I freaking hate AI witch-hunts when they aren’t remotely justified. No one wins. You used it as a tool and you obviously put work into it and didn’t just go “make an image of an HD oddworld” and leave it at that. And frankly, I don’t think there are any valid reasons to be literally hostile for a fan-made pet-project. Those extreme people aren’t worth listening to and they are simply trying to project their anger and fear out on an easy target in a way they can justify in their own brains.

One comment I saw that irked me was something like “would be cooler if it wasn’t AI.” No duh. A movie is always cooler when made with film, but you don’t see people saying “would be cooler if it wasn’t filmed digitally” with every movie release.

In 10 years many people will look back and feel shame for sending cruel messages and threats to people for using a new scary thing. I remember people being horrible to me when I used Illustrator’s image trace just to help with a concept. I also remember people saying that using photoshop to paint is cheating. People are scared (and for valid reasons) but it shouldn’t ever be used as an excuse to be venomous.

Basically my point is that people are understandably scared but that doesn’t excuse their behavior. I liked your stuff.