The Internet is About to Explode – What if AKIRA was a motion picture
AI over the years has been progressively taking over the art world.
A controversial topic to say the least, there is no doubt in our minds that this new digitalized creative medium is our next step in the slow walk into the metaverse. This latest piece of AI art may be our favourite one yet though. The cult-classic film that changed the course of anime forever, AKIRA, has finally received the digitalized filter it deserves.
Stemming from Che Chou’s Instagram who we believe to be the original artist, we see a series of AI-generated images that collides the world and characters of the AKIRA with a live-action film. By taking image references and putting them into what seems to be MidJourney, a software used for AI art, these automatically generated images have been produced and look eerily and wonderfully realistic.
Showing all our favourite characters such as Testuo and Kaneda, as well as the iconic motorbike, this creation has not simply recreated AKIRA. Instead, it has been cleverly reimagined, much like what we would see from a live-action rendition of the film. Characters such as Kiyoko can be seen with an elderly face and a child’s body much like how she is depicted in the anime but instead has dropped the greyish complexion for a more lifelike appearance.
These subtle changes are really where the magic happens with AI art. Being able to completely morph and obscure inspirations and references and apply them on top of a canvas opens up a massive amount of opportunities for creative thinking and new avenues to explore.
It is unknown whether or not these images were fresh out of the software or if they have been retouched and edited professionally afterwards, but certain abnormalities were frequently seen from AI art hint at the fact that these could be original pieces. Regardless, these are impressive and a great sign of the potential of future AI art projects.
