Unwrapping CMF Design on the Future with AI 拆招CMF設計談與人工智能共舞

[ 彩材拆拆 x UNWRAP CMF ]
Ch.38 Unwrapping CMF design on the future with AI
Ch.38 拆招CMF設計談與人工智能共舞

^{CMF is a specific discipline within industrial design that focuses on the development of a product’s color, material, and finish. Unwrap CMF writes about little stories of CMF Design for those who are interested in learning more about this niche field. Comments and inspirations are welcome!}

In the end of 2021, I wrote an article reflecting the thoughts on Metaverse, and today, within less than 2 years, a new question has risen: “Will AI replace our jobs as CMF Designers?”

Firstly, I don’t want to overrule the discussion with fears. Rather, we should be thinking about how we can work with AI to boost the efficiency at CMF workplaces. Allowing ourselves to progress CMF skills with AI is the solution to keep up with technological advancement and not be left behind.

Midjourney and ChatGPT, both still in their infant stages, have already proven potential as CMF tools. For designers who aren’t great with words, ChatGPT can help generate inspirational vocabularies, which in turn helps us better express CMF intents in text. If you ever feel like always repeating the same word, give ChatGPT a try and see if there is any other synonym. Do you ever come across the feeling that you know exactly what you want to say, except your verbal part of the brain doesn’t want to work? Perhaps, in situations like this, that is something ChatGPT can give the first lift.

That being said, do keep in mind and avoid using ChatGPT as an encyclopedia, as not all answers by ChatGPT are 100% accurate to the truth. Utilize it as a source of inspiration, or a dictionary when lacking a word.

And importantly, ???? ????????. Don’t just copy and paste. Keep the content with a personal touch. Also, learn from the AI tool and grow your vocabulary library, so next time, with or without the help of AI, your own writing is as well elevated.

Midjourney, as a word-to-image generator, can also act as a fountain of inspiration in a different way. If we are what we see, there is only so much we have seen since the day of our birth. But that’s not the same for Midjourney. It can process all the imagery out there in the world without physical presence. That means, with the infinity of references, Midjourney is capable of producing limitless visual possibilities, and making it a great tool as an inspiration generator.

The other reason for that is, ChatGPT has a stronger understanding of language, but in contrast, via the verbal prompts, Midjourney doesn’t always capture the user’s original intent, making it not an ideal rendering program for specific requests. For example, when asked to create a hand holding a red object, Midjourney might mistakenly spread the color of red also to the background of the image. And vice versa, when asked to illustrate an object on a marble table, it might mistakenly also put some marble patterns on the object.

Despite a few minor flaws, Midjourney is still a powerful tool for contributing visual inspirations. It can be used for CMF moodboard creation or as visual references for materials and textures. And pretty soon in the future, I can imagine a brainstorming room equipped with AI, where we will be speaking to the air and asking: “Hey Midjourney, show us 10 inspirations of different texture designs, retrofuturistic style. Oh, and please use translucent fabric materials and add a sheen.”

Going back to the very first question, will we be replaced by AI? We thought robots would replace the execution part of the workforce, but instead, Midjourney and ChatGPT have shown us their capability in creativity. However, the scope of CMF Designers is not fully dependent on either the execution or the creativity pillar. So who knows? Maybe a hundred years later, if CMF can be designed by artificial intelligence, the world might still need human designers to execute the CMF of spaceships ?

^{Notes: All images are collaboratively generated with Midjourney. The English text is manually written by human intelligence, with the help of ChatGPT on polishing the Chinese translation.}

Continue reading:
Ch32. Unwrapping CMF Design on Quick Thoughts on Metaverse

^{CMF為Color Material and Finishing，譯為色彩、材質、及表面處理工藝，屬於工業設計旗下重要的一環。Unwrap CMF（彩材拆拆）將圍繞著這個主題，以淺而易懂的小故事拆解 CMF設計師的日常。}

2021年底，我寫了一篇關於元宇宙的文章，不到兩年後的今天，新的提問又接踵而至：「人工智能會取代我們CMF設計師的工作嗎？」

首先，我不希望恐懼使我們忽略了這個議題的重要之處。相反地，我們應正視並探討如何使用AI來提昇CMF設計師的工作效率。只有使AI襯托並疊加我們自身的能力，才能科技進步並肩而行。

Midjourney和ChatGPT都處於起步階段，但已處處證明了它們作為CMF工具的潛力。對於不善言辭的設計師，ChatGPT可助於生成詞彙，進而幫助設計師更好地用文字表達CMF的概念。如果你總是重複使用同一個單字，不妨試試ChatGPT，看看是否能找到其他同義詞。有時你可能還遇過這樣的情況：明明腦海中隱隱約約浮現想要表達的意思，偏偏大腦卻生不出適當的文字？或許這就是ChatGPT可以助一臂之力的地方。

雖然這麼說，但萬萬別將ChatGPT當作百科全書，因為截至目前為止，並非所有ChatGPT的答應都百分百準確。更適合運用ChatGPT的方式是將其作為文字的靈感來源，或在缺少單詞時作為字典使用。

更更更重要的是，請保持原創，不要只是複制和粘貼。維持文字中的個人風格，並運用AI工具加強自身的詞彙庫，這樣在將來，無論有沒有AI的幫助，你的聽說讀寫都能向上提升檔次。

Midjourney作為文字轉圖像的生成器，也可以以不同的方式充當靈感的源泉。如果我們的世界觀是建立於雙眼可視、雙耳可聞的基礎上，那打自出生起，我們所建立的世界觀也不過就這麼大。但對Midjourney來說就不一樣了～它可以在沒有物理侷限的情況下搜集並處理世界上所有的圖像。這也意味著，憑藉著無限的參考資源，Midjourney可產出的圖像具有無限的可能性，也是因為這個原因使其成為激發靈感的絕佳工具。

這其中另一個原因是，ChatGPT對於語言的理解能力更強，但相對而言，透過文字指令，Midjourney並不能保證每次都能正確地理解使用者的原意並將之視覺化，使其不適合作為指令明確的渲染工具。比如，當指令寫明要一隻手拿著紅色物品時，Midjourney可能會錯誤地將紅色也套用在圖片的背景中。或者像是當指令寫明一個在大理石桌面上的物品，它可能會產生誤判，也把大理石紋理套用在物品上。

儘管有一些小缺小陷，Midjourney仍然是提供設計靈感的強大工具。它可以被用來生成CMF情緒板的素材，或者用於生成材質和紋理的參照示意圖。在不久的將來，也許每個會議室都會配備AI設備，而人類設計師將在空蕩蕩的房間中對著空氣問道：「嘿，Midjourney，給我們看看10種不同紋理靈感，要帶有復古未來主義風格。喔對了，還要使用半透明的織物材料，並有點キラキラ那種。」

現在，讓我們回到第一個問題，我們是否會被AI取代？曾經何時，我們一度以為機器人取代的會是最基礎的勞動力，但相反地，Midjourney和ChatGPT紛紛向我們展示了他們的創造力。然而，CMF設計師的範疇並不完全偏靠於執行力或創造力任何一方。所以啊～誰知道呢？也許一百年後，即使CMF可以由人工智能設計，這個世界可能仍需要人類設計師來執行宇宙飛船的CMF歐?

^{備註：本篇所有圖像都是與Midjourney協作而成。英文文本由人類智能手動撰寫，再借助ChatGPT對中文翻譯進行潤稿。}