Assignment 1, VIZA 626 Generative Art & Design ( Spring 2025)
This is a yonkoma project called Lost Genius, which is a class assignment focused on using image-based AIs in the creative process workflow. The story follows a guy who, while cooking, has a brilliant idea for his yonkoma project. But then his mom calls, and just like that, he forgets what his idea was!
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Amir Khazaei
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VIZA 626
Figure 1. The Lost Genius Yonkoma represents more than just a funny situation—it captures the real experience of being a busy master's student. With a constant stream of tasks, assignments, and expectations, distractions often steal our focus. From the technical Aspect its trying to show how AI can be used in an artistic workflow as a tool to help artists with theor projects. The story is about distraction, the problem we all experience in our daily life!
The process used to create the yonkoma "Lost Genius" for the Generative art and design class assignment involved using image generator AI s to help artists make their humorous narrative. The experiment aimed to integrate AI as a tool in the creative process while maintaining human artistic control. Adobe FireFly was used as an image generator, and ChatGPT acted as a prompt engineer to develop a workflow for producing visuals. The yonkoma tells the story of a student losing his brilliant idea after getting distracted by a phone call from his mom. Example of how to make a list: There are many great README templates available on GitHub.
AI-generated art has become a widely discussed topic in creative fields. While AI can assist artists in generating ideas, it lacks the human touch essential for storytelling and visual expression. This project explores a workflow that integrates AI into the artistic process, enhancing rather than replacing human creativity. Prior works, such as AI-assisted character design and AI-enhanced concept art, have demonstrated the potential for collaboration between technology and artists. However, these applications often face criticism regarding originality and artistic intent. With "Lost Genius," the goal was to develop a method where AI serves as a supportive tool rather than an autonomous creator, emphasizing the importance of artistic intervention in refining AI-generated imagery.
Figure 2. Generated Images with Adobe Firefly with the first prompt.
Figure 3. Generated Images with Adobe Firefly with chat GPT prompt.
Various AI image generators were tested, including Leonardo, MidJourney, Gemini and Adobe FireFly. Adobe FireFly was chosen for its ability to maintain a consistent anime-style aesthetic. ChatGPT was utilized as a prompt engineer, refining initial descriptions into detailed prompts for each panel. For example, the first panel's original prompt, "An anime-style character, a guy in the kitchen, making eggs," was refined into " An anime-style male character in a cozy kitchen, mid-cooking, with a shocked yet excited expression as if he just had a brilliant idea. He has spiky hair and wears a casual apron over a t-shirt. Holding a frying pan with sizzling food, steam rises around him, and various ingredients are scattered on the counter. The scene is dynamic, with warm lighting and vibrant colors, capturing the energy of his sudden inspiration. Medium shot, slightly dramatic angle for emphasis."
Figure 4. Digitally painted panel that I gave to Adobe FireFly as the reference for generating image.
Figure 5. Generated Images with Adobe Firefly based on the refernce I gave.
The final AI-generated images were then digitally painted and the AI was fed with the digital painting as the main style to generate more images close to the original painting. After generating more images with AI, they were used as the reference to draw my final.
The process saved time in conceptualization while keeping the artistic expression. Future work can be and exploration of integrating AI-driven animation techniques.
"Lost Genius" illustrates how AI can assist artists in generating ideas and refining concepts without compromising artistic integrity. This project highlights the benefits of image generator AIs while showing the necessity of human creativity in finalizing artistic works.
Nadezhda Angelova. 2024. The capabilities of the art-oriented artificial intelligence Adobe Firefly and its visual advantages and disadvantages. Journal" Fundamental Sciences and Applications" 30, 1 (2024), 1–10.
Amir Khazaei - amirkhazaei@tamu.edu
Personal Website: https://website.com
This work is submitted as part of Assignment 1 for the VIZA 626 course at Texas A&M University, under the instruction of Professor You-Jin Kim, during the Spring 2025 semester.
VIZA 626 Class Website: https://sites.google.com/view/viza626/