Louis van Amerongen

@robertrioux Don’t let the comments get to you. Everyone can post on X, but most of the negativity is just people trying to lift themselves up by tearing others down. Keep doing what you do — it’s inspiring.

@robertrioux Hi Robert! Hey, just wanted to say I respect and appreciate you very much. Your incredible work at the major film studios, the stuff you share online, and everything you create is genuinely fantastic.

Wow! The last 3 days have been insane! 247k views for 3 posts, and that's not including all the responses. My notification page is going crazy. I can't follow all the conversations anymore. I got more than 20 while writing this post! I would like to address something that I keep repeating in my comments. Many said I'm just lazy, I should 'just' learn programming. Education would be good for me. I should do the CG myself instead of using AI, I'm not a real artist, I have no talent. Obviously, those of you who know me know better. But many new faces here. So here we go. I've studied graphic design, professional photography, directing, producing and screenwriting. I am presently doing a bachelor degree in game development, and I'm 56. I start working every day at about 7:30 and finish late at night. On top of that I do freelance jobs because I need money. I'm anything but lazy. I just know where to put my energy. I've been working as a CG artists since 1995. I've worked on over 70 movies, many TV series, commercials and videoclips. I won a few awards during my career. I will certainly NOT learn advanced math and programming because I need an addon once in a while. Making addons are not my job. I make them to fill a gap, do something that Blender can't or doesn't do properly. I do them using AI because I have no other options. By the way, with the hundreds of comments I got, not a single one of you proposed to make my addons, so I wouldn't have to use AI. Some people don't seem to understand the difference between generative ai for images and video and coding. I did experiment with image and video generations. I'm well aware of the possibilities and how it can and will affect the VFX industry. It will kill many jobs. What required weeks or months can now be done with a prompt. That's one of the reasons I'm switching to gaming while there's still manual jobs to be done. But it will hurt that industry too. I know very well that it can't be stopped too. When Midjourney came out, I have to admit I found it very exciting. It's such a powerful tool. And now seadance and nano banana... Then my daughter wanted to study illustration and I had to tell her that she should find another field of study as this field will slowly die because of AI. AI killed her dream job before she even started it. I'm against using generative AI in general but I don't have an issue with me, personally, using Claude to make my addons as it will NOT AFFECT anyone's job. I can't afford to hire devs to make them. And I give them all for free to the community. I'm against generative music too. But coding is not based on stolen art. You can't say write a code in the style of this programmer. I have no issues using generative AI to create zDepth passes or other technical fields that can't be done by humans. About the environmental impact of AI, it's huge. My 45 addons didn't make a scratch compared to the 5 BILLION facebook users who spend most of their time flipping cat videos. What do you think Google, YouTube, X, Instagram and all the other do for the environment? Yet some people scream at me because I'm using Claude once in a while. Finally, about job loss, I was there when the industry switched from 2D animation to 3D. Thousands of 2D artists lost their jobs. We, CG people, where hated of stealing their jobs. We were not real artists as the computer would to the animation. We, CG people, are responsible for the loss of thousands of jobs. Maybe you are too young to realize that. 2D artists had to either adapt to the new reality, learn 3D or change field of work. Think about it. Another comment that came often: You didn't create anything. Claude did. If you punch a hole in a wall, the hammer did the hole, not you. Well, no. I made the hole using a tool. You can't personalize a tool. Nobody will say: which hammer did a hole in the wall? Your honor, I didn't kill that person. The bullet did. Claude doesn't create addons by itself. It starts with an idea and you need to guide Claude to do it. It's not like you just write one prompt and you are done. Some of my addons took me weeks for fighting with Claude or ChatGPT. I'm a CG artist. I do my modeling, I do my textures, I do my VFX. Claude just help be being more efficient. And that's all I have to say about that.

@javilopen Hi Javi, Great to hear that Freepik is now called Magnific—especially since the old name could easily cause some unintended confusion in Dutch. Does this also mean that former Freepik customers get access to Mystic 3? I always felt that this, reg aesthetics, came closest to MJ.

I hope all this fills you with as much happiness as it does us! YOU ARE MAGNIFIC!

IT'S FINALLY HERE! 🔥 Freepik is now Magnific! 🔥 They loved the brand so much they decided to rebrand their/our name/domain. Let me tell you the story of how two guys created the fastest growing bootstrapped startup EVER in history and the love story with Freepik 🧵👇

@agustin_prod @freepik Hi Agustin, the test files (blend, obj+ mtl + texture and glb) can be downloaded here: we.tl/t-WBwUryuMb5Ov…

@Louisva @freepik Can you share your files? I’ll try to see what’s going on

Your next 3D photo shoot will be done with AI 3D Scenes generates full environments from any image → Place your objects in the scene → Move the camera like a real shoot → Consistent lightning and detail across every angle Available now on Freepik 👇

@StupendousNatur I didn’t know Köln was called Ghent now.

Ghent Belgium 🇧🇪

@freepik Thank you Agustin. Tomorrow I will share them. For the test, I used a simple Suzanne (Blender standard object) with a random texture from my library. What is the best way to share it with you?

@freepik I did a test and indeed there is an option to upload the mtl and the textures separately. Unfortunately, when chosen, the textures aren’t visible. Am I doing something wrong?

@javilopen Although it is still in an alpha phase, the quality appears—for now—to have declined significantly. Hands, shapes, and people are often distorted, and what used to look like a photograph now sometimes resembles an oil painting in parts.

Midjourney v8 just came out, and I'm seriously disappointed. V7 left V8 right Seriously??? 😂

@javilopen Hi Javi, this looks very interesting for photographers. I read that it will also be available on Freepik. If Freepik users will be granted access as well, then I’d be interested in running some tests.

First of all, if you can't wait, here you have the link! AVAILABLE NOW on Magnific & rolling out to Freepik users today! I’ll also randomly grant access to some of you who reply with a interesting message 😘 👇👇👇 magnific.ai

IT'S FINALY HERE 🔥 Magnific Skin Enhancer 🔥 • No more AI plastic skins! • Enhance EVERYTHING in your image, not only the skin! • 3 different flavours + easy presets: improve light, level or reality, color grading, etc. Let's dive in + tutorials + tips 🧵👇

@freepik This works, thank you!

@Louisva Could you please clear your cache?

Black Friday starts NOW 💥 Get 50% off annual Premium, Premium+, and Pro plans (until the 27th) 40+ AI Video models cost now less credits for everyone You don’t need to choose, take both

@javilopen I got the same result with objects that were in motion. Motion blur still seems to be a challenge.

Ok, this one didn't change much. I think Sublime recognied that my original photo was already sublime 🤣

Professional photographers don’t know they can improve their work with advanced AI upscaling. I tested it on my old Nikon photos from Tokyo (2014) and the results blew my mind 🤯 Super quick tutorial 🧵👇

@awheintz @javilopen I was initially a bit skeptical, but after some testing, I have to say I got surprisingly good results. The output mainly seems to add extra details rather than changing things — unlike the more creative upscalers (which can also be very useful or necessary at times).

I looked at some of the examples on the site, and as someone who loves photography I am not impressed: The upscaler is far too creative in what it does. Just 2 examples out of many: The structure, type and orientation of the leaves is pure creativity, as is the structure of the wall that is turned from smooth white-washed to fitted stone. Yes, the results „look“ great but the picture is not the same content-wise afterwards. It seems to work better with faces though. So unless you find a way to reign in the „creativity“ it is not a tool for enhancing fotos while preserving their authentic content.

This is just the beginning of what you're going to enjoy from Magnific in the coming weeks and months. We have a ton of new things coming your way and, sorry, but you're not ready for them 😂 They're too amazing for anyone to be ready!

@javilopen Hi @javilopen, could you tell me a bit more about the settings for these results? I’m trying to sharpen a photo that isn’t completely in focus, but the effect is barely noticeable (Freepik, Magnific v2 Photo).

EUREKA x.com/javilopen/stat…

It's a magic moment at Freepik/Magnific when EUREKA moments happens! Someone finds something (could be a new result from a foundational model that has been training for months, a new Comfy workflow, a new paper, a new API released, whatever) and shares it like: LOOK AT THIS SHIT, IT'S AMAZING. Those eureka moments are super rewarding. And you need them, because 90% of the time of working building gen ai tool is just boring stuff, bugs, scalability/infra problems, or deployments that are super hard to pull off :D

show me your art. no words. only art.

@freepik That’s great news! However, it’s disappointing to see that only Premium+ members can access this. Will there be an option for Essential members to use this feature as well?

The wait is finally over, and it feels like magic Magnific Upscaler, the most advanced AI tech to achieve insanely high-res upscaling 🔥 Now available on Freepik AI Suite for Premium+

@Maartenk90 @NS_online Bij mij gebeurd hetzelfde. Er lijkt inderdaad iets niet goed te gaan.