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No Uncanny Valley: Why We Chose Toon Style For AKARI
When akari.ca first went up, it had no images at all. Today it's full of bright, cartoon-style characters, all made with AI. We asked AKARI founder Chris Doucette why he went with a cartoon look, how he built it, and what happened when he asked people what they thought. His answers are lightly edited.
The site started with no images. Why not just use stock photos?
"Did we really want to do stock photos? Why not use AI, when that's our practice?"
Why cartoons, and not realistic AI images?
"I actually started by taking my own photo and trying a more realistic approach. At least today, it's just not possible. The style was really rough: the way the characters worked together, me being dropped into the scene. It really just looked uncanny valley. It is me, but it was not quite me. Anybody who knows me would look at that and say something was significantly wrong.
"Realistic AI content still isn't where it should be. It comes off scary and sketchy."
So where did the toon style come from?
"At SupercityOS, my managed IT services company, we used my emoji as a test ground for an AI project we were starting, ChrisBot. ChrisBot is no longer in production, but I liked the way we branded it. So I pulled that in and started building a style around it."
Did it carry over cleanly?
"No. ChrisBot really stood out, and it was hard to copy that style without it looking a little creepy. ChrisBot was a 2D character, and moving him to 3D didn't really work. So I evolved the style and let it go a bit further: more detail, a little more modern."
How would you describe AKARI Toon?
"It's playful. It's colourful and bright, which reflects the optimism I'm trying to bring to AI. I don't know if there's an official name. I just call it AKARI Toon."
How did you actually build it with AI?
"A lot of trial and error over a few weeks, learning how to get what I wanted out of the tools. There are some great websites that bring together models from lots of different providers. Picking the right model for the job is part of the battle, because they all interpret what you ask a little differently."
Once the characters existed, the prompts could get very short. For fun, Chris made a clip of himself and his dog with this one line: "These 2 characters, in a car, zooming over a canyon. Cartoon style."
Where did you still have to step in?
"The tools kept drifting toward the same kinds of characters. Where there are several people in an image, I made them all different on purpose. I didn't want the same faces showing up over and over.
"And because ChrisBot was the template, it kept trying to put me in every picture. I had to take myself out of a lot of them.
"My favourite example is the image of two people crossing a river on stepping stones. It kept tucking in the woman's sweater. I spent easily 30 minutes trying to get it untucked. In the end I just had it switch to a cardigan, and that fixed the whole problem."
How did you get feedback?
"Friends, family, clients. Some in the industry, some not. Our services will reach people who are technical and people who aren't, so I wanted a broad spectrum. And honestly, I just emailed people and said, 'Do you like this?'"
What did they say?
"It was split, about 50-50 up front. Some people worried a cartoon style might not look professional. In truth, I think our industry tends to be a little too polished. We take ourselves too seriously and focus too much on the technical. The animated style lets us be a little more playful.
"I think the split says a lot about where people are with AI right now. A lot of people are apprehensive, and I understand that. There are some scary parts. But there are also really powerful parts that help people build faster and more polished. I'm in the camp that AI is no different than a drill, a hammer or the printing press. They're tools that help us work faster."
How did you know it was finished?
"Once I started filling the website with the images, it started to feel full. Not empty like it was before. It had a little bit of life to it. There was a feeling of, okay, this is what I pictured from the beginning. Maybe not exactly, but the outcome we wanted was there."
What's the one lesson for a business owner who wants to start building with AI?
"The best way to learn anything with AI right now is to just get your hands in and see what it's like. Everything is changing so fast that even tutorial videos are out of date within a few weeks. I can't recommend enough that you start honing some skills by fixing some workflow issues that are bothering you."
