## **Aesthetics** >[!tldr] TL;DR >If something looks wildly unrealistic, I probably did that on purpose. Either for artistic reasons or for clarity of the visual information. As much as I would like everything to be "perfect," I'm just one guy and my artistic side is mostly limited to middling graphic design. %% >I also use AI art for a lot of things. So, there are many images which are *good enough* for me, and mostly matched my original vision. Others are very spot on after a *lot* of prompting. e.g. The NOMAD characters.%% The planetary maps are drawn as equirectangular. But don't always line up *just right*, and may look wrong when mapped onto a sphere. %%There are some notes about this in the [[Ares]] entry.%% I want them to look good on a screen or page. Unless something really weird happens and Imperium gets made into a video game or something, I'm not overly concerned about how well the maps work in 3D. All the planetary maps are created with [Wonderdraft](https://www.wonderdraft.net), then textured using satellite imagery from Earth itself. This was the best way I could figure out (with my skill sets) to make them look semi-realistic. The scaling may be a bit (or a lot) off, but again, they're made to *look* good, not be completely realistic. The space maps are a mix of AI modified NASA images or generated "nebula" looking stuff, with overlays being done by me. As for the visual style, I've always liked the "pretty" space aesthetic, even if it's completely unrealistic. So, you can chalk that up to artistic choice again. All the logos are AI generated and then tweaked by me. Way back in the 90s, I used to make corporate logos with HyperCard (as a de facto pixel art program). I've made some new logos myself, but the AI version blew them away (even if a few look a little weird). I originally used Bryce 2/3D for spaceships, vehicles and landscape artwork. But those apps are pretty iffy to use these days, even if I wanted to dredge up an old computer or emulator to run them. So again, I resorted to AI images for these. The [[TASCOM]] ship is one of my original designs in Bryce 2, run through AI to make it look fancier. I need to redo the model at some point, as the ship has a slightly different look now. --- %% ## **AI Imagery** Disclaimer I'm just some veteran living disability check to disability check and raising a kid. My Imperium projects will probably never make a profit. But they make me happy, and that means a lot for my mental health. This is a hobby with a significant net negative monetary value, as is. I hate that I even have to mention this, but there are a lot of anti-AI art people out there. So, please leave your negative comments about my use of AI at the door. The rest of you: Please enjoy what I've made for us. <3 In this database, there are a lot of raw AI output images. This is simply for expedience and inspiration. I'll never be able to create the type of art I want for Imperium, nor can I afford to hire someone to make it. I spend a lot of time tweaking prompts, trying out various styles, and rejecting dozens of images for each one I keep. So, much of the AI images are at least fairly close to my original vision. The character section is pretty spot on. Especially the [[NOMAD Group 1]] character portraits. Those are my babies and I wanted them to look right. In some cases, my original vision was pretty bland and the AI actually inspired some cool new ideas. My aliens are good example: *The [[Lacir]] were originally very human looking (being inspired by the Zentraedi and other anime/JRPG bad guys). Their new style is pretty cool IMHO and suits them better. The [[Morocaschic|Morocaschics]] were hard to describe and even harder to get the AI to draw. Their design has changed a little, but part of that actually worked out better for the lore/reasoning for their shapeshifting. The [[Kyserian|Kyserians]] were also another humanoid species, though I never really went into any detail about them. Later, I changed them to some kind of reptilian/squid creatures. Again, the AI struggled and never got them quite right, but it came out well enough.* As far as the cities, equipment, people, clothing, and other stuff go. It's close enough. The cities, in particular, are very difficult to get right. AI imagery that makes it to the TTRPG (or other places that will eventually end up published) has a lot of extra work put into making them look better. I've got some middling Photoshop skills. Which I've casually honed since version 2.5. %%