Pengpai News reporter Liao Yan
In July this year, Chen Wei (pseudonym) resigned and temporarily became a freelancer. She is considering whether to look for opportunities to start a business.
"Post-95" Chen Wei comes from a small town in the northeast. After graduating from Communication University of China in 2017, he stayed in Beijing to work. Previously, in addition to her main business in the new media field, she also worked part-time in AI portrait creation. This part-time job is also called the "face-pincher". With the rise of the concept of " meta-universe ", more and more social platforms have opened up the "face pinching" function, giving birth to professional "face pinching" teachers to help users create virtual images with personal characteristics.
In September 2021, Chen Wei created a group of virtual portraits for the characters in a novel written by himself, a family of four. Unexpectedly, this group of portraits became popular, and some netizens began to ask her to customize them.
In April this year, Chen Wei created two groups of 16-type personality virtual portraits of men and women based on "MBTI" (a self-reported personality assessment tool), which was popular and brought her more than 60 orders.
MBTI 16-type personality pinching face, two sets of men and women versions.
Some media reports that part-time game face-pincher earns 40,000 to 50,000 yuan per month, but Chen Wei's income is not that much. Over the past year, Chen Wei has created more than 100 works, and only more than 30 of them have received income, each priced at 49 yuan. This also means that part-time job income is minimal. However, based on factors such as self-technology level and time value, she has recently raised the price to 188 yuan.
The customers who came to find her face to have different demands. Some people want to pinch their ideal self, while others ask to "pinch them in an ugly direction." A girl once found her, hoping to customize a virtual portrait for her father with advanced cancer in , "I want to keep him like this." She found that compared to women who are prone to appearance anxiety, male customers tend to reflect themselves more realistically.
Chen Wei feels that AI portraits may give people a feeling of approaching the cyber era, between illusion and reality. People may think of that era, AI portraits could be used as a piece of code to live forever in the online world.
The following is her oral statement:
Between illusion and real
I am interested in everything that can be created independently. In September 2021, I accidentally saw other people’s AI portrait creations. I thought it was quite interesting, so I wanted to try to fabricate AI portraits for the characters in the novel "The Swamp" I once wrote to see what I can create. At that time, there were 4 portraits in total, which were a family of four. Unexpectedly, this set of AI portrait creation became popular.
Later, I made some works one after another, and some customers started to ask me to customize AI portraits. After that, I started working as a "face-pinching teacher".
In late September 2021, I received the first person to customize, which was a girl. I asked her to provide three frontal photos without obstruction and filters. By using the face-pinching software, I spent two hours completing the creation. I did not charge for this order, and I treated it as a try. When she received the picture, she said that except for the slightly pointed face, they all looked very similar.
In April this year, I created the MBTI male and female 16 personality series, and created a total of 32 virtual portraits. After everyone saw this group of works, I remember that the first time a girl took the initiative to come over to customize male portraits, and her social avatar was my previous works. She asked if she could help her father pick a portrait, trying to keep him. She said her father is now in advanced cancer and his life is about to end. Then, she sent me a lot of photos of his father when he was young, constantly emphasizing that his father when he was young was very similar to Andy Lau .
My first reaction was "Andy Lau is so hard to pinch." It took about a week to complete it, and I reworked many times in the middle. I was worried that her father would have left when he sent it to her again.
In fact, portraits can be recorded through photos, why did she choose a virtual AI portrait?
This girl has never said the reason, but I have thought about this problem. Maybe the photos belong to the real world, while the virtual AI portrait belongs to another world.Due to AI technology and infinitely realistic effects, it may give people a feeling of being close to the cyber era, between illusion and reality, and feel that it is moving towards a further social process and another form of life. Although I only provide a portrait picture, based on this psychology, it is more "lively" than the photos.
If one day we usher in the real AI era or cyber era, then the face generated by AI should belong to this new world, and it is actually not you. You can think of this portrait as a piece of code that replaces people to live forever on the Internet.
Expressing a person's temperament and mood
Part-time job, I was still facing an unknown and brand new field.
The face-pinching software I use is not difficult to use, the key lies in understanding the characteristics of different races. The software is divided according to the races of black people, Indians, Latino , Asians, etc. Its logic is to use different foundations and templates, such as face characteristics, to nurture different faces.
People who are familiar with this software will find that it is not friendly to Asian people's appearance, their facial features will be distorted and their face shape will deviate from the conventional state. This is why most beautiful face-pinching works are mixed-blood faces or European and American people.
In June this year, I remembered to do a set of experimental works called the "Asian Face Tracing" series. Using the same set of model base plates, I can see how many "Asian Faces" can be produced. I did fine-tuning, put on makeup, and amplified my expression and characteristics to complete this experiment. So far, I have created 4 portraits.
A portrait in the Asian face search series
When the customer receives an order, the customer will tell me what their personality is, what temperament and eyes they want to express. Some girls provide photos that look gentle and elegant, but she hopes to show cheerful personality traits. Before the MBTI series, others would not have thought that I could present a person's temperament, mood, and even ideas in the face to express his subtle qualities.
improves face-pinching technology with challenges. Compared with women, men's faces are more difficult to pinch. His facial muscles are more developed than women, and the shadows need to be processed one by one. At this time, we need to learn some muscle knowledge in advance.
The friends around me recommended several middle-aged male clients to me, and each of them basically took a week to complete the creation. Male customers tend to reflect themselves truthfully, and they don’t require that the avatars must be young, handsome and youthful. These faces that have not undergone much anti-aging and beauty have provided me with opportunities for concentrated practice.
This year, many media reported that part-time game face-climbing master's monthly income reached 40,000 to 50,000 yuan. My income is not that much. I even saw face-climbing masters insist on creating free of charge on the Internet. Compared to pinching the face of the game characters, AI portrait creation requires realisticity, but not too real. In addition, the public's lack of awareness of AI portrait creation also affects the judgment during consumption. If customers don't approve of your price, they won't be willing to spend it. At present, we are still in a stage of mutual adjustment.
Currently, I rely on Xiaohongshu and Weibo account to promote works, and then accept orders. Recently, a lot of traffic has come from MBTI personality testing topics, and there is very little traffic in normal times. This also means that under normal circumstances, there are no customers and no part-time income.
At the beginning, I charged 49 yuan and found that this is a price that is generally acceptable to the public. After the MBTI personality series became popular, I received a lot of orders, and there are still about 40 orders backlogs, all of which are priced at 49 yuan.
Recently, I have increased the price to 188 yuan, which is determined by comparing market conditions, my own technical level, hourly wages and other comprehensive factors. There are many consultants that cannot accept it, it depends on my own ability.
" Ghost in the Shell " character pinching the face Source: All provide respondents with
Self-acceptance and appearance anxiety
Sometimes I have to succumb to the rules of the platform and need to continuously output content. In addition to the "Asian Face Tracing" and "MBTI" 16-person series, I also have a "scratch" series, which randomly generates some portraits through software, without a master or prototype, they are free.This process will produce some portraits beyond expectations, which are impressive and stunning. You seem to have a soul resonance with your virtual face.
I have seen other facial pinching masters’ works. If some netizens think that the work is not single-eyely, unlike Asians, some face-pinchers will get very single-eyely to show sincerity next time, hoping to be recognized. If netizens like mixed-blood faces, some face-pinchers will keep pinching mixed-blood faces, even if each one looks the same. If you take face-pinching master as a profession, you may indeed succeed in doing so. But even so, there will still be people on the Internet who will be serious about you or argue with you about some racial topics.
For example, on one hand, some people are denying that the Chinese in film and television works have small eyes, while on the other hand, some people firmly demand that only single eyelids can represent the East. If you have double inner body, it may not be "pure" enough.
Some netizens think that my work is a hodgepodge of races and will ask toughly: "Why are there no Asians? Why aren't they all Asians?" There is no end to cater to and argue, so I directly wrote in my signature: "You must know that it is an illusion in the mirror." AI's face pinching is an illusion, and people's projection, expectation, anger, and demands on it are not a illusion.
People’s perception of themselves is a distance away. I have met customers who are not satisfied with their works and they feel that their facial features do not look like this. I will also complain in my heart, but people may wish they are what kind of person they are. Everyone has certain imagination or expectations for themselves.
I remember a girl asked me to pinch her in an ugly direction, but in fact, this girl is pretty. She told me that everyone around her said she was not good-looking, which also caused her to have facial anxiety. Such people will have moral pressure, and she feels that excessive beautification of herself is an unmodest situation. There are also girls with shortcomings in their facial features, but she accepted herself and could say it calmly. I hope the face in this work is more beautiful than myself. I think this is a topic worth discussing. Women are always staring at themselves and also enduring the gaze of others.
Over the past year, I have tried to pinch more than 100 virtual portraits, but only more than 30 orders have been completed. This cannot support myself, and I also regard it as a hobby.
part-time AI portrait creation brings a sense of accomplishment and anxiety, both of which account for half. At first, I created with a pure mentality, but later I found that if not a good work, it would definitely bring traffic. I couldn't figure it out and felt that the invisible hands of the algorithm were manipulating me. That feeling was very frustrating. In order to adapt to the algorithm rules, I have to actively operate, maintain continuous and stable updates, and carefully select topics, which is basically impossible to achieve under busy working conditions.
In addition, for the customer orders I received, I am also worried about whether I can fulfill other people's expectations. If it doesn't look like it, will I be smashed.
However, I have now experienced a process of self-reliance and am not so angry. It turns out that I was very angry, why did the work improve, but the data was very poor. But later I accepted that the traffic was for MBTI personality, good-looking faces, and even the self-projection of netizens, or brought by platform algorithms, and it was not for me anyway.
The traffic falling from the sky is also an illusion. Many times, I want to post a work according to my own wishes, so I have to accept that it is not popular, no one can read it, and accept that it is deserted.
Recently, I just resigned from a new media position in an Internet company and became a freelancer. I also thought about whether to start a business, cooperate with others, and develop software to industrialize AI portraits. Regarding the prospect of virtual avatars, I think this type of software not only designs exclusive social avatars for everyone, but also gives people the opportunity to fully display their imagination and create imaginatively.
Next, I plan to create a "cat anthropomorphization" series, trying to create cross-species, and giving myself a new challenge.
This issue edited by Zhou Xiaojing
