Free 3D modeling software (opens in a new tab) Blender now supports the Stable Diffusion AI graphics generator, thanks to the equally free Stability AI add-on.
Dubbed Stability for Blender, the text-to-image generator allows users to “add AI processing effects to renders,” revealed Stability AI. Working in 3D software, they can experiment with scenes without endless rebuilding, generating textures, animations and images with text prompts and tool style settings.
By integrating Stable Diffusion into Blender, the company hopes to streamline the design process and make the tools more accessible without investing in dedicated hardware, such as high-end GPU (opens in a new tab) AND graphic design laptops (opens in a new tab).
Artificial intelligence and copyright
But the AI tool can also offer an unexpected bonus for creatives. Artists, animators, and modelers who download the add-on will be able to use the platform’s image editor to create textures and images.
According to the company, users can go further by creating keyframes for all properties and creating animations that “take advantage of Blender’s built-in animation system to automate properties in Stable Diffusion.” By entering a text prompt, the tool creates an image using the artist’s existing rendering.
In this way, Stability for Blender has the potential to override one of the biggest challenges facing content creators, content distributors and AI developers: copyright infringement.
With all of artists to be sued by Getty Images AI platform (opens in a new tab) for illegal use of copyrighted material, using rendered frames as a starting point for the dissemination process may yet prove to be the (somewhat) definitive answer to the question “Who owns AI art?”
The launch comes just a few months after the rival AI platform OpenAI has revealed its own 3D model builder (opens in a new tab). Its POINT-E solution “creates 3D models in just 1-2 minutes on a single GPU,” said the developer, while acknowledging that it currently “doesn’t meet the latest standards in terms of sample quality.”
Users with a Stability AI API key can download the Blender add-on by clicking Here (opens in a new tab).