Can we stop allowing people to post AI Gen images as primary image?

MakerWorld
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Is this an unpopular opinion? Why are people allowed to post thumbnails that are obvious ai generated renders as essentially clickbait? I know a lot of these models may have real photos as well as renders, but it comes down to being clickbait when the model looks not so great compared to the utopian beuutiful rendering that NO ONE can achieve with an FDM printer. Isn’t MakerWorld only for FDM printing? So why are we allowing obvious 3D Renders at all, but more so as the primary thumbnail image. There are some who post full blown 3D animations of their creations as animated GIFs, these no doubt take time and effort to create (I do this professionally for a living so I know) but even I would never think it would be acceptable on a site where we are posting our 3D-PRINTED MODELS for 3D PRINTING.

Then today I find out that some contest rules even allow RENDERINGS or PHOTOS?! wtf???

Please make it make sense.

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I totally agree. Even today i comented about that exact issue in a model of a guy that not only uses renders but also AI (and poorly at that) for his models and people are feeling fooled because they expect what is in the picture and not what comes out of the printer.

See the link below as an example. Daily uploader, verified by makerworld, 20k+ downloads and almost in every model is someone complaining about the main picture, fake content and more.

https://makerworld.com/en/@docsnyder78

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They have also been using an alt account to upload profiles for the past few months. Not sure what the reason but I’m sure it somehow to work in their favor.

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I’ve been seeing these pop up on my feed as well. It’s a bit concerning, but ultimately the community likes them enough to download and boost. I am curious how these are getting created - are they definetely AI models or just unrealistic renders?

Bambu themselves are leaning more into AI generation with their MakerLab tools, so I can’t imagine them taking a firm stance against it.

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Just typed up a nice response.
Not going to bother though.

Just report them.

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There won’t be any change, this is apparently fits in with makerworlds vision and they’re happy to promote pretty pictures hoping to cover up typical defects most of us deal with daily. This place has just become another instagram and to be popular is the driver rather than actual diverse creations these machines are capable of.

I’m really disappointed @makerworld can’t just write into the guidelines/rules/suggestions that render/ai is permitted so we can be done with it. But as usual weak leadership flows downhill like sewerage and noone has the guts.

I’ve spent less time here and even less on the Fakerworld site, the appeal just isn’t there. Could be time to move on…

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That dude’s models are suspect, ugh. I’ve seen a few and he is one of the people that made me want to come on the forums again and request a feature to hide a given user’s content from being shown to me in the various feeds.

I don’t know that Makerworld’s staff are paying close enough attention. I think there’s a desire for a clean and professional presentation, and it feels like it with that guy’s stuff, but as you look closer, you realize it’s just joke models modeled after AI images.

I’ve looked at a few, and noticed a number of deviations and misleadings with the AI images vs the actual models.

I just don’t think people fully notice, pay that close of attention. There’s a lot of people just happily plugging along, and will take most stuff as it comes, as they’re not super picky. It’s not like it’s complete garbage. It’s just that if you stop and pay attention, you realize how lazy it all is.

Like this one. This one really annoys me. Modern Remote Control Holder by Deltaprints - MakerWorld

The image shows it with a controller in place, but the actual model isn’t that large. Sure it can be sized up to fit the bill, but it’s super lazy on the designer’s part. Like the print from the print profile should be able to match what’s shown in the display image. The fact that it doesn’t, that a PlayStation controller doesn’t fit… and the designer didn’t even bother to check it and make sure.

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The dude is just spitting models out without any real quality control.

This is the one that made me want to hide this guy. This tray is presented as being bigger/nicer than it actually is. I saw/realized right off that this tray would be tiny, despite being presented like it’s some normal sized tray.

How about this? Organizer Box with Lid by Deltaprints - MakerWorld

I thought it’d be a box with some dividers and stuff. Nope, just a cheap poorly made box. Ha, I realize too, it doesn’t even clearly show how the lid looks on the box. Regardless, the proportions are even different vs the ai render and the actual model.

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Good… lord… how the heck does that person sleep at night?
I’m disappointed they’ve been allowed to proliferate especially with some of their designs that are radically different irl than the renders- even subtle details like that world map tray are fake ai textures when their model doesn’t have them. Fml this is really disheartening

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On a bed of points.

Despite the poor quality, the deceitful imagery, and the fact that they have given up providing their own print profiles, The points come rolling in.

He doesn’t have to worry about his profiles being pulled as the rules only apply to those. They let others deal with the printing and profile creation, and are seemingly happy to chase those scraps (points).

All the while, the “designer” is grabbing all those cherry big points.

MakerWorld will never stop this user and they have a rule, if they get a few downloads, “We let it ride, and we throw our rules out the window for a buck.”

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I think I understand it now. He basically just generates AI images until theres a good result, then hand models something as close as possible to the image.

Quick example:

Screenshot 2024-10-06 220600
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It sounds like a grey area at best. With a 3d render, your shape atleast matches the STL exactly - but this is much more approximate.

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I didn’t even realize the lack of profiles. Wtf?
Going down a rabbit hole…
Looks like this account is the primary profile provider- 484 profiles for that guy and many others but also extra profiles for models that have plenty of designer iterations. Hmmmm
https://makerworld.com/en/@angel4964

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Many of the models in that account are showing high up in the trending list.

A statistically curious outcome.

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What’s even more fascinating to me is the fact that this model was published 16h ago and the print profile 15h ago. And the print time of the print profile is 2.6h.
There is definitely something weird going on.

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In big words that’s called collusion :slight_smile:

On the flip side: I see AI generated image, I immediately assume the model’s shite and not worth printing.

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I don’t see anything strange, maybe he had to run errands in between. We don’t track him. :wink:

What would interest me in general is the fact that some models that are really poorly printable (no clean walls etc.) get 5-star ratings or that some models have thousands of downloads within a few days of release. how does that work?

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First of i agree AI Renders should be a hard ban BUT!! only if it’s used to promote a property that the part can’t do or cheat the “customer” in other ways. but I don’t think it should be a full ban, it can be useful to showcase your creation in a setting not available to you.

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Not really. You can’t put your model inside AI-generated scene that would be 1:1 exact replica of your model. You can do that with renders and that’s ok.

On the subject of renders/ai: one of immediate tells for those is very smooth surface. If it’s a curved surface with matt finish and it has a highlight on it? Forget ever getting perfectly smooth surface. If one really wants to show off a model in a setting they don’t have access to (eg it’s middle of the summer and you want to have winter&snow look or vice versa) then rendering is ok and if you take your time to apply a bump/displacement map that shows imperfections (eg texturing - How to make a mesh look like it was 3D printed - Blender Stack Exchange) then it’s very use of rendering. Just do the actual photos too.

On topic of photos themselves… If people just took time to look up say “product photography tutorial” the shots they’d get would be 100x better. And in [current year] people have cellphones that are better cameras than what photographers could dream of couple years ago (i’m exaggerating here :wink: )

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I noticed that too. The modeler uploads his creations and the Angelol account, the “profiler” (as he calls himself) usually already has a profile with print pictures a few minutes later, even for prints that take 1 hour.
I think it’s the same person, but with 2 accounts (for whatever reason).

But the funniest thing is that this “profiler” responds to every comment like it’s his own creations.

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I try to remain really positive and encouraging on MakerWorld for all designers because this is such a fun platform, but I’m with you guys on this one. Every time I see this person’s models show up in my feed, I would like to have a way to block him. It’s one thing to draw inspiration from AI generated images for a design that one is working on, but literally every cover image that the person has is AI generated and then the printed model is very low quality.

It does seem like suspicious behavior to have two accounts for your models and for your profiles, which I don’t understand the strategy because if I’m printing off someone’s models I would much rather it have the “designer” tag associated with it.

If you would like to join their Patreon, you get to be a “Big Daddy”. :joy:

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He is verified by Makerworld, that means that they accept it and are well aware of it. How many verified accounts with low effort models do you see around? Be my guest and count them :upside_down_face:

Two accounts means that one of them gets Boosts, downloads and print points. It’s a common strategy to cheat the system.

But that’s just me guessing.
Can’t wait for his next upload where he makes a square box printed with fuzzy skin and calls it “Dragon skin” and shows it in a “realistic” ambient with AI :sweat_smile:

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