I started to quite like using AI (local on my computer) to create nice images and video clips.
And if do those things for a while you can actually spot AI created images in the wild because more often than not the creators did not really get creative with the prompts.
Anyway…
I wanted to see if my hardware is good enough to create 3D models.
You know, start with some 2D creations to get the right one together, then let the AI turn it into a mesh and go from there…
Does not seem to matter much what standalone solution you favour here as they all seem to work on the standard 1024x1024 pixel images - or resolutions with a matching pixel count.
You CAN upscale an image once created but this does not reall add more details.
Trying to create it in lets say 2048x2048 drives the processing time up exponentially…
You see the issue here when those ‘3D’ models you can download are still based on the low resolution limit.
What you create with these models might look great on the screen with the textures enabled but once turned off…
But I found a few places where you can buy computing power for those more demanding tasks and some even offer options to create stunning 3D models from just a text prompt.
So I used a disposable Email address and my trusted (pre-paid) credit card with it’s remaining three Dollar something left on it to create start a ‘free trial’.
Turns out their T’s & C’s provided upon sign up did not mention that ‘free’ means I can create as many models as I like but NOT that I can download a model in a higher than Lego block resolution.
At least they did provide sort of an estimate in terms of how much processing time would be required.
From there I could check their plans to see to how much this translates to in real money.
I wanted a three piece model of a dragon.
Head to rest on top of books in a shelf, a tail as a supporting book stand at the end and to make it complete a baby dragon pushing hard to keep the book on the other end standing.
Three parts there meant three models - go figure…
Had to redefine the prompt as the AI assumed books are only 10cm tall.
Once I was almost happy with the preview I asked for the estimate and on their cheapest and slowest plan it was just under $8US…
That’s way less than what some creators ask for when they sell their models…
After playing around for a while I got too bored as wasn’t planning on downloading anything.
But after having seen how many random variations of the head and such were created I started to wonder…
There is quite a few creators specialised in figurines, like those for board games or just random creatures.
More often than not you can find they offer a lot of little variations for the same model - call it choices…
Are those really creators using Blender or such for their work ?
Or is it getting more and more likely they use AI and give those models the finishing touches if and where required ?
I guess we know for sure once Makerworld gets flooded by users pumping out a few of those models per day…
