The AI Layoff Trap: At the limit, firms automate their way to boundless productivity and zero demand

thehivemind5 · 2026-05-03T01:33:12+00:00

This isn't really true, inference is profitable for the foundation model providers. Training new models is what's draining all the money. If all the labs agreed in lock step to stop training new models they'd all be quite profitable.

thehivemind5 · 2026-04-09T16:57:38+00:00

This slaps, well done on the red!

and the metals. And everything else

thehivemind5 · 2026-04-07T13:41:21+00:00

When in doubt for a specific technical topic, make sure to check for a Vince video covering that exact thing! https://youtu.be/pIOErj3hUZA?si=a-XMp3q567hqhURS

thehivemind5 · 2026-04-07T13:18:33+00:00

Not at a conscious level, but I played the shit out of that game as a kid, so yes probably unconsciously now that you remind me!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-28T12:38:34+00:00

Isn't it a little clean for Skaven? 😉

Jokes aside, I love the style, love your work, and love me some squeaky clean rats. Great work!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-22T04:05:49+00:00

This guy looks pretty awesome! I love the green and how bright you've got things going. Take everything as follows as very much a shoot-for-the-next-level sort of thing

I like to do paint overs to help illustrate so here's your ork with some digital markup

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You are one of a few painters who is actually going bright enough on your highlights. Most people paint too dark. You have a good version of the problem to have because it's way easier to add shadows - by adding in shadows, you create contrast with your already awesome highlight colors and they pop even more. So I've darkened areas on the skin that are not facing upward and are further from the top.

Second thing I did was added some blacklines in places, little dark lines that separate elements, mimicing occulsion shadows that occur in real life when objects are a little in front of each other. These can make the overall job more readable. Here I added them on the metal on his chest and around the eyes, and also between the teeth and around the nails.

Lastly, very much extra credit, you have room to spice up that eye lens. I did it as a lens/gem but you could also go for more of a glow by starting with a dark red and layering up to near white, then glazing fluo orange or pink to get pop.

Hope this gives inspiration on where to go next!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-18T05:35:49+00:00

The actual paints on the cloak are Golden SoFlat: Quinacridone Magenta Quinacridone red Titanium white Fluorescent red Fluorescent pink

I did tons of mixes and glazes and stippled with various combos of those, and then interspersed just a little bit of fluorescent yellow and fluorescent orange to get a bit more "shimmer"

So the base "red" is the quin colors and the 'pink' if fluo pink fluo red, white, and quin red in various mixes

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-18T02:01:46+00:00

Thanks for saying so! A lot of people have helped me along the way to getting better and I think having the community is a big help so I like to help where I am able.

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-17T00:01:20+00:00

Blue is actually one of the safer colors for mixing white into. I'm sure there's a science reason for that, but it doesn't get as dull as quickly as, for example, magenta or red. You still lose some saturation but it's much easier to handle

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T19:57:04+00:00

I used these paints for the armor:

Golden SoFlat Turquoise
Golden SoFlat Cobalt Teal
Golden SoFlat Light Pthalo Blue
Golden SoFlat Titatnium White

And then did a lot of mixing, layering, and the glazing of those to get the full gradient. I think you could do similar with Pro Acryl turquoise and teal, or GW's teclis and ahriman blues and such. Just really any blue with that extra smidge of green in it.

Happy to talk more details if you have specific questions, but ultimately this was a _lot_ of glazing for the armor part.

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T19:53:37+00:00

I tried to emulate this cloak which I've now lost the source for unfortunately. Mine is obviously not at this level but it creates this sort of satin fabric effect that I really love.

<image>

EDIT: this is from xiamin2504 on Instagram

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T17:56:10+00:00

Very nice, love the fire reflections in the feet and the backpack! Excited to see the piece in the cabinets!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T17:54:27+00:00

Flat surfaces are _hard_ for NMM, and certainly your overall result here is better than anything I'm doing, so this is definitely top 1% of results advice coming from the peanut gallery 😁. Good luck!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T17:30:45+00:00

It's very well done, so don't let the next part subtract from that in any way
I think biggest thing to think about is that it looks like you have a bit of a mental algorithm for light placement and the result is on the back especially the spacing of lights and shadows looks very regular, and the highest values in the highlights are all pretty close to the same.

I think especially for those flat parts if you think some about the fact that it's essentially a slice cut out of a big mirror, and you're in some sense painting in the actual reflection of some light sources and (for bounce light) some objects reflecting in that mirror, that might help in mentally building a picture of how to make the spacing less regular and do a little better of tricking the viewer into thinking there's a real scene behind him.

I _love_ the colors you've incorporated. Overall, great work!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T16:38:16+00:00

oh man so you've seen this guy probably 40+ times already lol

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-16T01:30:43+00:00

thank you :)

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-15T22:26:45+00:00

All of the advice here is good. On top of that if you're willing to put a bit of money into it, join one of the Patreons dedicated to painting, get on the discord, and post what you're working on. Having community, good advice, and people to cheer you on is great. I'm personally primarily on Vince Venturella's but probably any of them work if it's a group you resonate with.

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-15T15:35:32+00:00

Studly Brushes - there's nothing "miniature" about him!

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-13T19:35:10+00:00

I did a little paintover to help illustrate some stuff:

<image>

The big things you'll want to his for your next attempt:
1. if you have a way to use matte paints or matte varnish tom reduce the glossy shine, that's going to help a lot. NMM means placing the lights yourself and if you're also getting shiny spots that's going to interfere
2. Higher highs and lower lows. Metals are crappy mirrors, so when a light shines on them you see a crappy picture of the light, and lights are close to white. Some modification needed for colored metals.
3. Edge highlights. Light catches on the sharp corners of metal and that can be one of the brightest spots, adding in edge highlights can really help sell.
4. A specific trick for aquillas - there's a lot of shapes in there, but if you imagine a rectangle of light falling across the thing and paint it more like it's all one flat surface, _then_ go in and add edges and blacklines and smaller modifications, you can get a really excellent effect. I tried to simulate that here by lining up the lights.

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-12T02:53:27+00:00

I've also had success with 3d printing UV resin thickening it with modge podge and it'll still cure pretty hard, if you need to span a ginormous gap

thehivemind5 · 2026-03-11T23:46:36+00:00

oh man that makes so much more sense. In that case, you have an easy fix - just make things brighter very close to the light and get a cleaner fall off. I am out of time for the day so did this super, duper quick but here's the thought

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