How often do you see posts or videos that have this title: “This [whatever thing you are talking about] changes everything!” Maybe it’s just me, but I see this constantly. Every day. Especially if you follow some AI news channels. And I think that this is unnecessary, annoying and even detrimental. I automatically skip such content, even if the topic interests me.

I mean, let’s be reasonable. No thing ever changes EVERYTHING. The world is too complex to be changed by any component in the overall system. And even if such changes are more than just marginal, and affect more than just a few people, overall we are fine. I think.

Truth be told, there are going to be massive changes, that much is clear by now. It’s naïve to pretend like there won’t. Especially in terms of how we generate income and stay relevant as artists and developers. I think about that a lot. We already see AI image generators significantly affect the stock images market. The same will very probably happen to other income sources for artists, like selling 3D models or courses. In a not-too-distant future we will have prompts for that too. Even services or jobs in the 2D and 3D art industry (movies, game development, marketing, …) will look a lot different from what it was last year.

So, I think what we need are honest conversations about the changes that we perceive in the world and how to navigate them. Let’s not exaggerate. Let’s not panic. But let’s get ourselves ready and well-positioned to pivot and adapt, when the need arises. That is why I am encouraging exploration and experimentation. I think, not only is that a very useful skill, but it is also a clever strategy to explore our options pro-actively early on, instead of reacting to change only after it happens.

Continuing from the previous post about laziness, let’s talk about why taking shortcuts when learning something new is a bad idea.

What I sometimes observe is: If some people run into a problem when working on a project, the first thing they do is to just ask for a solution on a forum, discord or Facebook group. That’s the easy way. And it usually helps you to move forward. No shame in that.

The better teacher, however, is frustration. When you try a dozen different things to solve your problem, read up on the documentation, google for solutions, browse through forum threads, all the while banging your head against the wall, two things happen:

First, you level up. You acquire a much deeper understanding of the software, you learn about the context of your problem, the causality and relationship of certain functionalities. Often, you also pick up some adjacent pieces of knowledge that will help you in other situations. Instead of just getting the shortcut solution “Check this box in the project settings and you’ll be fine”, you acquire an expertise in everything that this box does and why.

And second, you go through a period of intense emotions, and that’s a good thing. Emotions trigger long-term memory. You are less likely to forget something when there are emotions attached. Through the initial negative feelings of irritation, annoyance and anger you set yourself up for incredible relief, happiness, and pride after finally finding the solution. Usually, those lessons are not easily forgotten.

So, if you are learning something, embrace frustration! Don’t be afraid of trying things on your own before asking for help. It might seem like you are losing time, trying to fix a stupid bug for hours and hours. But your ability to solve all kind of issues will grow exponentially. Instead of constantly depending on others, you will become someone other people look up to and seek advice from.

If there are character traits that are universally true for all of humanity, then one of them is certainly laziness. People are inherently lazy. And I mean that in a positive way. We always look for ways to do things better, faster, more efficient, with less effort. It’s an energy preservation mechanism. A large share of inventions, technological advancements and businesses are in some way driven by laziness. And that is what makes us great. Getting things done faster creates a surplus of time, energy and resources that we can then spend on other more important things like family, personal development, passion projects, or sleep.

Interestingly, at the same time we always admire people who choose the long and hard route. I saw a post today by a talented artist who created a beautiful 3D character. He spent 125 hours working on that character over a period of 6 months! If he had used some fancy AI tool to create a character in a couple of minutes – would we feel the same towards him? I think that, despite being lazy, we need challenges. We find satisfaction and pride in achievements. And we look up to people who don’t take the easy way out, who confront their weaknesses head on, who overcome fear and frustration, and succeed in the end.

I am not saying that doing things the hard way is superior. To be honest, I would rather choose automation and simplicity if I can get it. Who wants to spend hours on retopology if you can have a 1-click solution? Who wants to manually place foliage in a large environment in Unreal Engine, if you can have a smart procedural foliage system? Who needs the pain of keyframing complex animations, if you can put on a mocap suit and act it out?

But, as a self-educated artist I came to understand that when you want to really learn something, choosing the easy way is a big mistake. Why? I will tell you in the next post…

You know how there are some ideas which you put on your “someday shelf”, and which seem to want to get off that shelf? Time and again these ideas call out to you. Sometimes like a quiet nagging in the back of your mind. And sometimes shouting at you: “Pick me up!”

One of such ideas (or maybe more of an urge than just an idea) that I had put on my someday-shelf is writing. Why? I am not sure why. From a rational standpoint, writing down your thoughts is extremely helpful in structuring your thinking and gaining clarity. But it feels like more than that. Something like a creative need or a call to venture into an unexplored area of the unknown.

I think of a human’s mind like a small universe of interconnected galaxies of thoughts, memories, emotions... Thoughts are traveling on neural highways, grouping together, creating relationships with each other, bumping into emotions, dispersing in different directions and recombining again in different forms.

When some of these thoughts are written down, it creates a small window into this universe of someone’s mind. You know those “face reveals”, where artists or content creators finally show themselves to their audience? I think that a sincere and vulnerable piece of writing is exactly that. It is a reveal of that person’s “face”. 

I challenged myself to write at least 1,000 characters every day for 100 days. I may not post all of the things I write. But I think it is worthwhile sharing your thoughts with others. Not just showing off your work and your skills – but letting people see more of you. 

This is the reason I have been posting my thoughts on different random things that are going through my mind. This is me leaving my comfort zone.

Anyway, I hope you find some of it inspiring and uplifting. If you do, let me know and inspire me in turn. 😊

We live in a system designed to integrate everyone into a value-exchange network. As soon as you become an adult, you become part of this system. Depending on which country you live in, there is usually no opt-out except for building yourself a cabin in the woods and living off the land.

I am not saying that the system is bad. It is what it is. You need to pay for housing, electricity, water, transportation, clothes, food. Then you have insurances, taxes, and other mandatory expenses. And if you want to enjoy those benefits of the system, you need to give something back. In a way we all have to pay for the privilege to live decent lives. Some people fit well into the system, while others struggle a lot to make ends meet.

And here comes the most important differentiating factor: Your value. It’s a simple equation: Time x Value = Income. Since time is limited, we only have the Value of time to play with. If your skills are replaceable, your value is low. So, a lot of things that we do in life serve one purpose: Increase the value of our time.

For example, one such thing is education. Get a better education (or better skills) and you will get a higher salary (or hourly rate if you are a freelancer). Another thing is fame. Become famous (actor, football player, singer, badass 3D artist, …) and you will get paid a lot, because you stand out from the crowd and your time becomes a rarer commodity. A third thing is specialization. Become an expert in something not many other people can do (or want to do), and you can ask for a lot more in exchange for your time.

Sometimes these strategies work, sometimes they don’t. The sad thing is that no matter how valuable you become – you are still trading life for life. And not only that. Playing this game will most certainly NOT lead you to financial independence and freedom.

What do you think?

Continuing from my previous post, I would like to discuss the issue of money. Money does not exist. Well, it kinda does. But only because we all believe that it does. It is a social contract that we all implicitly share. A money bill in itself has no value at all. Most of the money today doesn’t even have any physical representation. Its just ones and zeros stored on some computer.

So instead of trying to make money, we should rather think about value. You might say, exchanging the term “money” with the term “value” is basically just word play. But it is not. Because value is real. Money is an illusion.

When you think about your work as an artist, what is it that you create? Whether you draw, paint, create 3D renders, or interactive experiences – you create VALUE.

And if what you create is valuable to other people, those people are willing to exchange something of value in return. On social media platforms like this, what people are giving you back is their time, attention and sometimes words of appreciation and encouragement.

Now think about a job situation. When you work in a job, you also create value. But you don’t have ownership of that valuable thing that you create. You agreed to sell your creation including its value to your employer. What you are given in return is not the real counter value of your work, but a lump sum called salary. That’s how economies work.

Taking control of your own work is the secret to get out of the hamster wheel and become an owner of value.

A short while back I had a life-changing realization. It’s a very simple thing, but it changed my worldview. And today, I want to share it with you.

Let me take a step back first. Remember Klaus Schwab’s controversial statement “You will own nothing, and you will be happy”? I think that this is not a statement about the future, but it is already true, and has been true for many, many decades.

Have you ever been asked the question when you were a child “What do you wanna be when you grow up?” I am sure you have. And what was your answer? For most children it is something like nurse, doctor, pilot, fireman… Whatever the answer to this question was, in 99% of all cases it is a JOB. That’s our typical understanding of the world as we grow up into adulthood: You are preparing yourself so that one day you can work in a hopefully fulfilling job, doing what you love.

The truth is, what you are doing when you have a job is: You sell your time. Put a bit more drastically: You sell your life. At the end of the day, no matter if you are a plumber or a doctor – you get paid for your time. You work 5 or 6 days a week in order to get 1-2 days of rest, so that you can regenerate and perform again in the next week, and the week after, and so on. You go on vacation in order to recuperate and recharge, so that stay productive when you get back to work afterwards. And you do that for 50 years or so. With retirement as some vague magic promise to keep us going.

And this is the realization I had, as obvious as it may seem: I don’t want to sell my time for the rest of my life. Time is not money. Money is independent of time. It only becomes proportionally linked to time, if you decide to work for someone else. Many of us do not own anything in terms of providing value to other people. We only own time and skills – and we are happy. Or are we?

Codie Sanchez recently told a story in an interview, which I found inspiring. Codie climbed a mountain called Mount Baker with a group of friends. This climb involves ice axes and crampons, and freezing temperatures. But she doesn’t like the cold, she doesn’t like heights and she doesn’t like camping. She did it anyway.

At the final stage of the climb, after two miserable and scary days, the group had to climb a vertical ice wall. And at this point Codie says she was about to cry, because she couldn’t think of anything she wanted to do less than this. But you can’t chicken out at this point, right? First, she wanted to tough it out. But then, she realized something…

Is this goal worthwhile? What am I trying to prove here? I am pretty happy, life is good, and I truly don’t have “Climb Mount Baker” on my bucket list. What if I do this thing that I am so scared of, just because everybody else tells me that I should? What if I fall down and break my legs – all for the sake of reaching the summit although I absolutely don’t care about the view? Doesn’t it take more courage to say No now, rather than giving into the perceived social pressure?

So, she tapped out, and walked back to the base camp.

For me, the takeaway is this: When you are exploring the unknown and you encounter challenges that need to be overcome – ask yourself if this is a mountain worth climbing. Find goals that are worthy of your sacrifices, your time and your energy.

People say, everything you want is on the other side of fear. But we should be sure that the thing on the other side is the thing that we really want. Otherwise, it’s best to tap out and go back.

Why is it so hard - and for some people even truly frightening - to begin something new? Quit a job, learn a new skill, move to a different country, start a YouTube channel, create a business, … Many people often complain about not being happy with their jobs, circumstances or conditions. But it is mostly talk and no action. Why is that?

We are all living in a fog of war. “Fog of war in strategy video games refers to enemy units, and often terrain, being hidden from the player; this is lifted once the area is explored, but the information is often fully or partially re-hidden whenever the player does not have a unit in that area.” (Wikipedia)

Beyond the threshold of the Known is the big Unknown. And that scares the shit out of us. Jordan Peterson calls it “the Chaos” – the opposite of order and safety. And I think it is that fear of the unknown that prevents us from changing anything about our lives. It feels safer to stay where you are, even if its not making you happy. There is this thought: What if there is something even worse? The imagined threats and risks seem to outweigh the potential gains from exploring the unknown.

There are people, mostly of the creative kind, who thrive on the border of Chaos. Who feel trapped and bored in the mundane. Who are thrill-seekers. The pioneers who just jump into the dark and illuminate it. They study, they do their research and open up new areas, new opportunities.

We don’t all need to be risk-loving, boundary-pushing and death-defying adventurers. But I think that there are great rewards in exploration and in doing things that feel uncomfortable.

AI has been on everyone's lips lately, especially in the art community where it sparks a lot of controversy. While it's true that AI comes with its fair share of concerns and potential misuses, I believe that when used responsibly, it can be a powerful and invaluable tool. In the realm of education, AI has the potential to really change the way we learn. It can facilitate faster skill development, fuel creativity, and maybe even democratize knowledge access.

In the past few months, we have been working on an experiment. It's an Unreal Engine application prototype, called "Access Point AI". And I would love to hear your thoughts on that. 

Here is a short description of the technology:

Access Point AI is basically an end-to-end audio-visual system that enables users to communicate with an AI via natural language. You speak into the microphone and the digital avatar responds to your questions. It's feels less like request-response experience, but more like having a real dialogue with an intelligent entity that understands your intentions and responds accordingly,

Current features of the app

At the core of our application lies a system of speech recognition (speech-to-text) and speech synthesis (text-to-speech). That makes it possible to have a seamless conversational experience. The Open AI API allows us to generate intelligent responses to user requests using the latest GPT model. 

To bring the virtual avatars to life, we use Epic's Metahuman Creator, which - in my humble opinion - is currently the most advanced tool for digital human creation. Our avatars are programmed to possess unique personalities and responses, which makes the conversations with them more engaging and interactive.

Different application possibilities

Our core technology offers numerous applications. At present, we have two options that we are working on.

Option 1: A personalized learning and conversation space. Our female avatar, AIDA, can engage in meaningful and captivating conversations and act as an expert tutor on a topic of the user's choice. The app creates a topic outline based on the user's interest and guides them through a course-like process with small quizzes in between to reinforce their learning.

Option 2: A history mode option, which enables users to learn about history. Users can directly converse with a “person” from the past. We are working on a growing database of famous personalities from different eras, allowing users to select their preferred historical figure to learn about their life, culture, and events. 

Here is also a short teaser for the historical mode of the app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm0gzl-yXso&t=11s

What are your thoughts on AI-powered educational tools like this one?