prime Minister Mosley visiting King Edward the VIII who’d been injured in a bomb attack at his coronation.
I guess it’s reassuring to know that if AI ever becomes sentient and takes over the world it’ll probably make as big a balls up of it as we’ve done.
Okay, frustrated semi rant over.
Here’s a picture of a train and the new Brompton Carpets warehouse to placate those hoping for some proper wargaming content. lol.
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| My new choo choo. Not bad for cardboard and mdf. Just gotta sort out the rails now. |
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| Brompton Carpets three story factory / warehouse, where I’m told you can pick up some excellent end of roll bargains. |
I’m pretty sure I’ll sneak another post in pre new year, but if not I hope you all manage to kick back and have a good one.
Engine looks exactly right as does Brompton Carpets and I expect that we will see much bravery from the characters that work there. Very interested to read your AI attempts and agree that its self ‘moderation’ is heartening.
ReplyDeleteCheers Norm, hope you recover from the lurgy before Christmas!
DeleteNice work on the train,hard to think it is MDF, nice model and the carpet factory looks super, a real beast of a building! Interesting stuff on AI, I haven't gone down this rabbit hole yet but I can see it has it's uses, your newspaper idea is a good one.
ReplyDeleteHi Donnie, the train was a no brainer at 16 euro, it’s only ever going to be an objective or a bit of window dressing but I think it cuts the mustard. The factory has three floors and they’re all accessible via lift off tops so that brings a vertical dimension to combat (which is a new one to me). I fell out with AI a year ago when it lied to me about which generals were present at an ECW battle, I proved it was wrong to its err…face…and I think it’s still bearing a grudge.
DeleteWell I'd say not a bad effort for something that, to my tech-averse mind, would be beyond me! As I understand it, the more you use it, the more it begins to 'understand' what you are after. I do like the fact the the 'Polls' have marched into East Prussia: all very Grauniad;).
ReplyDeleteThe train and the carpet factory look superb, and that colour green for the woodwork is spot on for old British factories and some machine tools too.
Wishing you and yours all the best for Xmas and the New Year just in case you don't get to post before hand.
Hello Steve. I thought if we’re going to do alternate history, why not have the Poles put the boot in first. They did have a ruddy good army. I was fortunate (?) enough to work at a large carpet manufacturing site in Kidderminster back in the day (now sadly long gone) and the buildings were all old Victorian red brick…with broadly that colour green paint on the doors and windows. The Brompton factory is my homage to the site. Back atcha with the chrimbo wishes bro.
DeletePsst! Word to the wise. They’re lulling you into a false sense of security with their incompetence.
ReplyDeleteYou ain’t seen me.
CH Ris/Notdanket
I should probably spring for the “paid” version Chris, but my pockets are deep and my arms are short. You gets what you pay for I suppose. Teach me to be cheap!
DeleteThe train and warehouse look excellent. A nice idea using a paper to convey the background to a scenario, alas it did not go to plan.
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter. The best laid plans of mice and men eh. I seem to remember you making a train yourself and that it was pretty spiffy if I recall.
DeleteGreat looking terrain JBM.
ReplyDeleteGood on you for trying out the AI and persevering with it to get a somewhat OK result.
Hey Ben. Yeah it was a bit crappy wasn’t it. I can see that there are others like Keith and Steve J who are getting good mileage out of it, so perhaps I’ll have to try a bit harder next time.
DeleteExcellent effort on the newspaper.. even though it wasn't quite what you wanted, can you imagine even being able to do that just a few years ago?! AI is coming on so fast... it'/s almost like it's learning from it's own mistakes.. gulp... I'm a moderate fan given the recent experiments with getting it to generate a wargame scenario
ReplyDeleteThat’s a very good point Steve, even 5 years ago none of this would have been possible. I thought your AI generated scenario was excellent by the way, so it’s obviously got its uses.
DeleteDecent result on the paper, Daily Mail uninteligable garbage seems apt somehow? Love the train and the factory!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Tee hee, never thought of it like that Iain, it’s actually a perfect representation of the Mail come to think of it! lol.
DeleteGreat post JBM, I think I mentioned I had a few declines from the AI when my requests included anything vaguely Nazi, so it's obviously been set up that way...I assume it would be the same if you asked for really dodgy stuff....
ReplyDeleteThe latest AVBCW scenery looks excellent
Thanks Keith, I’ll keep dicking around with it a bit longer, it’s potential is intriguing, especially when I see what others like your good self have achieved with it.
DeleteJust having an enjoyable look back through your most recent lat few posts JBM, you have certainly been busy and very creative, great modelling skills and imagination :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the festive season
Lee.
Thanks Lee, good to know you’re still out there bro. Have a great Xmas!
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