Ultimate Guide on AI Art and Image-to-Image Translation

Part 1. Everything You Need to Know About AI Art

Digital art is an integral part of our lives. We encounter them almost everywhere. They’re present on billboards, posters, brochures, newspapers, social media, and many more. Simply put, digital arts are masterpieces created with the help of digital technology. Digital artists use computers and drawing pads rather than pencils and paper to draw and sketch images. Cool thing, right?

Our present technology is becoming more advanced, and so are digital arts. The continuous development of artificial intelligence has reached another discovery that gives birth to a brand-new branch of digital arts. It’s called AI art or simply a work of art produced with the help of artificial intelligence. At a glance, it may seem as if nothing much has changed. AI art is similar to digital art in many areas. For instance, they’re both visual artworks rendered with a computer program. However, AI art promotes lesser human intervention in the process.

Unlike typical digital arts that still require artistic human input, the making of AI art is almost entirely automated. It’s as easy as configuring several settings and uploading a model image. After a few minutes, the AI art is done. How convenient. There is no need to fill a blank canvas with various colors and strike your brush all over its spaces. You just have to feed the machine with data and let it generate art based on a specific algorithm.

There are many AI art generators out there. They vary from one another depending on the input processing. Most of them produce artwork based on the text prompts that users have typed in. But new cutting-edge technology makes it much easier. Some AI machines now incorporate image-to-image translation to generate AI art. What does it mean? Platforms with such configurations don’t need text prompts with lengthy descriptions at all. All you have to do is upload an image that looks a lot like the artwork you wish to produce.

Part 2. What is Image-to-Image Translation?

Artificial intelligence relies heavily on information and algorithm. It analyzes all the available data on its system to produce a meaningful output. Entering certain inputs into the AI machine can be made in different ways. You can type in some commands, scan codes, and many more. But what’s becoming more in demand nowadays is AI’s ability to gather information from visual references like digital images.

Computer vision is a sub-category of artificial intelligence designed to imitate human visual capabilities. Its main purpose is to collect vital information from visual inputs and use it to come up with meaningful recommendations. Under computer vision is a process called image-to-image translation wherein the machine analyzes the internal mapping of an input image. The machine will use the data collected from the translation to replicate the input image and generate a new version. Certain attributes of the input image will be retained. But the final output will have a much different look regarding quality, style, and others. That explains why generating AI art via image-to-image translation is easy. You just need to upload an input image, and AI will do the rest of the work. Truly amazing.

To help you understand more how image-to-image translation generates AI, below is a list of several computer vision techniques.

Style Transfer

Style transfer is an act wherein the AI copies the primary elements of the input image into the output image. In this regard, you can use a painting from a famous artist as a reference to your desired output image.

Object Transfiguration

Object transfiguration is another image-to-image translation technique vital to AI art. It replicates a specific object from the input image into the output image. In this process, the background is not targeted and is often retained in the final output.

Season Transfer

One element that is always present in every photograph is climate. So developers ensure that AI can replicate it into the output image. This process mainly targets the image's background and sets it into the desired season of the users. For instance, AI copies the vibrant colors of the input image to replicate a summer season into the output image.

Photo Enhancement

Photo enhancement is a major element in image-to-image translation. It uses the input image as a guide for adjusting the visual elements in the output image. No need to balance the contrast, shadow, vibrance, and clarity on your own. AI will automatically do this for you.

Part 3. How Does Image-to-Image Generate AI Art?

Generating AI art with image-to-image translation is indeed a great advancement. It gives hope to non-artistic individuals who still want to pursue this field. Imagine all you need to do is upload an input image and adjust a few settings. That’s totally magic.

Though it may seem like generating AI art via image-to-image translation is easy, its technology is quite complex to understand. But let’s walk through it and try to understand it in the simplest way possible.

Neural style transfer is a specific set of algorithms that helps in generating AI art via image-to-image translation. In the process, the AI analyzes the content of the input image, like the objects, geometry, shapes, and overall structure. The information gathered from the analysis will then be used as references to the output image. The AI will strive to create a whole new image based on the attributes of the input image. That’s the simplest explanation of how image-to-image generates AI art.

Aside from arts, neural style transfer is also helpful in other areas. It is now used in mobile game development and filmmaking to create graphics and visual effects. In the fashion industry, neural style transfer has also become useful for designers in conceptualizing new styles and compositions. Definitely, the neural style transfer and its technology are among the greatest inventions of mankind.

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Conclusion

AI art generated with image-to-image translation has revolutionized our world in many ways. It doesn’t only offer another avenue for convenience but also gives us another perspective. Exploring this new technology is important as it may open boundless opportunities for us all. So if you get a chance to try it out, grab it and discover its artistic gems within. Let it lead you toward achieving your goals as an aspiring artist.