James Cunliffe

Automatic1111

Testing Gen-2 and Pikalabs with a Starfield Parody Trailer

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, A.I Animation, A.I Art, A.I Technology, Animation, Automatic1111, Film & Video, Gaming, Stable Diffusion, Video Editing /

I was watching a lecture on creativity recently and how it’s not an optimal survival strategy in the modern world. That’s because creatives will spit out idea after idea, and it’s rare that any of them are actually good and worth pursuing. This year I’ve made a free app that has managed 15 downloads, and I published a book that has sold 77 copies (the majority for free under Kindle Unlimited). Both are designed to help creatives navigate the world with a little more wisdom. Especially when we’re living through rough times with AI technology forcing us to raise our own standards of work. I think the app and the book were worthwhile pursuits, but the truth is, no one really cares, and that’s just the reality of these things. They took a long time to make as well, albeit a lot quicker due to tools like ChatGPT, Claude2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. So I’ve tried to reign in the scope of the projects I do, at least in the short term, so I can create content making use of the newest creative tools on the market. These just so happen to be AI tools, which are still massively controversial. Sadly, it doesn’t matter if you like them or not; if you don’t learn how to use them, you’re at risk of losing work to people who do know how to use them. This means if you are creative, the optimal strategy is to be a bit selfish and learn this new technology; all the big studios are already using it, so why put yourself at a disadvantage unless you really do want to be a starving artist, which I do not recommend; it’s awful. Anyway, besides all of that, there’s been progress with AI video generation tools in the last couple of weeks. RunwayML’s Gen-2 is still massively janky, but if you’re persistent, you can get some cool visuals out of it. But the tool I’m most impressed by is Pikalabs, and I’ll tell you why after you’ve watched the video.   Now, on the surface, this video was one of those stupid ideas a normal person would ignore. But I had a creative spark and the means to make this idea real. It’s not too dissimilar to the setup for the Wes Anderson Pokemon parody I made a couple of months ago, which was heavily inspired by the team over at Curious Refuge, but this time around, instead of playing around with D-ID AI, I wanted to test out Gen-2 and Pikalabs. Pikalabs allows you to drop images in with a text prompt, and it will render a 2-second video clip at 8fps. So you can’t do much with that, but it’s still less awkward-looking in comparison to Gen-2. Gen-2 needs a lot of rolls. Most of the results I’ve gotten back feel too much like Disco Diffusion; it’s too hallucinogenic for what I’d like to use it for. I suspect it’ll get better, but for now, the subtle movements from Pikalabs are much more what I’m after. Besides that, I’m learning that DaVinci Resolve is amazing. Everyone who does motion work with AI knows about dirt removal and deflicker now. Due to Corridor Crew and Enigmatic E. The latter is a very talented Warp Diffusion artist and is worth checking out. He actually helped Corridor with their latest Stable Diffusion project, Anime Rock Paper Scissors 2. In terms of my own video project, it just feels like sci-fi is booming within the culture. David Grusch is making the news regarding his statements in Congress about a secret UAP retrieval programme. I’ve spent a little too much time on the UFO/ alien subreddit reading all the crazy theories, and although I’m highly sceptical, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly intrigued by what’s going on. Beings from another dimension, the possibility that it’s actually us coming with a warning—that’s an interesting take and one that I wanted to build into this little parody piece I’ve done. Starfield seemed like a relevant game to piggyback on, as the recent gameplay trailer that this mimics was all about finding life within the universe. Wouldn’t it be insane if it was already here and we’d all just been kept in the dark? Aliens, UAPs, AI, simulations—it’s a nerds-wet dream really, isn’t it? And with the Game of Thrones showrunners making the new Three-Body Problem TV series for the start of next year… We’re entering the new sci-fi age, and I’m all for it… Unless aliens are actually real demonic entities trying to cause humanity harm, then it’s a solid nope from me!

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Rob Like A Robot: How To Be Creative When A.I Does It Better

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Art, A.I Technology, Animation, Automatic1111, Film & Video, Gaming, Marketing, Music, Social Media, Stable Diffusion, Tutorials /

After a year of deep research into artificial intelligence and its impacts on human creativity, I’m proud to announce the release of my book “Rob Like a Robot: How to Be Creative When AI Does It Better.” This 244-page guide represents the culmination of everything I’ve learned about generative AI and how we can use it to augment our creative potential.   The genesis of this book was in early 2023, when tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion first captured the public imagination. As a multimedia artist and content creator myself, I was fascinated but also apprehensive about what these new technologies meant for human creativity. Throughout the year, I dove headfirst into testing these AI systems, reading extensively, building online resources via YouTube, and writing up my thoughts and findings into this book. My goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of AI and use that knowledge to help fellow creators navigate this technology. What I’ve come to realise is that AI is not a threat to human creativity, but rather an opportunity. When used thoughtfully, it can free us from repetitive tasks and allow us to focus on the parts of the creative process that require emotional depth, imagination, and a human perspective. The book aims to show readers how to view AI as a collaborative tool that enhances their unique creative voice rather than replacing it. In Rob Like a Robot, I guide the reader through the exhilarating world of generative AI using a mix of storytelling, concrete examples, and philosophical insights. We explore leading tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and ChatGPT and see how they can augment photography, visual art, writing, music, game development, and more. But I also devote significant attention to the ethical implications of AI, looking at issues like copyright, deepfakes, and dehumanisation. The aim is not just to marvel at the technology but to responsibly integrate it into our creative lives. Rob Like a Robot also draws on lessons from creative luminaries throughout history to provide timeless advice on nurturing imagination. I share my own trials and tribulations in shaping a fulfilling creative career. And I speculate about the future of human creativity as AI becomes more sophisticated. Ultimately, the book is about discovering your unique creative voice and using technology to express it to its fullest potential. For anyone looking to understand this AI-powered creative revolution we’re living through, Rob Like a Robot is an indispensable guide. It’s a roadmap to help artists, writers, designers, and creators of all kinds collaborate with AI in their quest for self-expression and self-actualization. I hope it will inspire people to think deeply about the relationship between technology and creativity and to pursue innovation with ethics and humanity in mind. If AI is our future, let us shape it with care to uplift the human spirit. Want to know more about it you can read more here.

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How I Used AI To Make A Theoretical Video Game Expansion

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Art, Automatic1111, Gaming, Stable Diffusion /

As someone who has worked in the video game industry, I’ve always been fascinated by the endless possibilities of game expansions. Recently, after my brother saw a tweet by one of the Slay the Spire co-creators talking about some pasta based icons he’d made, we decided to put our heads together to create a demo of it using AI tools. With my knowledge of stable diffusion and animation and his of ChatGPT, we set out to bring our ideas to life. We decided to create a full pasta-themed expansion. Our DLC content included new characters, relics, cards, quests, and enemies, all centered around a delicious pasta theme. To achieve our vision, we used a couple of base assets from the game and ran them through Stable Diffusion and Automatic1111. While the initial results were lacking on their own, we used Photoshop and After Effects to finesse the assets and add animation, bringing them to life. The workflow we used was impressive, and it has the potential to speed up game development significantly. In the future, artists will be able to ask AI to swap out certain elements and create variations of their work in seconds. There are ethical concerns though, a lot of artists are currently fearful that they will be replaced by technology which is causing a lot of negativity around these tools. As a content creator experimenting with these new tools I do realise I walk along this grey area at the moment, which is why I’m constantly giving credit to the original creators and showing them in a positive light. I was quiet disheartened when it came to releasing the video and upon going to credit the lead artist on Slay the Spire Bruce Brenneise, I’d seen that he’d taken an anti A.I stance on his Artstation. If you like Slay the Spire and want to support human artists, you can subscribe to Bruce’s patreon for as little as £1 per month on his Patreon. I suspect as time moves forward there will be much less stigma around A.I tools as they become the norm. Overall, using AI tools to create a theoretical video game expansion was an exciting and eye-opening experience. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative uses of this technology in the gaming industry.

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Anime Character Design and Animation, Stable Diffusion, Photoshop and After Effects

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, A.I Animation, A.I Art, After Effects Tutorials, Animation, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Diffusion Tutorials, Tutorials /

In this 2 part tutorial I walk you through my process of generating characters using Stable Diffusion and Automatic1111. In Part 1 we use the A.I tools along with Photoshop and Inpainting to tweak the design and prep the character for animation. In Part 2 we take those elements into After Effects to rig, animate and finalise the composition. I’ve taken advantage of the ProtoThing 200 model which I sourced from Hugging Face. Hugging Face is a great website with hundereds of models created by the A.I Art community. Just a heads up, if you’re considering using a local installation of Automatic1111 you’ll need a graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM, the more you have the better as it can be quite taxing on your machine. Unforunately Mac users will have to wait as well as it is currently not supported. I’ve had no issues running the software but have a fairly decent system due to the nature of my work. I’m running it on Windows 11, i9-12900K 3200 Mhz 16 Core Processor, 64GB RAM with a RTX 3090TI GPU. There are a couple of things I need to iron out with the workflow. I still don’t like a lot of the A.I masking tools I’ve tried, just doesn’t seem to grab the fine details all that well which is why I’m still more likely to use the pen tool unless the rotowork can be slightly scrappy. I’m really happy with how this one turned out, very nearly feels like a splash screen you could find in a videogame. If you’ve found it useful or have your own workflow ideas be sure to get in touch in the comments!

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How to Create and Animate a Landscape with Parallax: A Tutorial

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, A.I Animation, A.I Art, All, Animation, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Diffusion Tutorials, Tutorials /

The advancement in technology has made it possible to create visually stunning landscapes with ease. With Stable Diffusion and Automatic1111, you can quickly generate a digitally illustrated background image, like a castle, using models from websites like Hugging Face. In this tutorial, I will use Anything V3 to create our landscape. Step 01: Generate the Image in Automatic1111 It’s as simple as downloading the software from Github, grabbing a model from Hugging Face and then typing in a prompt. I’ve found that ‘quality’ keywords work better at the start with the more descriptive elements about the scene falling towards the end. Step 2: Creating the Depth Map Once you have generated the landscape in Automatic1111, import it into Photoshop and create a Depth Map. The Depth Map will be used in After Effects to animate the landscape. Step 3: Animate the Landscape in After Effects Import the Depth Map and the landscape into After Effects and use it to animate the image. You may need to do some roto work to polish up the final result. Step 4: Upscale the Video with DaVinci Resolve If you want to take the animation to the next level, consider using DaVinci Resolve’s generative tools to upscale the video. This will help increases the overall quality of the asset. Bonus Step: Use Mobile Apps for Automation Mobile apps like CapCut are now automating the process of creating a parallax effect. Although the results may not be as high-quality as those created in After Effects, it demonstrates that the technology is constantly improving and becoming more accessible. To conclude, creating and animating a landscape with parallax is easier than ever before. With the use of Stable Diffusion, Automatic1111, Photoshop, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve and mobile apps like CapCut, you can bring your landscape to life in a matter of seconds.

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AI Anime Generator

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, A.I Animation, A.I Art, A.I Technology, All, Animation, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion /

After leaving a struggling gaming marketing agency and assessing my priorities, I knew I wanted to build something my fiancée, a huge anime fan, would enjoy. I leveraged my decade of experience in video production and motion design, and combined it with cutting-edge AI software like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Automatic1111, and AnythingV3. My original goal was to complete the project in a week, but I soon realized that was unrealistic. Instead, I set a new goal of 100 hours, and with help from the A.I, I managed to create over 400 characters, 200 concept images, and 49 backstories, all voiced and edited by myself. If I had hired artists to do this work at professional day rates, it would have cost anywhere from $64,500 to $283,201 and taken 625 to 1826 days to complete. But with the help of Stable Diffusion and Automatic1111, the only cost was my electricity bill and subscriptions to Adobe, Artlist, and Envato. While there are other anime art generators on the market, like NovelAI and Holara, none are as free and flexible as Stable Diffusion. However, there is currently a lawsuit against Stable Diffusion with a lot of misinformation about how diffusion actually works. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It could either force the art world to adapt and output more high-quality work, or it could give corporations more power over copyright, making it difficult for small artists to produce original work without fear of infringement. Overall, this project has been an incredible learning experience and I’m excited to see where AI-generated/ assisted content goes in the future.

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Create Art From Your Face With AI For Free | Dreambooth Tutorial | Stable Diffusion Guide

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Art, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Diffusion Tutorials, Tutorials /

I’ve been making content for over a decade and a half and have never really had eyes on my personal work. On retrospect I have had over 500,000 ears my music but also didn’t know until the audience around it had already moved on, you can read more about that here if you’re interested. So instead of working on my own content I’ve spent the last couple of years creating for some of the biggest tech and gaming influencers/ brands with already established audiences. After watching an episode of Corridor Crew where they’d turned their friends into illustrated characters, I just got a feeling that I could figure out how they’d done it, which lead to the creation of this video. And although I’d worked on content for clients that had reached the millions in terms of viewership, it was still amazing to see something that I’d made off my own back had netted over 200K views in a couple of days and had taken me from 120 subscribers to over 4000. The tech evolves so quickly that I’m told the first video is a little dated now. This one focuses around the use of Google Collab (if you don’t have a decent PC), but I quickly realised my 3090TI could handle Automatic1111 so I quickly moved over to a new workflow for training which I showcased in Part 2. If you are struggling with the changes on the Collab doc since this tutorial, I recommend following my ‘Part 3’ Part 2 does a recap on the intial setup, how to take images and also information about resizing. It also covers the installation of Automatic1111 and then this time, instead of Dreambooth, I show you how to utilise Hypernetwork. It’s another form of ML training. Although I’d argue it isn’t as good as Dreambooth. Still definitely one to check out if you’re looking to experiement with alternativer methods of image training. In my Part 3, I showcase another Google Colab method of Dreambooth training by TheLastBen, I’ve been told people have had a lot more luck getting this method to work compared to the methods in Part 1. I also share a little bit of an inpainting trick to paste faces onto the genrated characters if you’re struggling to get an image spot on straight away.   These tools really are incredible, it’s a little bit full circle for me going back to alternative reality faces. My first job in the gaming industry was motion tracking at a video game animation studio that eventually got bought by Epic Games. Some of my manual laboring is likely still part of the dataset that is now used for the Metahuman creator. It’s definiely something I intend to explore further and as these 3 videos head towards half a million total views, I suspect it’s something a lot of people are interested in too. If there’s anything you’d like me to explore in terms of A.I faces or animation, be sure to leave a comment in one of the YouTube videos!

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Is This The Death Of VFX? | DeepDive Into A.I. Art Like Corridor Crew | Ultimate Dreambooth Guide

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Art, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Diffusion Tutorials, Tutorials /

What a journey this last couple of months was. What started out as a genuine curiosity around a Corridor Crew video has lead to nearly half a million views across my Dreambooth focused videos. I never expected such a positive response and for the videos to have the impact they have had. It’s pushed my channel from 120 subs to over 5000 and with that has encouraged me to get an even greater grasp on A.I tools and how we can apply them creatively. In this video I summarise the best way I currently know of doing Dreambooth training, hopefully it’ll stay relevant for longer than my previous ones that quickly went out of date not even a month after their release. Just want to say a huge thanks to anyone whose watched my videos, commented, liked, all that social media jazz. I’ve spent most of my career making content for brands and influencers that dwarf my own channel and to finally get such a positive response on my own videos has been really cool to see.

Is This The Death Of VFX? | DeepDive Into A.I. Art Like Corridor Crew | Ultimate Dreambooth Guide Read More »

The Automatic1111 Lazy Tutorials Playlist

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Art, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Diffusion Tutorials, Tutorials /

In a bit of a homage to Ian Huberts Lazy Blender Tutorial playlist, I wanted to do something in a similar vein but with Automatic1111. Sharing what I’ve mananged to figure out in a quick under 1 minute format. I’ll be honest, since I started putting these out… Although the comments have been massively positive, It hasn’t helped my channel in the algorithm. I’ve actually learned since that YouTube promotes channels that put out content that’s around the 9-13 minute mark more than short form content (unless you’re making content specifically using their shorts format). This is just because it has more spots for advertising and your typical viewer is usually okay sticking around for this amount of time but not much longer. Even though it’s tanked my viewership, if there’s enough interest in these short form tutorials, I’ll try and adapt them for the YouTube short format so it can still help everyone, hopefully without damaging my channel. Fingers crossed  

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How I Made This Track And Music Video In Under 12 Hours

Leave a Comment / A.I, A.I Animation, A.I Art, Alias Here, Animation, Automatic1111, Music, Stable Diffusion /

Making a music video can be a time-consuming and laborious process, especially if you’re doing it all on your own. But what if you could use AI to speed things up? In this post, I’ll cover the steps I took to create both the music and the video using a combination of traditional creative techniques and cutting-edge AI technology. Creating the Music After playing with electronic music tools for over a decade, I’m operating more on instinct and old habits than anything else when I produce these days. I started this project by turning on Native Instruments Maschine to create the bulk of my drums, I wanted something light with a couple of rim hits and found a couple of samples that sat well without needing too much altering. After that I automated Kinetic Metal to create a shaker effect and add some subtle variations in the progression. For the driving bass line, I used Spectrasonics Trillian, and for the core synths, Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2. To add a bit of grit and distortion to my synths, I’ve used the OTT plugin. On top of all that, Gross Beat has been my go to plugin to automate ducking allowing the melodies and drum progressions to work in harmony. Always been a fan of Hans Zimmer and would like to make a movie score one day, I’m no where near that skill level but a couple of orchestral elements have mananged to sneak into my last couple of tracks and I’ve got my eye on a couple of expensive plugins. I just wish I had more hours in the day to do this kind of work. Creating the Video Without much of a break, I began planning out the concept. I wanted the video to have an anime/cartoon style with a glitching effect that made it seem like the character was moving through different locations. Having used Deforum within Automatic1111 I had figured out that I could use green screen footage of a walk cycle as a base layer. Stable Diffusion doesn’t create transparent exports just yet, so keying out the green would be the logical next best thing. Using Automatic1111, I created a cartoon-style prompt and used a single seed on the whole batch of images. This created a sequence of PNGs in a similar style to each other. I then brought those PNGs into After Effects and used keylight to remove the green screen background. I used a posterize time effect and set it to 12 frames per second as well to match the old school 2s animation style. For the backgrounds, I used Automatic1111 to create nearly 50 images from the perspective of a road with high-resolution settings enabled. I brought those images into After Effects and used keyframes to position and scale them, creating a seamless transition from one background to the next. To stitch everything together, I used a glitch transition pack from Motion Bro. The Result Thanks to the combination of traditional creative techniques and AI technology, I was able to create both the music in under 12 hours. Without the help of AI, I reckon it would have taken a year or more to complete the same project. It’s not perfect by any stretch, the changing faces are definitely something that I’d like to see fixed but the technology is moving so quickly. It’s probably only a matter of time until there’s a solution.

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