Simple rendering of corse! The rendering delivers an even more intense photographic effect!
Imo, rendering is better. I have nothing against AI, per se, but it hasn't matured enough to make "realistic" characters. To me, the rendering process is like the old sculptors; you can have great works but there are flaws. Nothing is perfect, as far as humanity is concerned and that's okay. That's what makes humanity so varied and vibrant. It's the good with the bad. It's about the Journey to perfection. Rendering is not perfect nor Should it be. Rendering is based on perspectives. Some rendering artists choose to portray body flaws, i.e. thigh cheese, scars, saggy or slightly asymetrical breasts. Even the multitude of female shapes from classic coke bottle to extremely thin or wide. Tiny waists or barely any, all can be renderered based on what a particular artist has in mind and even That is based on what they have seen and been exposed to.
AI on the other hand, is given parameters of a body type, then perfects it based on given parameters. I saw in the thread a comparison of a rendered Dr. Brandie vs an AI "enhanced" version. The rendered version, imo was better because, even with her voluptuous butt, it represented a body type which is round and full but set lower on the hip bones. Even the skin texture was representative of a more "realistic" body type. The AI version cleared up the skin, raised Brandie's butt to a point where it was a perfect basketball shape, which in turn made her butt even More round than was necessary. I can understand why render artists don't like AI because it takes away the creativity that only human imagination can produce. As a company, I can understand wanting AI; it can reproduce images at a faster rate, thus enabling more content to be put out but AI is Not creative. It only follows parameters given to it. It's the Same argument that Will Smith's character had in the movie "I, Robot." Remember why he told Bridget Moynahan that he hated robots and AI? He said that in the car crash, the robot chose to save him because his rate of survival was greater than the little girl's trapped in her parents car, Despite Will being willing to die so that the child could live? THAT's AI. It followed parameters and the program works for perfection, not realism. Sounds like the Borg in Star Trek, assimilating toward perfection, rejecting everything that's flawed. Asthetically? Give me rendering because it can and does represent reality and that is, despite the flaws, almost everything can be beautiful. And isn't beauty and perfection defined by human standards after all??