AI-assisted art direction

I did this work myself, directly with Grok Imagine. I set the direction, picked and approved every design here, and gave notes until each one held up.

1. Go back to the original art. The starting point was the 2016 card art. Eight of the new turnarounds are shown beside their original paintings below.
2. Design for the world. I wanted the Milit-Ant at the size of a car, so its sheet puts one beside it for scale.
3. Push past the first result. Ghost Bear’s brindle stripes kept coming back looking painted on, not grown into the fur. They only read naturally once Grok switched to a procedural approach.
4. Respect the game. The remastered battle keeps the original layout, UI and damage numbers.
5. Stay flexible. The tools are evolving quickly, and in their current state it pays to embrace serendipity when you’re not getting exactly what you want. That happens with artists too: they bring their own ideas to the canvas and test your assumptions. The best collaborations come from knowing what’s important and finding a way to get it without going down rabbit holes.