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Pikazo — Remix your photos into incredible artwork
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With Pikazo, you can turn any photo into compelling, lasting visual art. Using next generation neural networks, Pikazo works the way your brain does to rip apart and assemble image details into something new and extraordinary -- like taking a Glasshole Kitty + a salad and turning it into a Glasshole Kitty Salad.
The makers @nrose and @qarl are around so ask them anything. And I think they'll be happy to mash up some images for the community, so give them suggests and lets see what Pikazo comes up with!
Top Hunter
This seems like an app version of DeepArt. What's happening on the backend? Is this using the Deep Dreams software?
@chrismessina Hey Chris! I can't speak for how anyone else is doing it but our backend is a deep neural net that's a simulation of the human visual cortex, and it lives in the cloud. The app makes it really easy to get the images in and out and shared to Facebook, plus notifications.
Top Hunter
@nrose are you using Google's Deep Dream software on the backend or did you develop the neural network algorithms yourself?
@chrismessina It's not using Deep Dream at all but we're definitely standing on the shoulders of giants in terms of integrating existing neural network approaches.
It anyone wants to know more or try and stump our team we'll be doing a live Q&A on blab in a few minutes! https://blab.im/noah-rosenberg-p...
Hey everyone! It's Noah and Karl from Pikazo here and we've got our best artists with us. We thought it would be fun to do some live Pikazo'ing so you all can see what the app is capable of.
So if you have any requests before trying the app yourself, you can try and stump the team by posting them here!
This app is super interesting! Thanks for creating it @nrose @qarl
Questions:
Is the wait time for image creation intentional, a technical constraint or both? In a world where people demand things from their phones instantly, it's cool to see something that takes time.
What's your vision for the product?
Who are artists that are important to you and why?
@shaunmodi I love these questions!
1. We're working on speeding it up, but this is absolutely on the forefront of computer science and a few years from being real time on device. We're using THE FASTEST GPUs and it's still a "cookies in the oven" scenario.
2. Our vision for Pikazo is we want anyone to feel like they can hit a "home run" when it comes to art. Most people tried drawing as kids and eventually felt embarrassed at expressing themselves. Pikazo is here to let anyone make incredible, expressive, beautiful statements.
3. Picasso of course, because of his relentless bravery in exploring new pictorial possibilities. Braques for making it beautiful :) Kandinski for tying form to spirituality. Eisner for elevating the simple mark and the word to the highest level.
Been a user for a week or so now and I must say, while every photo combination doesn't come out perfect, most of the thrill is in the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how a Pikazo will turn out, and sheer joy when you create something amazing. It's also a great feeling when you create something awesome that your peers on Pikazo (posting on Instagram or Facebook) applaud your creations.
Hi - great job and I downloaded the app. Quick question - I see the images created are a bit low res - will there be an option to have them higher res?
@dnoparavandis yes. there are both logistic and financial considerations regarding high res - but it's our #1 priority right now.
@qarl @dnoparavandis Your app is addicting - trying all sort of different combinations :)
@ovinegrean you've always been an artist, we've just given you a smarter brush :)
@nrose - OK, been playing with it for the last 24 hrs or so and I think there are so many cool aspects to it.
I love that you can pick your own images for the styles
I love that they don't always come out the same
Sometimes they don't work, but I think you did a great job setting the expectation for the app here so I don't mind when that happens - I am happy to experiment just like one might with real art
Question: Can you control how fine-grained the strokes / surface areas are by submitting a larger / smaller style image?
This makes me think of something that would be on Pee-wee's Playhouse - that is to say, it looks really cool.
This app is brilliant! It's fun to use, really great visual, awesome default behaviour, UX nailed it! The only confusing bit is why exactly would I want to join Salon? Just for sharing my creations? Thanks!
Pretty clever stuff here. Looking forward to how this app develops. Would love to see a share option to post on Instagram
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