On point 1, there is sometimes a weird demonisation of tracing. I agree tracing and trying to pass that off as your own work is bad (it's plagiarism), I don't think it's a problem as a learning tool. From what I understand there are mixed feelings about it in the art world as well. I think the main question is how effective it is as a learning tool. Tracing is a part of the art process though and has been used by many famous painters; for example Johannes Vermeer (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockney%E2%80%93Falco_thesis and https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/feb/10/illuminating-johannes-verme...). Tracing is also the key part of the rotoscoping animation technique (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping). I'd say those people that are just saying "tracing is bad" with no follow up or nuance just don't know enough to have a conversation on the topic.
Point 2, I think that's a very cherry picked example. I don't know about the controversy there but incorporating inspirations into works is not unusual and can be done and celebrated, recent musical examples that spring to my mind are Nightwish's The Greatest Show on Earth ("The song features short excerpts from Dies Irae, Minuet in G major by Christian Petzold, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach and Enter Sandman by Metallica,accompanied with a Tibetan chant sung by male parts of the choir which are probably references to the evolution of music and arts as part of evolution of the human race." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Forms_Most_Beautiful_(album)#Songs) or Sabaton adapting Tubular Bells in the opening to The Christmas Truce (https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU?t=57). References are also common in animations and usually celebrated as Easter eggs. I recently watched Bagi, The Monster of Mighty Nature and there was a clear reference to Disney's Snow White, adapting the "Mirror mirror" scene and even including the box for bringing back a heart.
Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, that's why I also push for free software, so people are in control of what they are using. The problem with AI is that the training data and processing power is generally too much for individuals to work with. We will see what happens. If nothing else, more and more, the tools for people to free themselves from corporations exist.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
On point 1, there is sometimes a weird demonisation of tracing. I agree tracing and trying to pass that off as your own work is bad (it's plagiarism), I don't think it's a problem as a learning tool. From what I understand there are mixed feelings about it in the art world as well. I think the main question is how effective it is as a learning tool. Tracing is a part of the art process though and has been used by many famous painters; for example Johannes Vermeer (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockney%E2%80%93Falco_thesis and https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/feb/10/illuminating-johannes-verme...). Tracing is also the key part of the rotoscoping animation technique (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping). I'd say those people that are just saying "tracing is bad" with no follow up or nuance just don't know enough to have a conversation on the topic.
Point 2, I think that's a very cherry picked example. I don't know about the controversy there but incorporating inspirations into works is not unusual and can be done and celebrated, recent musical examples that spring to my mind are Nightwish's The Greatest Show on Earth ("The song features short excerpts from Dies Irae, Minuet in G major by Christian Petzold, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach and Enter Sandman by Metallica,accompanied with a Tibetan chant sung by male parts of the choir which are probably references to the evolution of music and arts as part of evolution of the human race." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Forms_Most_Beautiful_(album)#Songs) or Sabaton adapting Tubular Bells in the opening to The Christmas Truce (https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU?t=57). References are also common in animations and usually celebrated as Easter eggs. I recently watched Bagi, The Monster of Mighty Nature and there was a clear reference to Disney's Snow White, adapting the "Mirror mirror" scene and even including the box for bringing back a heart.
Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, that's why I also push for free software, so people are in control of what they are using. The problem with AI is that the training data and processing power is generally too much for individuals to work with. We will see what happens. If nothing else, more and more, the tools for people to free themselves from corporations exist.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~