It Took Me 14 Hours. But Go Ahead, Assume It’s a Bot.

An essay from the studio of Art of FACELESS

There was a time — pre-prompt apocalypse — when posting 3D work meant you might get a question. “How did you do that?” “What tools?” “Is that rigged?”

Now?

Now I post something that took two days, three crashes, four head rebuilds, and a lighting pass I did while doped on painkillers — and what I get is silence. Or worse: suspicion. You can sense it. Like you're being filed under “probably AI” and discarded accordingly.

I use Reallusion. I use Adobe. I use Poser. I use Blender. I use whatever works.
I’m not here to convince you I’m real.
I’m just not fake.

And if you can’t tell the difference anymore, maybe that’s not my problem.

I’ve sat with characters who don’t speak but still needed a voice.
I’ve built faces that couldn’t blink until they were told a story.
I’ve created avatars who carry trauma in the way they turn away from camera.

None of this is Midjourney.
Midjourney doesn’t understand grief.
Midjourney doesn’t freeze. Doesn’t restart. Doesn’t ache.
But I do.

I’m not anti-AI. I'm not waving a "not AI" purity flag.
I’ve got no time for that.
I’ve got less time to prove myself to people who scroll past with the suspicion of someone sniffing a forgery in a gallery they didn't build.

But what I am saying is this:

Some of us are still making things. Slowly. Fully. From inside out.
And some of us are tired of being mistaken for noise.

The faces you see on this site and posted by us on social media — they aren’t content.
They are attempts. Errors. Renders.
They are late nights, long pain, distorted dreams.
They are stories. In flesh, mesh, and memory.

They're no different to the fiction I write. I'm just writing in pixels.

You want proof? Maybe I’ll show it.
A turntable. A rig in motion. A still with its backstory.
But don’t ask me to do it every time just because the world stopped trusting digital.

I haven’t changed. The world has.
And I’m still making things.
Still building one expression at a time.
Still hiding details you’ll never spot unless you stop scrolling and look.

Secrets in the work. Tells. Breadcrumbs. Easter-eggs.

If you’re here, you’re welcome.
If you’re still unsure, scroll on.
This work wasn’t made for the distracted.
It was made for the few who stay.

—Lloyd Lewis
Studio Transmission: Art of FACELESS
(Filed under: Resistance, Digital Flesh, Glitchcraft)