What do you guys think about sora?Will it affect or replace our jobs?

Sora is looking scary good. Would be suprised if it would not affect our industry hard in a couple of years.

Wow, that looks amazing, and its here sooner then I expected.

We need some AI in Houdini asap, so one could use prompts instead of having to learn scripting. I expect that will be a thing of the past very soon the way things are going currently.

The only way to stop use of generative video is to have better alternative. So instead of generating explosions and oceans as video there should be generative 3D that could make oceans and other VFX by entering prompts. 3D will give better controll for fine tuning and tweaking. And Sora could be great for preproduction and saving time when working with clients and their stupid ideas xD

"What a time to be alive" !

I think it will be really interesting when we can upload our own render, and have it add details, other scene elements, etc.

the current state of generative ai isnt as scary as the rate at which they are imrpoved. if ai tools were limited to tasks like UV, retopo, quick rendering and denoising then we could have some hope. but as it stands now, the future of jobs looks scary

Since we are in a Houdini forum and since the topic is about sora, I hope for a meaningful upgrade due to the new quad retopo tool
Jokes and irony aside, it is plane surreal, that tools like Sora starts to spread and in the other side of the "how to" I'm moving vertices one-by-one for having a proper subdiv mesh - simply surreal.

I do not care much about Sora, I'm an artist, not a "generated guess work" supervisor, but what I care about a lot: we definitely need UV unwrap, layout, retopo, skeleton/rigbone generator and rig transfer tools that exploiting the new tech in a proper way.

Do not missunderstood me, I'm not dissatisfied with the actual stage of Houdini, SideFX offers more tools than any other 3D dcc software developer, but next to Sora and apps like that IF we do not reach tools that could shorten labour works as retopo, bone creating, rigging, UV'ing... not by /10 but to zero, in that case we are in trouble.

wanglifu
What do you guys think about sora?Will it affect or replace our jobs?

I don't think it will affect our work in any way

Polybud
Do not missunderstood me, I'm not dissatisfied with the actual stage of Houdini, SideFX offers more tools than any other 3D dcc software developer, but next to Sora and apps like that IF we do not reach tools that could shorten labour works as retopo, bone creating, rigging, UV'ing... not by /10 but to zero, in that case we are in trouble.

My view is different. Even though Houdini is evolving massively with each release, it`s also getting drastically more complex at the same time. Just look at Apex, it`s so confusing 0% of users who just need a "simple" rig will accomplish it with that. And that`s in a world where CG already has gotten bloated with time consuming, rather mundane tasks as mentioned by you. What I also find quite worrying is that simulations, whenever you want to step up the quality, get excessively long to calculate. SideFX addressed that issue with first steps in H20 but I think Houdini needs to step up a lot more with hybrid physics simulation and a lot faster because AI is moving at an increasing speed.

I don't fear AI, it only means that we'll have to be more imaginative in our work, for me, AI is a driving force that pushes me to work harder, also, they tend to all look alike! 😉

GCharb
I don't fear AI, it only means that we'll have to be more imaginative in our work, for me, AI is a driving force that pushes me to work harder, also, they tend to all look alike! 😉

Quite vague statement. The quality and scope of things achievable is growing by the minute - literally. How do you compete against a machine which generates more and more art directable output within minutes which take whole teams of humans weeks or even months to create when the tools we`re using are actually making it even tougher? We surely have to keep being creative, but if just "working harder" was the solution, how did we end up in a situation like we`re in?

I think what we may need is mentioned above and other hybrid solutions, for example like the "airen 4D" renderer - anything which brings us as close and as fast to final outputs as possible. The puristic and heavily manual way we went so far won`t cut it anymore.

I can easilly imagine that LLM will help a lot in Houdini. It can code in python so it could learn how to connect nodes without any problems.

Even open source LLMs like Mixtral 7x8B could be finetuned now.
So artist could give commands aka prompts for fe. Rigging, simulation, etc.

- Id love to use it for material creation.
- For material transformation from one renderer to another.
- For transforming from realtime simulation (like embergen) into final high quality simulations.
- For managing all morph targets in lipsync animation.
- and any task that require lots of clicks and playing with numbers in settings wich is a lot in Houdini.

I just want to have collection of prompts that can be used in boring tasks. And concetrate on artistic aspect of creation not technical.

Sygnum
How do you compete against a machine which generates more and more art directable output within minutes

That's easy to 'compete' with AI.
'You' use AI like a tool.
Current research(sorry I didn't keep a link for that study) shows AI by it's nature, is convergent rather than divergent.
And the reason it is like this is because it is basically a massive data aggregator - bascially 'looping' in on the very data set it refers to; On itself.
In order to become divergent it needs new data/information that lies outside of itself - Which only something that is Conscious can do, that has the capacity for originality - Humans.

I agree, AI should be seen as a tool, not a replacement for artists, as I said, and as others pointed out, without an artist to guide it, AI generated art tend to look the same, so stop fearing AI, and start learning to work with it, it will never truly replace an artist, unless it becomes conscious, then yeah, start fearing, but not only for your job! 😉

AI requires leading or generators... or, suggestion artists who can become the unique benders of this. Sure, AI is the biggest billionaire-owned burglary of copyrighted imagery run through massive cloud computing arrays morphing into giant quantum Picasso Plazas.... but- Artists, if they are intelligent and understand their craft, realize they have nothing to fear from tools they can utilize to create imagery and visions. Artists are the ultimate adapters. We designed pyramids, Shakespearean backdrops under old moons and broken archways painted with rotten tomatoes thrown by the drunken, giant cathedrals and the murals within, the first sketch of anything and everything and Iron Maiden's Eddie.

AI imagery push buttoned is so obvious that when normies use it most 'understand'... some people just can't afford the real deal and this is OK in my view. Budget is tight- use clip-art called something you mangled out of sora or whatever billionaire-funded rip-off cloud tech wonder name.

And, when the content Bigs consistently abuse use this tech on loses bank just like Hollywood (RIP Paramount- Disney is next) struggling to get families to buy tickets and popcorn to boring comic book heroes, sticky floors, and recycled capers, they'll get the message that the world of artistry isn't an AI playground for pencil pushers and keyboard plunkers.

I wager it is the very tools we use that should be concerned about AI generative. Forty years of evolving artist's digital tools could disappear within the couple of decades leaving the smart artists with a single tool. WE will be fine, ultimately. The finest imaginations can compete with data because even the greatest modern mathematician is only as good as the shoulders his/her math is created upon. I promise you the greatest AI in the universe can ONLY be as good as its universe of inputs. There are no gods and goddesses in AI. Quit fearing it, artists.

I have no problem with Sora. I fear nothing about AI art. AI IS its own baggage and its sun will set and it will ease into the light switch mode. Just there. On the wall.

I still like pencils and brushes and actual paint. I like clay and stone and wood. Digital engineering has removed millions of artists from this very real world into using fake canvases called Wacom and programmed brushes. Lots of us use both. I still like my giant over-priced cadre of sweet companies like this one and others... In 20 years, millions of artists will not only NOT use pencils and clay they won't use ZBrush, Adobe, Houdini. I will still use pencils and clay but I'm not so sure about the Zbrush and friends.

The artist will always exist- like the sun. It is our technology we have to grapple with.

I don't think Sora can replace artists either, but AI does lower the entry barrier, which might lead to the elimination of low-end practitioners. In the mid-to-high-end sectors, with the total demand in the industry remaining unchanged, competition will intensify, leading to lower salaries for practitioners and a decrease in the number of needed individuals.

I don't think AI will replace skilled houdini / 3d software users. However, it used to be a skill / rare thing to see cool effects and i'm afraid that super cool images/video's will become something that people think "oh it's probably created with ai". I will miss the time that only skilled artists could fool/"wow" people with manipulated images, if sora/other AI will deliver like they seem to promise.. To be totally honest, i hope it will never be really that good..