日本語: 美学の研究 中文: 美的钻研 한글: 미학에 관한 연구
Welcome to the first niji・journey dev log, where I’ll talk casually about various niji-related topics.
One of the most interesting parts about this line of work is the study of aesthetics. In other words, the investigation of what people find to be most beautiful.
Consider the difference between drawing something correctly and drawing something well. For example, the prompt “Miku eating a burger”
The niji style you are familiar with
Also niji, but reconfigured to produce the worst possible picture.
These two niji outputs both answered the prompt correctly, but undeniably, you’d prefer one of them over the other.
Hence, aesthetics is not the message, but the way you say it.
This concept is very similar to language: past a certain point in quality (which we may think of as grammar), we can choose very different ways to deliver the same message.
prompt: miku eating a burger
prompt: miku eating a burger, rendered in octane
And just like language, aesthetics is a localized phenomenon: people across the world find different things most beautiful due to the unique experiences that shape their worldviews.
Upon the launch of niji, we found ourselves with a very interesting observation. Compared to other projects of its size, niji encompasses an abnormally wide audience: our server is divided across four languages: English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
What is of even greater interest is that even though many in this project don’t share a common verbal language, we are connected by a shared visual language: anime. This shared understanding of the concept of “anime” forms the basis of an opportunity to imagine something very impressive together.
In the next phase of the niji・journey project, we want to explore the shape of what our combined anime aesthetic looks like. To that end, we are extending a special invitation to you, the audience of niji, to take part in the creation of niji.
prompt: dark skin blue eyes silver hair girl holding a trophy flower hair ornament twilight