Disney 3D artist gives tips on how to use AI in digital design

His adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as a work tool brought Luis Labrador, a 3D artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, to speak to Digital Art students at Tec de Monterrey.

The craft leader participated in the Future Frame event on the Monterrey campus with a talk entitled My Path in the Industry, in which he shared 4 tips about how to take advantage of AI in digital design.

Future Frame, organized by the School of Architecture, Art, and Design, took place on May 25 and 26. It brought together specialists from different creative industries to share their experiences.

“Don’t try to fight AI. We need to use it to improve our artistic abilities and make them more complete,” the speaker suggested.

Labrador has gained international recognition and some of the films that he worked on, such as Encanto, Frozen, Big Hero 6, and Spiderman 2, have won Oscars.

Below, CONECTA shares the artist’s tips for making the best use of AI in digital design:

1. Focus on your goal

While artificial intelligence provides various tools with which to work, Labrador said that it is important to focus on the material you need.

“Focus on what affects your work and play with it. If it’s specialist artificial intelligence for artists, those who’re going to use it and take advantage of it are artists,” said the speaker.

2. Explore AI sites

One way to learn about artificial intelligence trends, Labrador recommended, is to follow people sharing information about the subject on YouTube.

“There are also sites like Future Tool AI that shares AI tools and classifies each by discipline, such as audio and visual, to name just two,” suggested the modeling supervisor at Disney.

3. Create your own scripts

If you are looking to model in 3D with Autodesk Maya, the digital artist said that you can use ChatGPT to generate a script and add it into your work.

“Maya uses the Python programming language. You can use ChatGPT within Maya to create your own tools,” Luis remarked.

Maya is professional 3D software for creating characters using animation tools, scenes, and 3D objects. It also includes intuitive modeling tools and realistic effects.

4. Changes in AI

Labrador said making small changes to artificial intelligence is “difficult or almost impossible.”

“If I show (a product) to the director and he tells me ‘make the window smaller, change the background, or make an object move,’ good luck seeing if you can do it.

“The production model is based on interaction, so the system is not yet ready for large-scale productions. It will be in the future,” said Luis.

The digital artist also worked with Sony Pictures Imageworks as Senior Character Modeler in the visual effects department and at DreamWorks Animation as Senior Modeler in the animation department.

We need to use AI to improve our artistic abilities and make them more complete.” - Luis Labrador

About Future Frame

Future Frame is the first national conference organized by the Digital Art program at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

It featured more than 20 talks by national and international speakers, a creative industries business fair, and participation from students at six Tec campuses.

“We worked on the event so that it would further promote the degree and include different topics of interest to students,” said Germán Vázquez, director of the Bachelor of Digital Art course at the Monterrey campus.

Some of the talks offered included programming, the video game industry, and VFX.

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