It’s not what you think. You are the one who still has a chance to choose in the future. And the emergence of AI is something that will definitely happen as long as humans are a race that creates conveniences for itself. Even if there is no Sora, there must be another AI. Even if there is no AI, there must be another technology.

You speak and think like a group of people who have talked about impact in education and research. Let’s conclude that people will rely only on AI to the point of having no brains, even though they are people who don’t have brains to even understand AI problems. How difficult is it to apply AI? The person using it must also have sufficient skills.

Former Disney animator here: you have nothing to worry about. These are the SAME exact anxieties and concerns that we went through in the industry when everything switched from traditional 2D animation to 3D. If you love the artform, you will undoubtedly find a way to adapt and continue to express yourself, regardless of what inventions end up on the scene.

Your ability to express yourself is about to be magnified to unimaginable heights.

Brief example: I love the art of a good story. When I was a kid, I loved text-based adventure games because you could be “inside” the story. So I taught myself BASIC and built my first Zork-clone. I even taught myself Assembly language because I read somewhere that was faster.

Well, one night, after 12 hours of coding, I forgot to save my work. This was before autosave or even Ctrl+S was a thing (it was on my dad’s 64K PC). I cried for a couple of hours and vowed never to touch a computer again.

So, of course, I decided to become a Disney animator because I thought, “There’s no way a computer could ever do animation.”

I picked up a pencil, got into CalArts, and ended up at Disney a couple of months after The Lion King was released. I had finally achieved my dreams.

Less than two months after being hired, I was called into the theater to watch the opening sequence of Toy Story when Andy gets Buzz Lightyear. We all walked out of the theater stunned–probably the same way you felt after watching those Sora demos. “How was that even possible?” “Well, at the very least, our animation is better. 3D will never be as good as 2D.”

More

There are scenes in Encanto that eclipse anything ever animated with a pencil. There will be scenes animated with Sora that will eclipse Encanto.

The important thing is what lies within you and your heart.

I learned 3D after leaving Disney to go work at Dreamworks. And I was one of the better animators there because of everything I had learned in the 2D world. I cared very deeply at the artform and it showed through my work. Even though I was using a mouse instead of a pencil, I was able to carry everything I had learned prior into the next stage of creative expression.

Which brings us to the OpenAI Developer forum. Why the heck am I here now?

It all leads back to that original love for great storytelling.

When I went back to animate for Disney, I began to do story consulting for various projects. I had discovered a theory of narrative along the way that I knew would address all the problems of production (I.e., not figuring out the story until the last two months of production!). The success I had helping people write better stories motivated me to strike out on my own and setup my own business. But the success I had there required me to find a way to scale my expertise and reach.

So I taught myself backend and frontend engineering, built my own app, rolled it out, and have been running that full-time for over six years now.

In April of 22 I added GPT-3, stunned with what was possible just by calling out to something called ‘text-davinci-003’. In February of 23, I delivered a virtual version of myself through OpenAI’s Chat Completion APIs, stunned by what was possible just six weeks earlier with ChatGPT. Greg’s GPT-4 napkin demo stunned me–and weeks later my app’s “intelligence” grew by leaps and bounds with ‘gpt-4’. The Summer saw function calling, the Fall image generation APIs, forced JSON, and 128K context windows–all stunning revelations in their own right.

You have to get used to the fact that the hopeless stunned sensation you feel in the pit of your stomach is an indication that things are about to get really really great.

Looking back, EVERY perceived “setback” along my timeline was just preparation for an even better way to creatively express myself. I’m actually kind of jealous of where you are and what you have to look forward to. I’m super grateful for all of my experiences, but they’re nothing compared to what you’re going to be able to do and create.

One last thing: I used to teach at CalArts, so I also have experience watching 19 and 20-year old students blossom into professional artists–some of whom were even nominated for Oscars! Those who succeeded did so in spite of technological advances or shifts in the culture: they walked in with a driving passion to express themselves and were determined to share their vision of the world by any means necessary.

Hold on to that and everything else will work itself out.

(PS - I wrote more about this a year ago when ChatGPT came out: The Existential Threat of AI for Artists: A Personal Perspective)

Welcome to the community mate, I couldn’t agree more!

Former Disney animator here: you have nothing to worry about. (…), you will undoubtedly find a way to adapt and continue to express yourself, regardless of what inventions end up on the scene.

Your ability to express yourself is about to be magnified to unimaginable heights.

Side question: aren’t you the guy who animated the elephant from Tarzan?

Agree. I think creativity will always exist and just be on different levels.

I just wonder. With these releases its all the same concept: prompts. Maybe it’s fair to consider these OpenAI releases like tech demos. Once we can fine-tune models, create frameworks it will become more… Interesting.

Yet, these are all defined by two positions. Programming & data science. Not animations, graphic design. So when computers first blew up there was a plethora of new positions being released.

Could data science & programming become much more focused & nuanced then? Where does an animator fit here in a already competitive global market?

So it, to me, feels like the release of computers opened a massive branch of positions, while AI is churning them all together into the same concept of prompting.

I’m considering this from a holistic view, from someone who competes globally for contracts. It’s already hard to get a foot in.

I don’t like the argument of “niche markets”. That’s an exception. I have no doubt that consistency and coherent models will be achieved. Sure, a small percent of people still want that human touch (Cuphead was awesome) but that doesn’t really justify to anyone to invest their future into an industry mostly dominated by AI.

Lastly. The pit in the stomach is not an indicator for greatness. Job loss is happening rapidly for multiple reasons, AI being one. I wonder if we will hit a dot com boom

Learn to adapt with the times. Never restrict unless there is a risk to life.

Job loss is happening rapidly for multiple reasons, AI being one

That’s why we have to always be up to date and learning more and more so as not to let artificial intelligence that is coming to leave us behind.

Still need artists to craft the vision into reality, can an AI make a cat look sad? sure, but can the film maker get the AI to do it in the way they want? same as it’s ever been, probably not. That’s why people work collaboratively with experts in required fields. I can see a lot of the grunt work being AI’d away, but the act of creation to a requirement is a skill humans excel at.

I can’t disagree more.

Picture yourself as a young journalist, or a young artist. You have spent years practicing, to only see AI completely shadow your talent and continue to evolve. Not only that, it potentially uses your work for training data.

In every industry AI is blowing up. Is much cheaper, easier to use, generates rapidly at any hour, doesn’t lose patience, speaks all languages etc etc.

AI can and will reach a point where you can wireframe something and it will paint on top of it. It’s already happening. It will get better and it will demolish anybody trying to accomplish it organically.

Regardless. Even if this was the case the end result is really hard to work off of.

So sure, “experts in the field” will get paid, tons. The issue is that the “grunts” will be non-existent & experts are demanded less. Income will be consolidated. This has already happened with industries moving towards automation. “But what about the mechanics and maintenance”. Whatever.

There needs to be some massive shift to accomodate this and nobody seems to care about it.

AI might facilitate UBI if we’re lucky*

To be fair, I personally care more about saving my own skin than trying to save society from itself. Because while the former, realistically, looks bleak, the latter seems nigh impossible.

But I’ll encourage anyone who’s brave enough to try.

You are not scared of becoming the animator. You are just not aware that in the real world as animator you are just a part of the team of approximately 40-200 people and there will be no such great demand for animators any longer. I have went through the same when Canva showed up and my graphic design career start to collapse. No one needs a Graphic Designers any longer when you can get logo and branding for free. In my example I have reinvented myself learn trainings on Udemy and Masterclass, I have learned prompting and using AI. If OpenAI will not share Text to Video LLM like Sora then Chinese programmers will do it. You can’t fight the wave so learn how to surf Maybe that’s your call to take your time and seriously look into yourself and find what is truly and authentically yours. And when you will find it then you will not care is there any new technology which could copy your art because your art is your art. Look, sun doesn’t care will it stop shine in millions of years it’s just shine it’s brightness. Be like the Sun and shine with your authentic story. If you need some guidance I am reading this book recently “The Emotion Code” by Dr. Bradley Nelson. Everything will be easier after you will read it. Trust yourself and thrive.

Indeed, even the finest tools or systems are just that—a means to an end—without the guiding hand of a disciplined craftsman or a visionary artist. While forms evolve, the essence remains unchanged: captivating art that seizes attention and, with delicate finesse, weaves a narrative of human emotions.

You can’t fight the wave so learn how to surf

As a surfer, love it .

I think anybody here - who is aware of what’s happening will do really well. It’s a crazy time to be in

Soup-
If you go to school to learn the art of animation, or any discipline that is manifested through motion image, don’t worry about your future. Sora is just another tool like an Arri camera, a Wacom tablet, a Mole-Richardson 5k or Adobe Premier.

The real skill you seek by aspiring to be an animator is storytelling. You will get production work by demonstrating not only have you mastered the tools and have talent as an innovative storyteller.

Yes, technology will change production in a profound way by the time you graduate. Study the art of storytelling, and do not ignore or fear new tools and technology. The fact that you’re here posing such questions suggests a seriousness about making your own future. There will be opportunities- be ready to adapt to and exploit any advancements in the generative space as it applies to your work.

Start your reel now if you haven’t already. Re-cut it as your skills develop, and do it often. Use generative content when it makes sense within your workflow. Tell your stories, in your own way. Good luck.

hey, don’t be so pessimistic; I don’t think AI will take your job, especially a job that requires tons of creativity. I think it will fundamentally change the way you work, though; it will be your best assistant, cheap, loyal, capable, and always available.
Will AI kill jobs? maybe, but new technology also creates opportunities as well. remember, there were also no movies or actors before.
stay curious and be open minded.

I’m hoping for some sort of initiative to encourage younger artists to sell their work for training… Maybe? Someone has got to fuel the fire

Year I felt a lot of fear… With the use of SORA, as a designer it’s clear that many of us will transition into content creators although mainly serving as operators—individuals who generate content without requiring extensive knowledge or expertise. Presently my performance has evolved compared to year to the extent that removing intelligence from the process seems nearly impossible. From crafting scenarios to editing films, photos and animations everyone has become reliant, on AI. Throughout history humans have always sought convenience and ways to simplify tasks. Despite Iran facing embargoes and inflation issues I remain unafraid. Committed to pursuing dreams. Consider altering your path; there’s no need to walk when the metro has been invented.

people said the exact same thing when generative ai images first came out stop crying please if anything it is just goin to allow creators to get easier access to stock footage cuz at the end ai cannot replace the creativity of humans. U should focus on finishing ur studies rn rather than being concerned bout how ai is gonna ruin jobs

I don’t think you need to be afraid, the benefits of technological progress will always be greater than the destruction of them.