While artificial intelligence is exponentially disrupting digital artists and their careers, UNC Asheville professors, ambassadors and students say stop motion holds a unique human touch that AI cannot replicate or replace.
“AI is a major fear for me, especially as somebody that works in the digital arts and teaches the digital arts. I’m really quite worried for my students,” Forest Gamble, lecturer of new media and professor of the UNCA stop motion course said. “The job market was hard enough, and then AI came, and I think it’s just making things way harder for everybody.”
Gamble said that a lot of jobs in the digital art space are increasingly being replaced with AI and that AI degrades digital art and artists.
“It all feels a bit soulless,” Gamble said. “I think we’re going to have a major crisis as a society just trying to retain our souls in a way.”
He said that even though AI is taking digital art jobs away from people, AI isn’t a danger to the stop motion course at UNCA.
“I don’t think that AI is a danger to our course, especially the way I teach it,” Gamble said. “There’s absolutely no way you can integrate AI into it.”
“I think everybody is a little bit worried about AI taking over jobs,” Luke Archer, junior and new media major at UNCA, said. “There’s a lot of AI art out there, like completely generative AI created artwork.”
Archer said that generative AI art is increasingly filling up the digital artistic space, but there are plenty of talented artists and animators who combat generative AI’s art quality.
“There are a lot of very good and talented artists and animators out there making good stuff,” Archer said. “So I have a little bit of concern, but it’s not an overwhelming fear.”
Kitty Tipton, the stop motion course ambassador, said she feels AI cannot replace stop motion in the future because of how uniquely human the art form is. Tipton said she doesn’t think AI has any bearing over stop motion, but it doesn’t mean people won’t try. She said she cannot imagine AI could influence the art of stop motion in any way.
“AI cannot do stop motion, it 100% can’t do it. It can try to pretend that it’s doing it, but it can’t, it’s not a real person. It’s not moving the stick an inch in an hour,” Tipton said. “So I think this class is the most safe from that sort of ideology where AI can just come and do whatever you’re doing. There’s no room for it here.”
Tipton said AI used to be a bigger fear for her in the past, especially for her 2D animation class, but she is confident AI cannot replicate the magic of stop motion animation.
“Teaching people the art of stop motion animation is really special because it’s very human and hands-on,” Tipton said. “We’re just showing people how special it is to have a human touch in every frame.”
Tipton said stop motion is an important skill for students to learn in an industry that is trying to convince people that a human touch is not needed.
“Stop motion is incredibly magical because it is from your own hands, you cannot get a computer to do it,” Tipton said.
Tipton said stop motion also teaches students important skills that they can use in other places. She said it’s an art form that shows how motivated you are to create.
“Especially in art, learning how to have patience in what you’re creating is so important,” Tipton said. “Not even in new media, in any facet of your life, being able to be patient and let something grow slowly is really important.”
