Please just bear with me. I’m getting old, or as I like to say, I’m older. 59 in October.
I remember “Star Wars” blowing everybody away with those FX.
Today, if you’re under a certain age, you don’t see the big deal and you may even laugh at them. That’s ok. I understand, this ain’t no Never Never Land.
Let’s just suffice it say that I am absolutely blown away by the idea that this shit EXISTS and….holy what-the-fuck…..it’s in the hands of regular old folks like me. That’s just crazy.
Ok, let’s continue with all that said.
In my last post This AI Thing or DAMN! hopefully I entertained you a bit with tales of my foray into the world of AI Generated Graphics. I had just discovered this thing does video as well but I was at a total loss. Canva seems to offer you a way to put your existing graphic into a video. So that’s the first thing I tried. I uploaded the book cover for “The Heart of War” and typed something like ‘add a water background’ in the box.
I got this back
Obviously that’s not right.
I was a bit discouraged but having fun with the still graphics so I went back to that for a while.
Yesterday I decided to try the video thing again. When I opened it I discovered two things; 1 there was a weird video that I have no recollection of creating
What is that even supposed to be????
And 2, I only get to make five (5) eight second videos per month on my current plan. You can only have 8 second that’s the only duration they offer. You can make it shorter after download but not longer. You can put music on it or download it with just…the sound effects it generates on its own….and add text or even an 8 second voice over later in the editing process on your own computer.
Alright I have 3 video left. Let’s just start small and try to make Ares do something simple.
Like what?
I’m older so the response in my head was along the lines of the following:
A quick flash of
Followed directly by
“You put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walkin’ cross the floo-oo-oor
You put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walkin’ out the door.”
Ok. Got it.
Let’s try to make him walk. This video thing is different from the still graphics thing. Here you have to think like a director or cinematographer and not a writer. Took me a bit to understand that but I’m getting it. This is my first attempt, all I typed in was something like ‘Ares walks across the floor of wide cave into a big room and over to a silver haired woman’.
Check it out.
I almost fell off my chair! I never ever ever ever thought I would have the power to make him do anything more than walk around in my head. Holy shit! No, he’s not perfect but he’s damn close. I felt a rush of creative energy that I haven’t felt since His Majesty and I were zooming along in much earlier days.
Ok. Breathe. Sit back. Relax.
We made him walk. That’s awesome.
We only have two videos left. They are only 8 seconds each. We have to think about this. We have to pick a single, simple, scene that can take place in 8 seconds or less.
I’m very linear. I really do like to start at the beginning and I thought I’d have Ares get up off his Throne of Bones to go out to the beach. That’s too much. So I went with just the 8 seconds where he finds Alena on the beach.
I can’t really remember what I typed in but it was something along the lines of ‘Ares walks on the shore at sunset and finds a woman washed up on the shore.’
This is what I got
Why is she wearing shoes? If you’re swimming for your life, shoes are the first thing you ditch.
So I sat back, took another breath, decided what I liked about it and what I didn’t. I took the ‘golden hour’ filter off of it and set it to ‘night’ or whatever. Made sure it was on ‘wide shot’. And then I typed in this long godawful detailed description of what I wanted to SEE on the SCREEN.
First I started, again, with Ares and it went something along the lines of; Ares walk along the shoreline at night. His hair is ruffled by the wind. He finds a pale slender woman lying on the sand. He bends down next to her to inspect her. Ares rises to his feet. He pushes the woman over with his boot. She rolls onto her back. Her beautiful face is revealed.
What a pain. But, again, think like someone who actually has to bring this thing to visual life and not just in your head.
I pushed the button to generate the scene and I waited. I waited. I waited. Suddenly a little box popped up telling me my video violated their TOS.
What?
I read it. I read it again. WTF? Oh. Wait. It’s 2025. Yeah. Ok.
“He pushed the woman over with his boot”.
I didn’t say he kicked the living shit out of her.
Haven’t you ever come across something and, not wanting to touch it but wanting to inspect it a bit further, kicked/pushed/rolled it gently over with your foot?
So I tried that; “Gently rolls her over with his foot.”
Nope.
I can see we will not be generating any lovely sex scenes with this thing!
Ok. I sat back for the last time. I decided to change it up a bit. I didn’t like so much of Ares wandering around in the last video so I opened this one with Alena lying alone on the beach. She is FACE DOWN in the sand. Ares comes upon her, looks at her, then….gently rolls her over with his (freakin’) hand.
Ready?
This is so damn close I almost peed my pants. I swear. Right up until the last second. Wait for it, my friend, I swear it’s worth it, wait for it!
Check it out.
Is there a # for Epic AI Fails or something? That should go viral in something like that. LOL!
And THEN, I went back to ‘fix’ it, which I did a pretty good job of….only to realize her legs are backwards! I think her entire lower body is BACKWARDS.
Oh, well, try again next month. But, yes, I’m already poking around for some inexpensive software that I can download, maybe upload some of my collection too, you know just so the AI has a good basis for comparison, and not be restricted by TOS. I’m getting flummoxed just thinking about making some of those sex scenes. Hoooo….boy.
Yeah. Baby.
Our movie will definitely have a strong “R” rating.
At least.
Lisa Beth Darling 