Whenever we look at old paintings and sculptures of people we often try to imagine what they¡¯d look like in real life -- whether it is Mona Lisa or the ¡®Girl With A Pearl Earring¡¯ or even Whistler¡¯s Mother.?
However, according to a recent report by SCMP,? game developer named Hu Wengu (also known as DGSpritzer on YouTube and Twitter) has gone ahead and brought some of China¡¯s most iconic paintings to life, with the help of AI.
Using AI tools he has tried to generate realistic movements of faces and fictional characters from Chinese history. One such figure was of a terracotta warrior -- belonging to a collection of life-sized sculptures created in the Qin Dynasty.
He first used Photoshop to remove the metallic finish on his face and make it look somewhat realistic by adding a skin tone. Then with the help of an online tool called ArtBreeder, he tried to generate a realistic face image for the soldier. Once it was seeming appropriate aesthetically, he pushed the image though the First-Order-Model algorithm to animate the image.
The end result was a slightly wobbly yet damn realistic looking warrior developed using technology and AI. Wengu did express that achieving this feat wasn¡¯t easy as he had several failed attempts and it took him two months to get this basic 4-minute footage.
This isn¡¯t the only thing he¡¯s worked on though. He has also brought to life Zhu Yuanzhang -- the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty as well as Lin Daiyu, a character from a Chinese novel ¡®Dream of the Red Chamber¡¯.?
Along with the aforementioned tools, Wengu used synthetic media generating tools such as Stylegan-Art and Realistic-Neural-Talking-Head-Models. To make the video seem smooth, he used the DAIN algorithm to add artificial frames. He also used Topaz Labs to enhance the detail of the images.?
YouTuber Denis Shiryaev is his inspiration for these creations, he says. Shiryave has brought the Mona Lisa to life using similar AI tools, among several other iconic paintings.?