This summer, he’s bringing that perspective to the AI for Visual Storytelling workshop at the NYU Tisch Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center.
AI as a Creative Collaborator
One of the biggest misconceptions around AI in the arts is that it replaces creative work. Professor Poyner sees it differently. “AI can benefit every part of the pipeline. The goal isn't to replace humans as creatives; it’s to remove the creative blockers during the process of making art.”
Rather than automating creativity, AI can act as a collaborator, helping artists move more fluidly between ideas and execution. From generating early concepts to refining final outputs, these tools are increasingly embedded across the entire production pipeline. “AI is affecting each part of the process. It’s being implemented in pre-production, production, and post-production.”
What Artists Actually Gain
For creatives considering learning these tools, the value isn’t just technical; it’s conceptual. Poyner emphasizes that one of the most important skills artists develop is the ability to discern and direct AI output, rather than simply generate it. Artists should “learn the difference between LLM models and diffusion models, how to identify generic output, and how to apply your own creative vision to achieve something unique.” This shift from passive user to active director of AI systems is what allows artists to maintain authorship in an AI-assisted workflow.
Why Now?
AI is evolving rapidly, and Poyner is clear: engaging with it isn’t optional for creatives who want to stay current. “AI is here to stay, and it will fundamentally change how we approach the creative process. It will make individuals more efficient while opening up new ways to create.” The key is not mastery of any single tool, but understanding how these systems fit into a broader creative process.
Expanding the Creative Toolkit
What excites Poyner most about current AI tools isn’t just their capability, it’s their potential to break down traditional boundaries between disciplines.
“AI allows creatives to create more and achieve more with less. An illustrator can now 3d model and animate. A 3D animator can write scripts and produce films. A producer can pre-visualize their own productions.” In this way, AI doesn’t just accelerate workflows; it redefines what a single creator can do.
What once required specialized teams or extended timelines can now be explored more independently and iteratively.
For Poyner personally, AI has fundamentally changed how he approaches creative work. “AI has changed my creative process. If there is a new tool or technology I want to apply to my creative vision, AI allows me to do so.”
For artists who feel intimidated by AI, Poyner offers a grounded perspective: “Technology and its rate of change can make artists unsure and uncertain about how AI fits into their process. The goal is to find the right use case for your creative process and use AI to augment the output.” Rather than trying to learn everything at once, the focus should be on integration, understanding where AI fits within your existing workflow.
Exploring These Ideas in Practice
These ideas form the foundation of the AI for Visual Storytelling workshop, where participants will explore how AI can be integrated across the full creative pipeline: from concept development to post-production.
WORKSHOP INFO
May 19, 2026 - June 25, 2026
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 10:00AM - 1:00PM EST (Online)
The workshop is designed as a hands-on environment where artists, filmmakers, and creative technologists can experiment with tools, develop their own projects, and critically engage with the role of AI in contemporary storytelling.
More information: bit.ly/vpworkshops
