Artists are divided when it comes to their opinion on AI. Some are worried that AI generators might copy their artistic style, while others are actually using AI to enhance their creative process.
Filmmaker Filip “Philatz” Filkovic has been experimenting with an AI image generator called Midjourney for the past six months. This AI tool has gained recognition for creating billboards, sci-fi books, and even viral images of popular figures like Pope Francis and Donald Trump.
Filkovic has already generated over 24,000 images using Midjourney. His main goal is to push the boundaries of his creativity. He uses these generated images as references for storyboarding scenes in his films, helping him decide on camera angles and actor placements.
In one of his recent projects, Filkovic focused on the abandoned bomb shelters from World War II in Croatia, where he is based. He prompted Midjourney to create images of bomb shelter furnishings, and the results looked like something straight out of an Ikea catalog.
It’s important to note that Ikea was not involved in the project and did not comment on it when approached by Insider.
Filkovic has been on the “Ikea beat” for a few months now and regularly posts his creations on Facebook and Instagram. Through Midjourney, he’s a simulated rendering of a catalog where the rooms are “messy, filthy, and destroyed.” He’s also created a series of “weird Ikea concepts” that include a coffee table that doubles as a greenhouse and a rug that can also be used as a musical instrument.
This bomb shelter series took Filkovic two whole days to complete because his prompt was more complex than usual. He requested images of a nuclear bomb shelter with a Wes Anderson-inspired catalog style, emphasizing symmetry and a mix of Scandinavian and 1950s interior design.
Filkovic mentioned that including “Wes Anderson” in the prompt helped create a sense of symmetry and incorporate the filmmaker’s distinct color palette. The addition of 1950s interior design contributed to an eerie space-age look in the generated images. Filkovic stated that he didn’t make any edits to the images except for adding text.
For artists like Filkovic, AI tools have the potential to be a breakthrough in turning abstract concepts into tangible creations.
“You know, like, you can have this perfect dream in your sleep, and then you awake, and it’s real,” he said, about how Midjourney has helped him translate his mental images into real ones. “Stuff like this is something that you have, like imagined, it’s now here in front of you.”
