Question about using AI art vs hiring an illustrator for a small project

I run a little indie game studio down in Austin and we needed some character art for a new card game we're making. I had two options: use something like Midjourney to generate the art for free (plus some subscription cost), or hire a freelance illustrator I found on a forum who quoted me $600 for 5 characters. I went with the AI route to save money, spent about 3 days tweaking prompts and fixing weird hands, and the results were... okay I guess? But the illustrator's style had this warmth that I just couldn't get no matter how many prompts I ran. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I made the wrong call. Has anyone else had to pick between AI and a real artist for something like this? What did you end up doing?

3 comments

3 Comments

blairm771d ago

That "warmth" you couldn't get with prompts is the whole difference. AI can make something that looks right but it's missing that human touch that makes art feel alive. I'd say go with the illustrator next time, that $600 buys you a lot more than just five images.

garcia.cameron1d agoTop Commenter

Ngl but is that warmth worth 600 bucks to most people though?

faithpatel1d ago

Doesn't it feel like we're trading real warmth for cheap convenience everywhere now?