its AI. i use dreamstudio.. my trick is to prompt the generation with specific artists, who impart a certain sought-after feeling. obscure polish oil painters from the 1800's work well in my experience. Artur Grottger for example. Juliusz Fortunat Kossak was used for today's images!!
I wasn't sure if it was AI or not because those images were more coherent and refined looking than most AI generated pictures of plants.
Nice update!
While I usually absolutely detest AI generated art, I have to admit that those are actually quite nice ones you got there.
Also, damn those dorfs are moving fast in the gifs!
yeah AI doesn't always do plants. often too impressionistic, or lacking texture.. i really feel that a lot of AI art is like hunting for records in a music shop. you'll know it ('it' being the composition you are seeking) when you see it!
truth be told I remain somewhat reserved about the future of humankind and our relative worth compared to machines. obviously I do not wish to view humans through that lens, but many people much wealthier than I, do - creative output will finally be something capitalized. but I have had extremely pleasurable moments of viewing new subjects through the generated lens of older art styles. its like rediscovering your favorite artists all over again.
in some ways AI art is destructive because it threatens to make history itself look fake, or generated. . again there are many sides to this technology.
===
It was in Spring of the following year when the dwarves struck an archaeologist's worst nightmare - metamorphic stone. It was impossible for fossils to survive the processess of the mantle, where pressure and heat combined to forever transmute the stone's texture. This particular layer of schist sat 8 z-levels below the surface.
Varieties of this rock type share similarities in appearance (schistosity) but may be highly variable in composition. Individual mineral grains are discernible by the naked eye. This property sets it apart from slate. Schist is one of the most widespread rock types in the continental crust.
The word schist is derived ultimately from the Greek word σχίζειν (schízein), meaning "to split",[1] which refers to the ease with which schists can be split along the plane in which the platy minerals lie.
As he investigated the quarry,
Kûbuk noticed something. . wrong. . with the exposed stone, muttering to himself as he worked. "Intrusions of some kind, bubbles of a white mineral, calcite perhaps? And these hardened oblong tubes look like egg casings.. are these bore holes in the side?"
Kûbuk cracked open one of the calcite bubbles, revealing what looked like invertebrate fossils, covered in a white dust . . impossible. He moved the boulder to examine the alien object closer. Similar to a horseshoe crab, yet different enough to seem strange. Kûbuk knew that the earliest life was in many ways different from that which existed today. Some creatures were much larger or much smaller, and looked like those that exist today but with different limbs or head shapes.
Ancient creatures, big and small This was sensational!
. . .
Under no circumstances should you casually crack open strange cocoons you find 100m underground. Then, Kûbuk noticed
it was moving. The small crab thing stirred and turned itself over, revealing a shiny black carapace. In fact the whole boulder now appeared to be awakening, as each entombed creature wriggled free from their stone cocoons. There was a horrible clicking noise as this swarm of fossil-crabs descended upon Kûbuk, with their hunger audible as clicking mandibles tore at his robes and flesh.
The others heard this and only appeared in time to witness Kûbuk's small frame (they were looking from the desert sand above the excavated pit) consumed by a dark cloud of strange insects.
It was the quick thinking of one of the caravan survivors,
Rimtar, who thought to cut a channel from the stream to the quarried pit, flooding the excavation site entirely. If the black cloud of insects hadn't killed him, the water surely will
In other circumstances the dwarves would have carried on - but Kûbuk was kind of the show-runner around here and none of the remaining dwarves cared as much about this particular site as Kûbuk had. And whatever had just eaten Kûbuk was also a lingering thought in the minds of all those present, though no one really wanted to talk much about it. The three witnesses who saw the most pioneered a meeting where they called for abandonment of the campsite and escape. This was agreed upon, though not without dissent. . . the hired guards felt like this gig was pretty good all things considered and had no reason to fear a couple of weird bugs. Regardless, they were to leave immediately..
The group instructed the carpenter to construct a caravan cart, which was loaded up with foodstuffs and some of the precious gems uncovered during the digging, and then set off to the east, in search of civilization, where they would then split the proceeds of the sale of the jewels and go their separate ways.
===
Thus ends the tale of
Sandcrypts, with
Kûbuk "Cavefinger" Äsúk having dug where one should not, in search of answers to trite questions (answers readily available in the learned writings of priests and philosophers), and ultimately died in vain defiance of the gods of this land.
DFFD save:
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16444I kind of wanted to write more but ran out of irl time. I'll take another turn in a week or two, perhaps.. thanks for reading and I look forward to more tales from the world of bones :>