Layer Update (Aug ‘24) - Empowering Creativity with Artist-first UX

The power of AI is amazing, but there’s always been one challenge: Control 🎮

It’s not enough to generate assets, you need to get your image perfect when working with real game assets and IP. This is why we’ve spent the last month making huge improvements to how Layer artists can create, edit, and manage assets.

Our new unified ‘Forge Panel’ now adds much better control over asset generation options, letting you get that image juuuusst right. It’s now easy and intuitive to tweak different models types, references, image weighting, and more - all inside a professional UI. This is on top of a bunch of key updates, including the addition of negative prompts field, ‘modes’ that let you create, upscale, and edit with ease, alongside major UX improvements across the tool. 

Want to see Layer in action? We’re also excited to show off our latest example of Layer powering live games with Gamegos’s portfolio of mobile titles. 

Platform Updates ⚙️

Improvements and changes to the Layer platform. 

Features

• Our Forge is bigger and better than EVER 💪.  To make professional asset creation more intuitive and streamlined, we made big changes to the Forge workflow.
  • Nobody likes hopping between screens to get their work done. With our new “Hop-free UX”, we’ve streamlined a bunch of artist workflows into one easy place. You can now select styles & aspect ratios, reference types, upscale using a variety of settings. Controlling every aspect of your creation - without leaving the main Forge.
  • Control is key when it comes to making assets for real games. We’ve added additional options for negative prompts, transparent generations, and tileable assets inside the Forge - giving game artists more options for different game types. 
• Addition of our new Upscale mode. Our vision is a single seamless workflow for artists in one Layer app. Taking another step towards this future is the introduction of an integrated upscaler that is now part of the Forge experience, letting you quickly select and upscale newly generated assets.
• Advanced settings for AI experts. Sometimes you need more control, and sometimes you need FULL control. We’ve unlocked our previously “admin only” advanced settings to give AI rockstars access to features like seeds and denoising. 
• Speedier asset creation with Fast Inference Pipeline. Layer is now clocking 2x faster image generation (about 14 seconds) across our core models with the addition of faster inferences.

The latest from #TeamLayer 📰

News, updates, and changes to the Layer team. Basically, everything that doesn’t involve lines of code.

Latest Case Study: How Gamegos boosted mobile live-ops production with Layer

Learn how this mobile studio used Layer’s artist-first toolset to create everything from marketing visuals and live-ops artwork to in-game features - all in the style of existing IP for Adventure Bay, Manor Cafe and Cafeland - Restaurant Cooking.

Artist Guide: Exploring different art styles for your game

This guide outlines the traditional ways that artists usually explore art styles, and then shows how Layer can help game art teams save a massive amount of time at the style exploration step.

New Model Overview: Taking your gen-AI journey to the next level with FLUX

With its state-of-the-art architecture, FLUX.1 is setting new standards for AI-driven image creation. We’re always exploring the best models available for gamedev, and we’re excited to see how Flux can help with game concepting and pre-production.

Mastering Art Style Training

Using generative AI the right way helps game artists meet tight deadlines and answer their demanding art pipelines. Learn how to train AI and create in your style.

Looking Ahead 🔮

We’re excited to be the best tool for professional game studios - and it’s only going to get better. We have some big updates around the corner, including more advanced options for experienced artists, and even a new mode coming to the Layer Canvas. 

We’re especially excited to unlock more expert-level functionality inside our tool to get technical artists around the world excited and ready to create. 

Our end game? A single unified tool that lets game artists manage their entire professional workflows - without ever changing screens. (In more dimensions than 2 🤫)

We’re building it, so jump in and become part of the future.

#TeamLayer

PS: Layer will also be joining the Mobidictum 2024 Conference as an Associate Sponsor in October, swing by, attend our talk sessions on AI tools, and show us what you’re working on!