what are you guys thinking about ai for vfx

[hannes603]

just wondering how people here in the forum thinking about this topic. 

As a fx artist at my company i hear clients often asking for ai effects and cheaper timeframes. Currently we can use it in more and more but still rare cases. What are your experiences ? 

[Sepu]

Hey Hannes, my experience with it as been a mix, some people usually the one with less experience, want to copy basically the concept, idea, design one to one to with the generated image and people who really understand or have more knowledge in the whole process usually get ideas of the image but they do not want to copy it, if that make sense. Lately though more and more people is using, and with the ones that have less experience is tough to make them understand that is not as easy as they think, I have been in meetings with clients and trying to explain the whole thing is tiring. With that said these type of clients are few though, most of the people that I work with, clients and co worker get the picture. Now where all this is going, I do not think anybody cant really answer that yet.  We can def see some benefits but also negatives about this whole AI thingy. 

 

[hannes603]

i wish, more people would join this discussion  just to see the houdini arists perspective on it

[paranoidx]

I found they had been very helpful and contributes greatly to research and study for my workflow. It allows me to quickly adjust my workflow in a hands-on way, avoid repeated mistakes, build more meaningful tools and methods, explore different frameworks, and gain clearer product definitions.

I use NotebookLM to systematize my documents and notes, while employing GPT to explore frameworks and clarify scope, architecture, and pipelines. I also use Grok in a more conservative way, which I really appreciate. It helps me stay grounded and realistic by engaging with real-world data, surveys, audits, and measurements before moving into project planning. In that sense, Grok helps challenge assumptions and debate scope and definitions. Meanwhile, Claude is very useful for quietly assisting with hands-on tasks and helping produce practical tools that I can apply directly in manual workflows.

I’ve also noticed some mismatches online when people discuss AI in the context of VFX and animation. Many conversations confuse generative AI (for images or video) with AI used for automation, reasoning, or workflow support. These are very different applications. In production environments, AI is often more useful for speeding up processes, reducing repeated mistakes, and helping frame the correct scope of a project.

For technical and visual production, it’s important to clarify what type of AI we are actually referring to before discussing solutions. Doing so helps align both the questions and the answers, ensuring everyone is on the same page. This kind of clarity creates the constructive and energetic discussions that I always appreciate when engaging with the Houdini/Technical Art community.

These things remind me of the Houdini community when I first tried to break in from scratch. There were many mysteries and untold details, sometimes things people preferred not to share, especially when there was no clear commercial benefit. Over time, I realized that sharing knowledge is actually a way for me to learn more myself.

In reality, only a small number of people will truly understand these ideas and extract what is useful for their own workflows, allowing them to evolve. Meanwhile, AI is advancing rapidly, often faster than major corporations can fully realize. Because of that, I feel comfortable sharing new discoveries, while still valuing the importance of revisiting old topics, practicing fundamentals, and digging deeper into the foundations.

In the end, strong fundamentals are what improve real understanding, not hype, marketing scam, or FOMO driven trends that produce flashy ideas but vanishes within weeks.