What if Chacha Chaudhary - the Indian comic book character known for his razor-sharp brain - were to come alive? How would he have looked in real life? Or how would Mowgli from The Jungle Book appear in real life? Would he still be endlessly curious or testing his limits? All these questions can be answered now, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). A Brazilian digital artist has created a fascinating series of “portraits” of popular comic characters using AI. After learning that AI software can create near-real portraits of people who actually do not exist, the artist, Hidreley Leli Diao, decided to use the technology in creative ways.
With state-of-the-art AI photo software, Mr Diao has created lifelike portraits of some of his favourite comic book characters, such as Moe from The Simpsons, Moana, Prince Eric and Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, and Jasmine and Aladdin. His Instagram handle has AI-assisted portraits of Flynn Rider from Tangled, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Goku from Dragon Ball, Violet from The Incredibles, and Bruno from Encanto among others. The results are incredible to behold. Take a look:
Mr Diao told PetaPixel that he had been reading on several studies and practicing a lot to “bring some Disney characters to human life”.
He has shared all the 23 cartoon characters that he has created so far on Bored Panda, an online art and pop culture magazine. He wrote on the website it was natural for us to accept the “cartoonish proportions” of the characters that we watch or see. “But what if, as in a spell, they became real, flesh and blood?”
Mr Diao used Photoshop and three mobile AI photo editing apps — FaceApp, Gradient, and Remini — to create the portraits. He scoured the Web for portraits containing facial features matching the characters. “I look for images in banks and overlay the image starting with the eyes,” Mr Diao says. “The hardest part is finding an image that matches the character I'm working on.”
Mr Diao is currently working on a project to try to show what some celebrities would have looked like if they were still alive. “I hope it will turn out great, and I'll be able to share this with you soon.”
