Capcom Artist Kinu Nishimura Speaks Out About AI Stifling Creativity

Kinu Nishimura, the artist behind many of the iconic Capcom games, and especially Street Fighter titles, has recently chimed in on the topic of people using AI images as instructions when commissioning artists.

The thread kicked off with Atsushi Tomito making a post proposing that it would be better for people to simply communicate the prompts to the artist, instead of using the GenAI images.

This kicked off a major discussion on Japanese side of Twitter, with Kinu Nishimura eventually chiming in to agree with the statement, saying that it's pointless to use the AI images when you commission the artist, because it's part of their job to interpret your request and produce the best possible image out of this.

Outside the obvious issue of AI image potentially copying the work of someone else and creating issues down the road, when you as a client approach the artist with what is effectively bad but finished piece, you don't leave them much room to invent something different and uniquely yours.

She later pointed out that this seems to be getting more common, and that most people do it with good intentions, thinking that it will be easier for them to create a finished piece if the client provides as much information as possible.

However, as evident here, in some cases there is simply too much information. Kinu Nishimura states that it's fine, after all, it's her job as an artist to take in the information provided, and turn it into a finished artwork. She also uses another example, reminding people that animators often get very rough storyboards before turning those into the fleshed out animations.