Going Ghibli

Jadis jump in on Ghibli-mania. Courtesy xAi/Grok.

 I don't know too much about anime, let alone Studio Ghibli, but I do know a good trend when I see one, and I became intrigued by the latest AI flavour of the month of turning any given photo into the Japanese animation powerhouses distinct style. Several bands I know don't have freely licenced images I can use on Wikipedia as I have pointed out before, and now there's this legal loophole that is questionable, but allowed for now. ChatGPTs Open AI initially just had it for paid subscribers, but I can't afford that, so I went to xAi/Grok after they bought X, if that makes sense and they did a poor mans version for me of Jadis. I wonder if Martin Orford (far right in drawing above, late of IQ) would slate AI the way he did illegal downloading since there may be some parallels. Would make interesting discussion. Then ChatGPT got it to work for everybody and the floodgates opened. I had a go with Pallas and It Bites original lineup (later one with John Mitchell of Arena, Asia, and so much more), and now I will do Savoy and even Magnum spinoff Hard Rain. I did the cover of Magnum propers 1983 album The Eleventh Hour!, which a bootleg label stole for a 1985 Marillion concert released as Childhood Mysteries from their Misplaced Childhood tour, which I covered last year, so I Ghibli-ed it to make it a new scene not from Rodney Matthews himself. I could even do this with the kid from the other cover. I can go on all day. Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki however is no fan of AI.
    I've been using AI this past year. Initially, it was for the sister blog, so go over there for more. As for here, I'm not as good at drawing people. Doing a whole person isn't a strong point with me as I can with other species. Some of the Status Quo can't even draw "Pictures of Matchstick Men", but AI can let you create "Whatever You Want" (even Francis Rossi et al are getting the Gene Shallit treatment here). We'll see how long this one sticks around before the next craze comes along just like everything else.

Pallas in colour since this was done from black and white.

It Bites. Courtesy ChatGPT Open AI.

With apologies to Rodney Matthews and Magnum.

Doggy also joins in on the fun!

Magnum take back their sleeve once again.

Savoys Ghibli-savvy is now tunnel vision!

xAi Groks version of Savoy didn't work out as well.

    Turns out I can't use these on Wikipedia if they're derived from copyrighted works, so that's it for this new sensation. I would have to go see these bands in person and sneak in photos to get my own free images or wait for them to break up or have press photos old enough to qualify, even from within my lifetime, whichever comes first. I did draw Savoy and the 2010-24 lineup of Pallas, but that just won't work on Wikipedia as they're too incomplete, crude and amateurish to be on there, and much of my work has disappeared over the years anyway. There are ways I could get permission to licence photos, but it's too much red tape. I just want something I can use straight away. If I could have AI make an original photo of any of these people, that would be great, but it's just they're not as well known as when I could even get last minute ones of Trevor Horn or Elton John for Facebook memories or Bluesky. I wind up with people who don't even exist, even when I submit a source photo. This is why AI gets slated on a daily basis, even though it's only going to get bigger like sci-fi had predicted.