The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in art and design has disrupted the traditional creative landscape, leading to debates on the legitimacy of AI-generated art and the emergence of new markets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The US Copyright Office’s February 21, 2023, ruling withdrawing copyright protection for AI-generated comic artwork, while protecting the accompanying text and arrangement, highlights the contested nature of AI art and suggests that significant human intervention in the creative process will be required for monetization. Whether considered content interpolation or content creation, AI generative content for the creation of art and design is here with human-AI collaboration. To explore the potential of AI tools in creative practice, this study introduced students in a digital art course to Craiyon and Midjourney generative AI tools, with DALL-E 2 selected as the primary tool due to its varied output. The students were tasked with selecting a preferred prompt from one tool and then reproducing the output from both tools. The results revealed significant variations in replicating the outputs of different AI tools and limited exploration of prompt engineering, leading to restrictions in the iterative process of artmaking. The students agreed that generative AI tools are not a substitute for human creativity and should be used for final projects. The study demonstrates the potential and limitations of integrating AI tools in art and design and suggests the need for further research in developing effective prompt engineering strategies.

Immersive cultural performances with virtual-real fusion effects are the future development trend in the exhibition and stage industry. However, current virtual-real stage performances heavily rely on traditional sequential design and arrangements. During the performance, actors must move to specific positions based on the musical beat and execute predetermined actions with a pre-designed amplitude and frequency to synchronize with the fixedly played stage visual effects; otherwise, major performance accidents such as plot inconsistencies or continuity errors may occur. To address the problem, this paper introduces a real-time generation system for stage visual effects based on multi-view multi-person 3D motion capture. The system utilizes multi-view 3D motion capture technique to achieve non-intrusive real-time interaction perception of target actors in the stage space. By perceiving the spatial position and performance actions of the target actors, corresponding stage visual effects are generated in real-time. This is followed by the seamless integration of sound effects and immersive high-definition display, ultimately realizing multidimensional real-time interaction between real actors and virtual visual effects in the stage space. We conducted an experimental virtual-real stage performance, lasting approximately two minutes, in a physical theater to validate the effectiveness of our proposed method. The experiment not only produced a unique innovative effect of blending stage and technology but also effectively enhanced the sense of presence and interactivity of the stage performance, providing actors with more freedom and control in their performances.