December 2023
I spent this past weekend playing around and experimenting with some of the latest versions of generative art programs.
I’ve always enjoyed creating character designs and story outlines since I was a kid, but never had the talent for visual art. So it was fun to explore what these programs are currently capable of. I ended up making a visual piece about money, which I thought to be neat and will share here.
The Four Monies
“The Four Monies” personifies four different monies with a fantastical theme, and tells a brief story about them.
You can download a larger 1400 x 1400 version of the image here.
The Golden Monarch
The Golden Monarch economically defeated all opposition and reigned supreme for thousands of years. Now ancient and wise, and having seen the entirety of history, he contemplates his diminishing role in the modern world and wonders if he could have done anything differently.
Lord Sam, aka “The Uncle”
Lord Sam, usurper of gold, known merely as “the Uncle” to many, sits at the Cantillon Source and wields the mighty dollar. Liberating in his youth, now oppressive in his age. His monetary power reigns supreme but shows increasing signs of decadence, decay, and defiance.
The Dragon Emperor
The Dragon Emperor, commander of the Red Army, seeks to rebuild his nation’s lost power from ages past. He tasked his legion of wizards to create a portal that allows him to surveil and control all subjects in his dominion. If others must lose their freedom for his grand designs to be achieved, so be it.
Archmage Nakamoto
Archmage Nakamoto creates a new monetary power that even he himself cannot control, in an attempt to liberate people as Lord Sam once did. Will it be successful or not? And how will people wield it? He knows not the answers to these questions, but forges the Genesis Block regardless.
-Download the 1920 x 1080 “The Four Monies” narration wallpaper here.
-Download the 1920 x 1080 “The Four Monies” workspace wallpaper here.
-Download the 1260 x 2800 “The Four Monies” vertical narration piece here.
Forging of the Genesis Block
AI art might seem as simple as writing a prompt and getting a picture. And indeed it does save a tremendous amount of time and gives the gift of art to non-artists. However, it still has trouble with certain details that true artists can do, and so usually in order to make something that you’re truly happy with that reflects your vision, it takes a *lot* of retries and editing. In order to make this art, in addition to the initial research I did, I had to create dozens of images and then continually refine the ones that were close.
From my experience at the current time, DALL-E is better than Midjourney at making text and logos, like a Bitcoin logo. However, DALL-E doesn’t seem capable of doing the specific animation and lighting effects that I wanted for this piece, or at least I couldn’t get it to make art that looks like this. As a result, I used Midjourney, but struggled with making Bitcoin logos until I finally got them in an image that was sufficiently epic for what I was trying to visualize.
So, I ended up with a lot of otherwise cool images that were kind of “duds” due to lacking the right logo. I decided to take some of the duds and give Archmage Nakamoto’s creation process a bit more of a visual story.
In this prequel piece, “Forging of the Genesis Block”, Archmage Nakamoto studies the prior art of his predecessors and tinkers tirelessly with his creation. The images progress from a small physical object, to an increasingly large and ethereal one over time, until ultimately the Bitcoin timechain arises with the launch of the Genesis Block.
-Download the 1920 x 1080 “Forging of the Genesis Block” wallpaper here.
If you enjoyed this, check out my book Broken Money to dive into these monetary concepts in more depth.