halcyonstars

i think one of the more tragic casualties of the ai era is just going to be how much easier and more common it will be to scam elderly people out their money when retirement money is more important than ever for medical and survival reasons.

since it's a combination of factors, right --video/audio deepfakes based off of grandkids (elderly folks i find tend to be a lot more trusting of phones/video compared to text, thankfully most scams were fairly limited to text for a while), the lack of a millennial techie/sysadmin/etc in the family as less and less people are deeply tech-savvy beyond clicking things on apps, and a general deterioration of communication between the generations for too many reasons.

like i know it can be annoying to explain things (repeatedly) in a way people internalize, but man it is crucial for basic protection.

having to install teamviewer (with explicit permission) for grandma so she doesn't keep downloading every ""antivirus" system ever, and also being dad's living password manager x.x and then having to explain what grok is. can i strangle elon with my two hands already.

i've been doing a thoroughly deep dive in the last month (in part because of a large secret project with one of y'all) on whether sketchup models can be a legitimate part of my comic/illustration pipeline. sometimes some illustrators make it look good - Chance Kubesh's work here made me give this research another go; been elbows deep in Style Builder this past weekend seeing how i can replicate his linework.

that said, what i'm discovering for me is that there really is no match for personal drawing & art direction in terms of sheer time efficiency x quality.

a) most free sketchup models look like 'baby's first cyanogen model' (remember that program back in the day?). the human proportions are always off (easily seen in a comparison of cathedrals - see the crudeness of this one versus the accuracy here) what historical era is it from? are the textures even right? etc.
b) sketchup is very, very picky about which file formats it imports. by the time you've narrowed down free models of the specific architectural model you're looking for, that's in your file format, with hopefully no errors or cheap hacks with the modeling, you've probably wasted an hour or two. it's also something that still needs to be tweaked stylistically. if there's one even available.
b) i can draw insanely fast precise lines now, apparently(???). doing said secret project has me cranking out actual three point perspective cityscapes in ... two hours? with very minimal mental overload, and that's just me on the early side of getting used to an architectural mentality/pipeline. i really think this year is going to be the mythical 'krad figures out backgrounds' year. XD
c) models in general tend to miss the context. the ~character~ that makes good architecture/environments/levels come alive. i really noticed this when i saved 100+ 360 photogrammetry files from sketchfab -- these are not polygonal models as much as they are a "camera/video" scan of real world surroundings, so they do a far better job capturing the lived-in imperfections of surroundings, even in otherwise sterile areas.
d) you're still reliant on one program that forces you to sign-in online with some hellish DRM (i'm using my dayjob enterprise license lol). does not bode well to longevity/stability compared to your own hand.

in a very limited context i can maybe see a 3D model worth it in drawing pipeline assistance, namely in the scenario below: (a) a historically-famous/accurate setting that already exists (vs a fantasy location), (b) all camera angles set in one room/location for 10+ panels, (c) with the setting being incredibly complex in details (lots of a historically-specific era column carvings, arches, railings, steel beams etc). an action scene on an outside fire escape, i might consider it.

otherwise though? personally, i can freehand it faster. :v