[HN Gopher] Thiings
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Thiings
Author : pentagrama
Score : 133 points
Date : 2025-06-10 15:30 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thiings.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thiings.co)
| HanClinto wrote:
| Cool site!
|
| But why does it exist? Will it be around in 6 months? What is the
| backstory / creator of this project?
|
| It's odd that they use their own license language, and doesn't
| use something explicit like CC-BY-NC. It appears to be a non-
| commercial, non-distribution license, but otherwise free for
| personal and commercial use...?
|
| Appears that the site is funded through being able to purchase
| sponsorship spots for $10 / mo.
| staticshock wrote:
| Confusingly, the about page suggests that this is an AI-driven
| storytelling app: https://www.thiings.co/about. Maybe that's a
| vestige of prior iteration of the app, though.
|
| The concept minds me of the million dollar homepage, where you
| could pay a dollar per pixel of advertisement. Here, you're
| paying a dollar (that's a guess; i didn't check) to get a new
| object listed in the potentially infinite grid, which gives you
| a unique URL for that object, an emoji-like reference image,
| and a one-paragraph description for aliens, were they to land
| on earth and ask what that object was for.
|
| Basically, looks like an art project that monetizes
| participation.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Along the same lines, less "cute", but far more extensive -
| https://thenounproject.com
| graypegg wrote:
| I've contributed a bit to Noun Project, it's lovely. Submitted
| icons need to pass a manual quality gate, which does take a
| while, but it means that you don't run into bad AI slop or
| broken SVG paths as often as you do from other stock graphics
| services.
| fredley wrote:
| Noun Project is fantastic. It's been around for at least a
| decade and it's hard to find things with no icons these days.
|
| I notice it suffers from the same London Bridge problem, do
| people never learn?
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_Cit...
| cyclotron3k wrote:
| If you're making an icon of Tower Bridge, you're going to tag
| it with "London" and "bridge", so it's going to turn up in
| all searches for London bridge.
|
| At this point though, the two bridges should just swap names.
| ipsum2 wrote:
| They're AI generated and look quite nice, no obvious artifacts
| (messed up text). Not sure what the use case is though.
| jedahan wrote:
| It was weird reading the description for gigan as a cyclops but
| the image showing 2 eyes.
| Jordan-117 wrote:
| Kind of sloppy, though. An impossible Rubik's cube, a sudoku
| puzzle with incorrect numbers, a mirror showing a non-reversed
| reflection, a domed White House, a US flag with 32 stars...
| barkerja wrote:
| I treat them kind of like icons/emoji, which often don't have
| a lot of fidelity due to size constraints.
| krackers wrote:
| So you can pretend you are an alien learning about human
| culture.
| munificent wrote:
| The scissors here are not what I'd describe as "no obvious
| artifacts": https://www.thiings.co/things/cross-stitch-kit
| treyd wrote:
| The hammock one is non-euclidean.
| barkerja wrote:
| I've been downloading them to my iPhone and converting a number
| of them to stickers, which can be used identically to emoji in
| iMessage.
| Centigonal wrote:
| This is a great idea, but the monetization model will not stand
| the pressure of market forces. Icons is a race to the bottom,
| even with relatively high-cost human labor
| staticshock wrote:
| I think this is best seen as an art project, not as a business
| idea. I'm also assuming that the cost to run such an app are
| near zero, so the break-even cost would probably be, like, one
| person a month generating one new thing.
| Centigonal wrote:
| good point on break-even cost.
|
| I can't consider this an art project when the creator has
| integrated:
|
| - A lifetime membership fee for downloading all icons
|
| - A sponsorship subscription option that lets subscribers
| integrate their own icon (ad) into the collection
|
| - A credits system for generating new icons using AI
|
| Nothing against creators getting paid, just saying that this
| is monetized to the gills and looks more like an indie
| hackers thing than an art project.
| kurrupttt wrote:
| Super helpful, i was just looking for some 3d elements of
| bonfires and dolphins to go with my apps aesthetic. the timing
| could not have been better :D
|
| thanks!
| toddmorey wrote:
| I am interested in guidance for generating a custom icon like
| this with a similar level of style consistency. I know there are
| some resources out there with guidance, but does anyone know any
| really good ones?
| wigiv wrote:
| This is absolutely not my area of expertise, and I can't fully
| vouch for how well it works, but I was looking for a similar
| solution for consistency across website graphics and came
| across this walkthrough for consistent game assets:
|
| https://runware.ai/blog/creating-consistent-gaming-assets-wi...
|
| Maybe helpful?
| Destiner wrote:
| one good technique is to pass the style guide as a json, where
| you define materials, lightning, perspective, etc
|
| you can even use a vision model to generate the style guide for
| you
| toddmorey wrote:
| Very clever thank you
| rglover wrote:
| Me as well. The one thing I've struggled with is consistently
| getting a combination of object-only and transparent
| background.
| wvbdmp wrote:
| Of course it has "Reaper Drone" as well as several different
| tanks and war planes, but not, for instance, "dildo".
| astnai wrote:
| so good
| fredley wrote:
| The entry for London Bridge is wrong, Tower Bridge is depicted.
| extesy wrote:
| Staff is also wrong: https://www.thiings.co/things/staff -
| shows a group of people but describes a stick.
| fredley wrote:
| And some of those people have mouths and noses, some don't.
| Creepy image.
| dsego wrote:
| The needle is all wrong, the thread doesn't go through the
| eyelet.
|
| https://www.thiings.co/things/needle-unott0
| paxys wrote:
| It instead goes through the needle itself... Just AI things
| munificent wrote:
| Take a look at the scissors on the cross stitch kit:
| https://www.thiings.co/things/cross-stitch-kit
| fredley wrote:
| The image for Physics shows an impossible Newton's Cradle.
| The balls should be, well, cradled between two strings.
|
| https://www.thiings.co/things/physics
| aclindsa wrote:
| Only half of all wall outlets need the ground prong:
| https://www.thiings.co/things/wall-outlet
|
| And this decidedly is not a square not:
| https://www.thiings.co/things/square-knot
| zuminator wrote:
| The puzzle cube is colored wrongly
|
| https://www.thiings.co/things/puzzle-cube
| globular-toast wrote:
| Golden Gate bridge is apparently designed by MC Escher:
| https://www.thiings.co/things/golden-gate-bridge
| _august wrote:
| Somewhat relevant GitHub project, for generating Genmoji-style
| images: https://github.com/EvanZhouDev/open-genmoji
| paxys wrote:
| > Thiings is a growing collection of 1,900+ free AI-generated 3D
| icons
|
| "Free", but downloading the entire collection requires a payment.
|
| And according to the terms:
|
| > 4. Content
|
| > You retain all rights to your content. By using our service,
| you grant us a license to host and display your content.
|
| But then they advertise that anyone can download and use these
| pictures? Under what license?
| Hamuko wrote:
| If they're AI-generated, just grab them and ignore the terms.
| What are they gonna do, claim copyright?
| zer00eyz wrote:
| I see someone has heard from their legal department on AI
| tools.
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| Seriously, why would I pay for someone else to generate AI
| images?
| jstummbillig wrote:
| Because it requires work and you place value on your time
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| Does it _really_ require work though?
| dalmo3 wrote:
| Could you share a similar library you've built without
| any work?
| bigyabai wrote:
| No but I can point to hundreds on HN.
| barkerja wrote:
| Please provide a couple, I am genuinely interested.
| ChrisClark wrote:
| Uh, yes?
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| What work?
| sdenton4 wrote:
| QA and organization of the assets...
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| The entire point of AI is that it doesn't require work,
| you just type a prompt in and it does the work for you
| barkerja wrote:
| Prompting is still work; it requires thought and
| oftentimes iteration.
| furyofantares wrote:
| It depends on how good they are. I'd pay a little to not
| have to prompt and wait for a bunch of icons, a little more
| to not have to curate and reroll, and more to not have to
| train a lora, all assuming those are buying me quality
| thresholds I care about.
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| Personally I wouldn't use ai generated images in
| production. To me AI generated images are simply a
| curiosity or toy. Maybe placeholders while you get actual
| art created, but to use them in a final product is just
| anti-humanist
| mumbisChungo wrote:
| I've been automating tasks away from humans for going on
| 25 years now. Unadulterated misanthropy.
| dvh wrote:
| Capacitor looks weird. When I type "lead" is offers me to add it,
| but when I type "asp" it shows me "wasp" without option to add
| "asp" (a fish). Diode is shorted. I really don't understand the
| purpose of this.
| moralestapia wrote:
| Then don't use it. Simple as.
| the-anarchist wrote:
| I second that.
| agcat wrote:
| So cool!
| awfulneutral wrote:
| Spinosaurus is the inaccurate one from Jurassic Park 3 and
| Tyrannosaurus has inaccurate hand rotation. Velociraptor and
| Dilophosaurus are also from Jurassic Park and highly inaccurate.
| For shame!
| Waterluvian wrote:
| This page feels like one of those times that touch and drag
| inertia would really be a benefit. It feels so clumsy to navigate
| on my phone but looks so close to being a delight.
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| I also want to pinch zoom out to see the full database, but I
| guess they won't give it out for free.
| the-anarchist wrote:
| Really, that's your takeaway from all of this?
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Well... I guess if I'm limited to only discussing the most
| significant part of any issue, it would have to be that none
| of this matters, agency is an illusion, and we should all
| sell our computers and find people to feed.
|
| But touch drag inertia is a close second.
| GuinansEyebrows wrote:
| I searched for "hot dog" and got "Oxford University".
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(page generated 2025-06-13 23:01 UTC)