Thank you for taking the time to visit this site. I'm really not sure how often I'll post, but the general idea is to share experiments and thoughts on technology, art, and video. This content is most likely shared on my LinkedIn account, so feel free to follow me there. Generative AI post #001 In the last few months, I've been researching a newer tech for film and video: generative AI (shocker), Unreal Engine, and NeRF technology. Most recently I've done a deep dive into Runway ML.
Since my first computer, I've been a life-long tinkerer with graphics and animation. Maybe it's because of my background studying experimental art films , but I love to break things and try and make graphics software produce the unintended. I think this is why I've been enjoying playing with various generative AI like Midjourney, Dream Studio, and Runway ML.
Notably, Runway is a company that is 100% focused on disrupting traditional video workflows with browser-based AI driven tools for editing, rotoscoping, and much more. I got beta access to GEN-1 which is designed for "text to video" and "image to video" style transfers. After lots of mixed experimentation, I decided to create a real test project. Many years ago, I directed a music video for the indie rock group, Papas Fritas. The original video was shot quite simply, as the plan was to hand animate the video using old fashioned roto-paint tracing techniques. I found the original footage, and used Gen-1 to create a new, animation look.
I would like to mention that this was not a simple process of processing the entire video in one pass. AI based video tools are still in their infancy and it took a long time to produce the below results. It was certainly a learning process and I plan to document the process soon.
Here is the original hand animated video:
While the band is no longer recording, My family and I really love all three of their albums.
Check out Papas Fritas on Spotify!