Dialogue with Tudou people: resigned from the advertising creative partner, he worked as an AIGC artist in Xiaohongshu

Original source: DIGITALING

Interview: Wu Xiaobao, Grace, Zhao Lemon

Written by: Xixifu

In April 2023, a group of McDonald's "heirlooms" created by AI technology were screened all over the Internet.

Bronze hamburgers, handed down treasure jade French fries, blue and white porcelain cola... This group of brain-opening creative works sparked heated discussions across the Internet and became a classic case of brand AIGC marketing.

The creator of this group of AI works is called Tudouman.

From the beginning of learning AI painting to the nearly 30,000 fans of Xiaohongshu and the whole network of cases, Tudouren only took more than 5 months.

Curiosity drove us to explore further, and we found another business card of Tudouman——

Former creative partner of Youmen Interactive Advertising. He has devoted himself to creativity in Youmen Interactive for 7 years, and has led many excellent cases in the advertising industry such as Tianyancha × "Zhen Huan Biography", Uniqlo "Xinyika", and China Merchants Bank Constellation Guardian Credit Card.

What made him give up his seven-year advertising career and turn to AIGC? From creative partner to AIGC artist, what advantages does 7 years of advertising creative experience bring to him? After not advertising, how does he view the impact of AIGC on the advertising industry?

With these curiosity, we contacted Tudou people.

1. "Collapse. Rebuild," All that is strong dissolves

Before the official start of the interview, we invited Tudou people to make a sharing on Shuying. The title of this sharing is: "Collapse. Rebuild,"

The Potato Man reminds us that **collapse is followed by a period, and reconstruction is followed by a comma. **This title summarizes his entire mental journey from his first contact with AI painting to becoming an AIGC artist.

Before becoming a "Potato Man", his name was Lin Chen. Lin Chen's story is very similar to yours and mine, and every step is down-to-earth.

Lin Chen's first job was as a university teacher. After graduation, he stayed on to teach in the school and engaged in the teaching of visual communication. Two years later, Lin Chen left university to join Youmen Interactive. In 7 years, he became a creative partner of the company from art design. The turbulent market tide pushes him forward, but he also feels confused occasionally.

Lin Chen said: "I have a very uncomfortable feeling, as if no matter how we change, we can't keep up with the changes in the market."

This sense of uncertainty about the future reached its peak when he first came into contact with Midjourney. Lin Chen said: "When I see that it takes less than 5 seconds to generate an idea, I know that many industries will soon cease to exist. up"**

Midjourney is an AI painting tool that can automatically generate pictures based on text. Pictures that used to take hours or days to design, model, and render can be completed in seconds with Midjourney's super computing power.

Lin Chen gave us an example, "At the end of last year, we cooperated with Tianyancha on a joint project of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". Our entire team has been working on that project for a long time. , to manage the relationship between the characters, the artists drew hundreds of head portraits of the characters in the play one by one, and even went to the copyright owner of "Zhen Huan" to proofread the details repeatedly. But if you use ChatGPT and AI tools to do it today, it turns out that The preparations for the round-the-clock battle in two or three months may really be compressed into a week or two and can be easily completed."

Cutting-edge technology has greatly improved work efficiency, but at the same time it has eliminated the value of work. The experience of staying up all night and working hard in the past seems to have become meaningless in an instant.

"It seems that all the things I have stood for have collapsed." Lin Chen used a vivid metaphor to describe his mentality at the time: "I went to watch "The Wandering Earth 2" during the Spring Festival this year. There was a countdown in the movie. I At that time, I felt that what I saw when I opened my eyes every day was this countdown, watching AI subvert the whole world little by little.”

**After the collapse, it is reconstruction on the ruins. **

AIGC, which subverts cognition, has also become the "life-saving straw" in Lin Chen's hands. Lin Chen, who has been a university visual communication teacher for two years and an advertising and marketing creative for seven years, began to learn how to use AI to draw a picture and make a poster.

In order to learn AIGC, Lin Chen almost devoted all his energy. English is not good, and there are many things to learn. Lin Chen often stays up until three or four in the morning every day to learn the mechanism of AIGC bit by bit, understand every parameter, and measure every keyword.

Lin Chen found that AIGC's creative mode is completely different from the advertising design process used in the past. "In the past, it was about polishing ideas, drafting typesetting, deepening modeling, and finishing drafts, but now it is ideas, results, and result iterations."

What is result iteration? Taking Midjourney as an example, after the user enters text, Midjourney will randomly generate 4 pictures, and the details of each picture are different. If you want to generate a satisfactory picture, you need to enter a new description again for adjustment.

For novices, using Midjourney is like opening a blind box, never knowing what kind of pictures the input words can generate.

After countless nights of study and practice, Lin Chen gradually "tamed" AIGC. In the beginning, it took 80-100 iterations to obtain a satisfactory picture, but now Lin Chen only needs 30-50 iterations, and sometimes a dozen rounds can get close to the result he wants.

**This means that Lin Chen sometimes takes less than 5 minutes from idea to draft; in the past, it may take more than an hour just to render the final draft of the picture. **

Seeing that AIGC has gradually become a handy tool, ** Lin Chen also made a decision that surprised everyone - resigned from the creative partner and became a full-time AIGC artist. **

This is not impulsive willfulness. Lin Chen said: "I am a very stable person. I can see from the 7 years I have worked in Youmen that such a decision was made after careful consideration. The development of AI makes me feel that the ceiling of cognition has been broken. Now, I must arm myself as soon as possible."

So far, the story of "Lin Chen, the creative partner of the advertising company" has come to an end.

The story of "AIGC Artist Potato Man" officially begins.

2. "After not advertising, I became a super advertising company"

1. Become a Xiaohongshu blogger

After turning around and becoming an AIGC artist, Tudou people use Xiaohongshu as the main position to manage their personal IP.

Tudouren’s first work on Xiaohongshu is Nike Miaomiaowu. This Xiaohongshu note has received 4700+ likes and 1400+ favorites.

In the works, the contrast between China's ancient wooden buildings and Nike's modern inflatable materials is sharp and natural. What's more ingenious is that the Chinese style temple fits perfectly with Nike's sports style, just like the brand's own creative pop-up store.

The popularity of this content made the Tudou people realize one thing. **I want to make a name for myself on Xiaohongshu, and I want to make the content that everyone wants to see. There are two specific directions: one is to have visual conflicts, and the other is to be in harmony with Public life is closely related, so Tudouren chooses to cut in from the daily visible buildings and combine the brand for creative creation. **

We can’t help but praise this insight. The creative combination of architecture and brand can produce pop-up stores, theme stores, concept stores and other forms. This kind of content not only revolves around daily necessities of life, but also has a sense of freshness. Popular with female users.

As a result, Tudouren began to publish some architectural and installation art works on Xiaohongshu. At first, it was able to update 1 or 2 notes every day, and the number increased to more than 20,000 in just three months.

"Loewe Flower Palace" by Tudouman

From an advertiser to a Xiaohongshu blogger, Tudou seems to have completed this turn with ease. We are very curious about this, and whether there is any trick in it.

**Shuying: Do you have any experience with the operation of Xiaohongshu? ** Tudouman: My fastest increase in followers was around the Spring Festival in 2023. At that time, the average daily increase was about 1,000 followers. At that time, it was mainly because of the advantage of admission. At that time, AIGC had relatively few high-quality content, especially In terms of architectural installations, so the traffic is all here. In fact, the biggest traffic password of Xiaohongshu is to release high-quality content frequently. **It is also because of AIGC that I can actually do daily updates. I never imagined that the content created in the past few months may exceed the total amount of creations in the past ten years of personal work and study. ** Little Red Book has another powerful feature, everything you pay attention to will come to your eyes. I will add some brand tags in the notes, and I found many brand marketing, and they all think this thing is very interesting.

#### 2. Co-creating art with brands

"Although it no longer advertises, it suddenly becomes a super advertising company."

Tudouren found that every time he published his work on Xiaohongshu, it would trigger a chain reaction.

**Take Nike Sakura Basketball Park, the work with the highest number of likes, as an example. **In this work, the potato man combines the cherry blossoms with the basketball court, creating a subtle Japanese atmosphere between softness and rigidity. After the work was released, many users asked where the basketball park is in the comment area. **As the popularity fermented, Tudouren received a private message from an e-commerce platform in China, inviting him to cooperate with a cherry blossom season project and package urban landmark installations. **

Tudou people refer to works with brand logos as "brand concept hypotheses", which are fundamentally different from the design ideas provided by advertising companies for brands -** advertising companies create ideas based on the needs of the brand side, while "brand's "Concept Hypothesis" takes the creator's personal expression as the starting point, and combining the brand style is just a smooth sailing. **

For example, in this lululemon meditation island, Tudou people wanted to test the effect of "expansion and foaming" in Midjourney, but inadvertently made a lululemon-style installation building, so Tudou people took advantage of the opportunity to add a brand logo to the work, the behind the brand Cultural symbols also bring new ideas to creation.

After the work was released, the content of this note attracted the attention of a fashion luxury brand, and Tudou people were invited to create new products for the brand.

From the perspective of others, AIGC in the hands of Tudou people is like Aladdin's magic lamp, capable of realizing any unconstrained ideas.

But Tudou himself said that the process of using AIGC to create is a game with AI aesthetics. ** For every keyword entered by the user, AI has its own thinking. In order to realize his own ideas, Tudou people need to become extremely patient teachers, guiding AI in every detail.

During the Shanghai Coffee Culture Week in May this year, Meituan Waimai invited Tudou people to create an AI work. A giant wave carrying a cup of takeaway coffee appeared on the Suzhou River. In order to make this work infinitely closer to reality, Tudou people made AI With nearly 1,000 training sessions, Tudouman shows us the entire creation process.

Tudou also made a video of the 1,000 times of AI training process. This video allows us to feel more intuitively that although AI can generate a picture in 2 seconds, it is still a long way from the perfect presentation of creativity. What this distance requires is the creator's spirit of excellence that cannot be replaced by AI.

Skillful skills and ingenious ideas make Tudou people favored by the brand. In addition to this, **Tudouren also solved a more important issue - the issue of copyright ownership of AIGC works. **

Tudouren mentioned that many brands contacted him as early as the beginning of this year, but due to the dispute over the copyright of AI works, many brands are on the sidelines. To this end, Tudou people try to solve this problem from three aspects:

1. Strengthen the uniqueness of personal works. According to my country's "Copyright Law", whether a work has copyright depends on two key elements, one is whether it is created by a natural person, and the other is whether it is original. To this end, the author needs to protect his own AI training process, while deepening the uniqueness of the work style.
2. Solve the copyright issue of using software. Taking Midjourney as an example, its terms clearly state that the output works are owned by the user personally. At the same time, Midjourney has three different levels of payment models. The highest level can hide the keywords of works to ensure the creation process of users' works.
3. Increase the post-processing process, strengthen personal creative elements, and manually add exclusive logos to each work. Each output of Tudouren will use Photoshop to implant a digital logo to protect the copyright of the work.

The latter two are to prevent problems before they happen, and the first one is to establish a personal style identity of the work is the key. In other words, if ** does not have a highly recognizable style of work, even if the copyright issue is resolved, it is just an ordinary creator, and it is difficult to be called an artist. **

Therefore, the potato people want to do something different.

3. New track: AI concept creation, AI art installation, AI art exhibition

The Potato Man has set his sights on architecture and art installations.

“I think architecture, like film, is a comprehensive art. It can combine many interesting cultural and artistic symbols and commercial expressions, and it is a good creative carrier.”

Unexpectedly, the Tudou people just stepped on a field that few people set foot on.

When Midjoureny first appeared in the public eye, most users were keen to use it to generate photos of people, and the few who dabbled in architectural installations were all foreign creators. At the same time, due to the lack of Chinese materials in foreign AIGC content databases, Chinese cities or buildings rarely appeared in early AIGC works.

The Tudou man said: "In the early days, there were very few Chinese elements. If you want to make a Chinese-style building, you need to use the words of Seoul, Tokyo or other Southeast Asian countries to describe it."

This is a challenge, but also an opportunity. Tudouren opened up their minds and tried to combine the brand with elements of Chinese cities.

**For example, if Adidas opened a store in Wudang Mountain, what design would it use? **

**What would it be like if there was a Nike boat on the river in Chongqing? **

**If Apple opened a store in Wuhan University, what would it look like? **

Through the works of Tudou Man, many people have also seen the powerful ability of Midjourney.

Tudouren told us that students from architecture departments at home and abroad often send him private messages on Xiaohongshu, asking how these buildings are rendered? He said: "Every time I reply that these are done by AI. I am not an architectural major at all, so I dare not give any professional advice."

In addition, the Tudou people have also made many original art installations. For example, this ice cream 3D printing shop not only looks like ice cream, but also uses 3D printers to make ice cream.

The potato man mentioned that these pictures were not made at the same time, but after doing it, it suddenly occurred to him that they could be put together to form a story. As soon as this note was issued, many users commented that they were going to Shanghai to check in. Tudou people quickly clarified that this is just an AIGC work.

On Valentine's Day on February 14 this year, Tudouman released an art installation, half of the heart floating on the water, and the other half of the heart is its reflection on the water.

After the work was completed, the Tudou man thought that it might be possible to land it and make it a real urban space installation, so he immediately registered the work and waited for the time to complete it.

4. Regeneration Art Museum Project

In addition to brand co-creation works, original sculptures and art installations, there is also an important part of Tudouman AIGC's creative territory-**AI Art Exhibition. **

**At the end of January 2023, Tudou launched the first online exhibition of his personal virtual art work "Reshaping Mountains and Rivers". This work uses Midjourney to simulate fishing nets and dust materials to build undulating mountains and rivers. Shortly after the work was launched, Tudouren received an invitation from Tmall. At the Tmall New Product Consumption Trend Exhibition in April this year, this "Reshaping Mountains and Rivers" successfully went from online to offline. **

The launch of this exhibition gave Tudou people a more ambitious idea - why can't they hold an art exhibition online?

An art exhibition is not just about displaying works, but more like a reconstruction of space. Compared with the concrete physical space, the virtual world can break the rules and accommodate all kinds of ideas.

**Thus, the Tudou people launched the "Regeneration Art Museum Project". This art gallery is built by AI, and it has a different theme every month, inviting different artists to participate in the creation and displaying the works. **

Unlike individual creations, recruiting artists themselves takes a lot of energy, and we can't help but wonder what prompted him to launch such an ambitious project.

**Shuying: Why do you want to hold this kind of continuous exhibition? ** **Tudouren: **Actually, I want to create a brand new IP. I want to create a space where artists, brands, and platforms can all come to me. Once it works, it will be a brand new way of doing business. For consumers, the Regenerative Art Museum is a bit like a channel or column, you can come and have a look if you have nothing to do; AI and traditional oil painting, sculpture, AR, VR, animation, and music can all be included, because this is a space with infinite possibilities. **Shuying: Is the name "Regeneration Art Museum" related to environmental protection? Will it be renamed later? ** Potato Man: No, I will always choose regeneration as the topic. I think it is a pretty good starting point. I sometimes reflect on what I have done before. Sometimes the brand is just a simple PR requirement, but it requires a lot of materials and generates a lot of waste. Including many art exhibitions and auto shows, many decorations are one-off, and they are discarded after the end. In the future, when the brand wants to do some PR events, can it be realized through the regenerative art museum to express the brand's environmental protection appeal? This is one of my original intentions. **Shuying: Online will definitely be more environmentally friendly, but offline is also necessary. Will some of your works on Xiaohongshu be offline in the future? ** Tudou Man: I think there is a chance. The difficulty may lie in how to restore it. It depends on the team and producer. I am also recruiting some suppliers across the country.

3. Can everyone become an AIGC artist?

In the works of Tudou people, we saw the powerful content production ability of AI, and at the same time, two problems emerged:

Since AI is so powerful, can everyone become an AIGC artist after learning? If everyone can be an artist, what advantage does Tudou have?

Regarding this question, Tudou people clearly summed up four points——

First, admission advantage. As one of the earliest creators who entered AIGC in China, Tudouren has already become one of the well-known AIGC creators in China with its high-quality works. Second, brand endorsement. After cooperating with multiple brands, these cases have also helped Tuudan to become famous in the industry, thus endorsing the creation of personal IP. Third, artistic blessing. The artistic expression of Tudou people is very personal, which also distinguishes them from other creators. Tudouman said that he is not designing for the brand, but using the brand to express himself artistically. Fourth, the format of the business is implemented. When everyone can use AIGC to make a picture, Tudouren can transform from an AI concept to a real public art installation, expand the different forms of AIGC, and greatly enhance Tudouren's personal IP moat.

In Tudouman's speech, we feel that his initial anxiety and uneasiness about AI seems to have turned into a new impetus. We are also very curious, how do Tudou people think about the impact of AI technology on people?

**Shuying: I feel that you are full of enthusiasm now. ** Potato Man: Yes, because now there are new things to learn every day, I am an Aquarius, and I like new things, which is why I stayed in the advertising company before. However, it is still very different from the past. The previous work required long-term feedback. Some projects that I and the team worked on before took half a year to eight months from idea to implementation. The whole process was often full of uncontrollable problems. The twists and turns and consumption of the final project can sometimes be a kind of compromise victory. After doing AI now, my ideas can be expressed immediately. Why do I say I am an artist? Because artists don't have to take into account other people's ideas, the biggest difference between artists and designers is that one is for self-expression, and the other is for creation. **Shuying: You mentioned that artists are more inclined to self-expression, but seeing that you have done a lot of works related to brands, will these cooperations restrict self-expression? How do you see the relationship between art and business? ** Tudou Man: When I was in school, the most common discussion was whether business and art are separated. In fact, I think there is no separation. Art also needs the endorsement of business to be valuable. **Shuying: Many artists will have less connection with commerce, but it may not have much impact on artistic value. ** Tudou people: Some artists may look down on some brands, or it may be their own subdivision field, not all brands can accept it. I myself do not reject commercial cooperation, and I also hope to highlight my personal advantages in the segmented track. Now the ICON of the Tudou people is not strong enough, because I have only settled down for a few months, and it will take time. At the same time, I am also cooperating with different marketing and agencies. This is my geographical advantage. I came out of this industry and know how to do marketing.

Potato Man's latest work "Giant Gummy Bears"

**Shuying: After mastering AIGC, will advertisers have an advantage over people in other industries? Because advertisers will know how to make content and how to let others see themselves. ** Potato Man: I think this is a false proposition. The division of labor in the advertising company is very detailed, and the person who can open up the whole link has already reached a position. It's like when I'm a creative director, I'm not just doing art anymore, I also look at creativity, strategy, copywriting, and customer management, which is a very comprehensive ability. In fact, I am just using the way I run my brand to run myself. But for many people in advertising companies, everyone is a radish and a pit. Art is art, copywriting is copywriting, and Akang is Akang. When everyone only focuses on their own field, AI becomes just a small tool to solve work problems. When you yourself can see broad enough, AI can play a greater role in you. **Shuying: Do you have a clear plan for what you are going to do now? ** **Tudouman: **Yes, I want to be a super individual, or a personal IP. The brand cooperation products mentioned above and the regenerative art museum are all my flagship products. In the future, these products can also continue in a cycle. In the second half of the year, I may set up Tudou studio and recruit some small partners to do some creative work together. **Shuying: Do you have any advice for newcomers who want to enter AIGC? ** Tudou Man: If you really want to enter the market, you have to figure out your own business model. I just verified one of the scheme forms, and there are many more waiting to be verified.

Potato Man's latest work "Giant Gummy Bears"

**Shuying: Many people think that AI is just a tool. What kind of existence does AI have in your eyes? ** Potato Man: I think saying that AI is just a tool is whitewashing peace, because its destructive power and creativity are too strong. I remember seeing a point of view before that in the next ten or twenty years, the amount of content created by AI will exceed the sum of human society. After I saw the news, I created "Replicating Tundra". The green moss covered the entire space, which was actually my intuitive feeling at that time. It means that everything we search on the Internet in the future may be generated by AI, so how should we distinguish the authenticity?

"Rewriting the Tundra" by Tudou Man

Potato Man: I don’t think AI is a tool, it’s like an opened Pandora’s box, that’s what it really feels like. You can try to re-watch "The Wandering Earth 2" with this mentality, and you will feel that the Moss in it is a real thing. I don't feel like I'm watching a movie, but watching the future destiny of mankind. **Shuying: In fact, we have opened this Pandora’s box, and many people are also working hard to promote relevant laws and regulations. How do you think AI will affect the whole society in the future? ** Tudou people: As far as the foreseeable future is concerned, the popularization of AI will have a certain impact on the upper, middle and lower classes. The biggest change is actually the middle class. When everyone uses AI tools, the entire bottom It was lifted up. The high-level decision makers with core resources and artists with core creativity will not be affected. Creators who are not creative in the middle may face immediate exit. In fact, in the past few months, I feel more and more that it is difficult for us to predict the future, because the speed of technological development is completely beyond our imagination. For individuals, if the entire industry and society are iterating every month, the only thing we can do is to iterate ourselves.

at last

In the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", human beings are faced with destructiveness countless times, and have saved themselves from danger countless times with courage and wisdom. At the end of the film, the earth, which has gone through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, is still slowly moving forward in the universe, reflecting a unique light.

This is indeed a portrayal of the fate of human beings, but instead of being destroyed, they overcome difficulties and rebuild their lives time and time again.

And this is also how we felt after chatting with the Tudou people. The sudden AIGC was like a nuclear bomb, which struck him with great force, but it did not destroy his life, but instead allowed him to rebuild a better world. .

Perhaps, one of the most important meanings of AI to human beings is to make us rethink how to live.