I admit I didn't really think much of it because I assumed people just google "<insert subject here> cutout" and make signatures and avatars out of someone else's artwork, so using a piece of AI artwork as my render didn't really register to me as anything different.
But other than the the fox itself, I did try to put in some work so that it's not completely AI. This was what I got from the AI, this was the end result. I cutout the fox face (which took hours since I don't know how to properly do it), used this for the glow effect, picked out an "aurora borealis texture" google image result that I can't find anymore for the background, and some other random "ice texture" results for the text and border clipping masks. I also traced and modified a random "line text border" result for the text border.
I'm not trying to justify what I did because I do agree that trying to profit off of someone else's work is and should always be a no no. Thinking back, I realize I shouldn't have used any of those images and I shouldn't have traced anything since there was an expectation of winning coins if Armani liked what I did.
I was ignorant to the moral dilemmas of using AI art since I don't really deal with art on a regular basis. I agree with the suggestion, a clear stance on it would educate everyone and I'm sure it would prevent similar problems in the future.
As an extension to the suggestion, maybe disallow using assets people haven't made themselves for artwork that are commissioned for any kind of compensation (whether real world money or fgunz coins) as well? Unless of course they have the license, or the art is in the public domain, or they were given permission by whoever made the artwork originally.
