I’m an artist who’s been working with a team of other artists making a plugin that allows you to stream your art as a live installation, so people can watch your canvas in real time as their desktop wallpaper. It also allows for easily recorded timelapses and streams with a single click, and eventually will have partnerships with art galleries/museums to be displayed elsewhere.
At the moment it’s being offered to seasoned Krita artists. If you’d like to have the unique opportunity to try the plugin, applications are currently open. I recommend giving it a shot!
Is this the next attempt to acquire artists’ works cheaply by having them deliver their works themselves?
Given the enormous number of scripts that must be enabled in order to fully inspect the site, the project’s website is essentially a data collection and money-making machine.
And why would someone who is courting the trust and works of artists hide behind pseudonyms with their team, or simply call themselves meaningless and anonymous artists?
I’m sorry, but if I had something to offer, I wouldn’t offer it here. I can not tell it for sure, but it feels like a scam.
I’ve installed the plugin, I have an account on the site and I’ve applied for a free public artist installation/gallery.
Everyone please cross your fingers for the SuprCanvas committee to vote ‘yes’ for me to have this.
I’m hoping that, after a while, galleries and institutions will then contact me to offer exhibitions of my work and maybe even a few residencies in the future.
I completely relate to the cynicism. If you’re skeptical I’d encourage you to look a bit deeper into the terms/conditions and chat with the devs. I’ve been working with them for several months and feel pretty confident they have the same values as you and I in regards to keeping artists’ data protected from tech companies.
They’re also working on something similar to Glaze/Nightshade that will poison anyone who attempts to screenshot or use artist data for datasets.
Let me know if you want to talk with the dev team and voice your concerns directly.
So your not able to use obs like a normal person ? Why i would need a plugin to lag me even more ?
I Checked the website and now i agree it looks like a scam. I guess they want to train the method to draw not just generating the inages now? After all time lapses is the only proof artists have now.
Always 4gb to install ai things No one can really optimize them i guess …
I’m thinking about closing this topic as it has no relevance to Krita development. Additionally this post looks like an ad more than anything else and like the others mentioned the website and the product has a few red flags.
For now I will move this to off-topic topic discussion and we can perhaps discuss if it’s good or useful but honestly I’m inclined to delete this for being an ad.
It’s also worth mentioning that this will only be available to people in the USA and that the connection to museums and institutions is nothing more than a promise right now, according to the website.
I just saw there is actually a plug in for Krita. I downloaded it and looked into it to see how it works but the code is obfuscated just like malware normally is. This is a huge red flag. I’m currently dissecting the code but for now I have removed the link from OP’s post.
So I looked through it and it seems to be safe (at least the version I got from the site). I did not check yet if it’s build in update function downloads safe code but it’s always the same with self updating applications, you can not really know so I guess it is okay.
So basically what this plug-in does it creates a PNG of your current Projection Pixel Data (basically what you see on the canvas) and sends them to their server every few seconds. What happens there only their devs know but my guess is they simply create a video file and that’s it.
The plug in won’t work on Linux but it could with just a few lines of code changed I think.
If you’re using a custom resource location, it will break when updating itself due to hard coded resource folder path, instead of reading it from Krita’s config.
It will not work with files larger width than 3840 or height larger than 2160.
I’m not exactly sure how it handles color management, I guess that depends on how Krita’s projectionPixelData handles them.
It definitely does not let people see every stroke like they’re done on the drawing pad, like the websites says since the canvas is only checked for changes every 3.3 seconds.
No AI involved on the client at least (their website mentions there are anti AI in every step)
Not sure how changing the canvas size mid painting will affect the time lapse.
It’s not live streaming. The website explicitly mentions this because they don’t want to create unnecessary internet traffic. I only mention this because OP claims it does.
Essentially it does what the recorder docker does but sending all the PNGs to their server instead of storing them locally. I don’t see why not simply having a upload button for recordings but I guess because they want to retain the original quality and since the rendering is done on their servers you are not limited to your own computers memory and storage.
I don’t know why they say it takes 4 GB to install, perhaps it is for the client that Subscribers use since recordings can get pretty huge.
I put the link back in but personally I wouldn’t trust it for the obfuscation of the code alone.
It is always interesting to see how people deal with someone who asks (uncomfortable?) questions.*
Especially if the answer contained nothing to hide, the person being asked could answer it openly for everyone to see!**
To portray the questioner as a cynic through appropriate sentence structure is an attempt to make them look bad and force them into a defensive position***.
And then to tell them to find the answers themselves****.
I have expressed my concerns here that this could be the next attempt to harm the artistic community. And this has absolutely nothing to do with cynicism; it is based much more on real experiences in recent years.
The fact that the website is peppered with masses of scripts, as I described, is a fact. I am not being cynical. What is cynical is to operate such a monstrous website when you supposedly want to do something good. You don’t need these scripts to spread the good news about a new tool whose presentation sounds too good to be true - that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong, but it should be reason enough to question their purpose and existence.
Considering the way the user @Mist “argued” with me, I prefer to hold back in this discussion and not continue it.
Here is some material that backs up my claims from yesterday with facts:
Below you will find downloadable PDFs about the script providers that go the furthest, placing masses of ad trackers and third-party cookies on your browsers to spy on you and supply you with advertising, or as I said yesterday, “to make money.” Other measures used against you include recording your keystrokes, also known as keylogging.
This was only the data from the script providers that could be partially scanned.
I can’t say whether the script providers that actively prevent the analysis of their pages are perhaps even more to be feared, due to a lack of data, but I certainly don’t trust anyone who has something to hide while using scripts on me. If you want to find out for yourself, you can check the following pages yourself via The Markup’s: Blacklight “A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector.”
This screenshot is a collage of two screenshots, as NoScript cannot list so many script providers at once. I have partially masked the URL due to possible risks for users. Anyone who searches for and visits the site does so at their own risk! The collage can be downloaded with the PDFs linked below.
Oh, I see, @Takiro has in between set the URL back online.
And here is the link to PDFs and collage (everything can also be viewed online without downloading):
Michelist
*I can only recommend that anyone interested study argumentation theory and rhetoric; terms such as derailment and red herring can also be helpful or “enlightening” here.
** Why doesn’t they do this? Doesn’t they want anyone to read the answer?
*** Implicitly accusing the questioner (of what? (Fouling one’s own nest, lèse-majesté?)), cynicism here!
**** Why does someone ask? Because they know the answer? I would have liked to have had one, but after this analysis, I am no longer interested!
Generally I’m also always suspicious when seeing the words “empowering artist” written in a product description because in recent years, all the new “tools” that claimed to do this mostly turned out to be a scam in some way or another. But I guess that’s for another topic’s discussion.
What’s interesting ist that the websites does not show as many scripts for me 14 in total wich most of them being the classic content deliverer and the other half being different google services. Not unheard of, while still annoying. Perhaps some are simply not loaded because they are loaded by other scripts.
What’s interesting ist that the websites does not show as many scripts for me
That is not impossible, but may also be because your VPN, I believe you use one, filters some out, which mine does, therefore this screenshot was taken with VPN deliberately being deactivated. Good VPN’s filter the really nasty scripts away.
Always a good idea to be cautious about stuff you can get from the internet. Normally when something sounds too good to be true it’s because it isn’t.
I also would say it’s legit but poorly made, maybe. But on the other hand there are like three or more disclaimers on the website telling everyone that it’s still an experimental prototype so that’s to be expected if you ask me.
I can attest that I’ve been testing and giving feedback to the dev team (who are also artists) creating this for a while now, and I’ve had nothing but good experiences so far. It’s an interesting plugin made with good intentions and it’d be neat if they had other artists to offer feedback.
Not sure about the website scripts as I don’t have a technical background. Agreed that the website wording feels a bit techy, my eyes tend to glaze over a bit when I see ‘empowering artists’ but after chatting with the devs a lot I think it comes from a place of genuine enthusiasm about the plugin.
Really good insights. Regarding point 3, from personal experience I’ve been able to draw in 4,000-5,000 pixel canvases without any issue. You’re right about the streaming bit, I suppose that’s largely just how it seems when I’m using it (since the updates are live).
Do you have any notes or feedback before putting the plugin back in the plugins forum? It’s not an ad by any means, I’ve never had to pay to use the platform and it’s completely free for artists (funded by taking viewer donations/sub similar to Twitch/Patreon/Ko-fi) It’s a passion project made by good folks that’s been in development for over a year, I’m hoping that more people get to try it.
Hey Michelist. I am someone who is personally cynical towards most new tech that claims to be made for artists, and I also think skepticism is perfectly reasonable. If you have any questions I can personally bring them to the dev team and relay the answers publicly if you’d prefer. I do not have a technical background, I’m primarily an artist, so I wouldn’t really have those answers myself. My main interest is to offer the plugin to other Krita artists who’d like to try it.
Don’t obfuscate the plug-in code. This will immediately trip off every developer that has the slightest idea about malware and how they usually try to hide their payload, and it perhaps even will alert some malware scanners.. There is really no need to do it anyway and since their license note at the top says it is LGPL it would need to distribute or make the code available anyway.
Remove the hard coded resource paths in the plug-in’s update routine because these won’t work if Krita is configured to use a custom resource location in it’s settings and the updates will fail. I believe the configured resource path can be retrieved from Krita itself via the Python API and this would automatically make the plug-in Linux compatible too.
In addition to the tech feedback (website is currently under maintenance, will see if any of it can be implemented) do you have thoughts regarding the wording of the website info in general? It’s a bit concerning that people seeing red flags that are the polar opposite of the plugin’s intentions (there are a few comments earlier in the thread accusing the plugin of being ai-related or meant for data collection, when in reality the team is heavily anti-ai and focused on protecting artist’s work from tech companies and data scraping). Do you have any insight as to why people might be getting this impression?
I initially found the plugin a while back when I was looking for some lightweight streaming alternatives to OBS and I actually had a similar impression of the website, but it’s hard to put my finger on specifically what about it is causing these feelings. Would really appreciate your perspective on why folks feel this way. Cheers.
The plugin itself may be okay, @Takiro already mentioned it.
The website is a huge data-collecting monster. It may be build using a website building toolkit of a web-hosting-service, so, a few of the scripts may be pushed into it by the company you host the site on. However, I cannot recall any such service that uses so many scripts, as these can be a huge problem for those who host their websites with them, as you can see with your website right now.
And therefore, I’m very sure that this huge battery in whole is set up deliberately by those who build and run the website.
But such things must not be! If you compare that with the homepage of The New York Times (NYT), then you’ll see that it is not necessary to hunt your visitors down in order to offer a high modern and informative website. The NYT uses 5 own scripts, plus 2 standard Google scripts, plus the Open Source Software package from Datadoghq-browser-agent[dot]com, a very well and open documented data-collection script (which I also dislike, but its reputation is okay), and on a few pages they offer they use scripts to provide audio and video content. And there is the difference.
Your website works (together) with the AI-Bros from Atlassian. Microsoft’s Clarity plugin is profiling your visitors. The company embedly[dot]com offers “simple ways to embed multimedia”, but everything is connected with everything and also can spy on the users, if only multimedia is served, or if also the switches to spy are set, I can’t see, but the question is why use this toolkit? HubSpot offers “Software & Tools for your Business - Homepage”, software to make businesses even more profitable. Okay, nothing against earning money, but I can’t say I like the way how it is earned.
… And to not write the whole night through, I’ll stop this now. But one positive thing exists, if by chance or by choice I don’t know, but all companies providing scripts are rated “safe” at webmaster-tips. Which does not change the fact that this website attempts to examine every visitor more thoroughly than a comprehensive health checkup, including cancer screening and a full-body MRI.
