Alias Here Archives | James Cunliffe

The Roko’s Basilisk Documentary Post-mortem

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, A.I Art, A.I Technology, Alias Here, Animation, Directing, Film & Video, Music, Producing, Social Media, Video Editing / James Cunliffe

On the 28th April, I released my latest single ‘Callie’s Quest‘ aptly named after my amazing wife Martina Callegari who has been a beckon of positivity, always encouraging my creative pursuits. I’ve always loved making music but after failing to secure a spot on Artlist’s platform as a creator, I decided to dust myself down and start up a new project. The plan was to revisit documentary filmmaking, which had been on my mind for a while. Mini docs used to be my bread and butter while working as a videographer in Manchester, UK. I’ve shot, edited, and directed dozens of shorts, some of my favourites were Jordan Thomas // Track To Tokyo for UK Sport and Music Worth Fighting For, which I’d worked on with my former business partner Luke Barnett. I seem to have this problem of overscoping my personal projects. Trying to do too much with too little time and resources. I’d love to be in a position to hire the many talented creatives out in the world but with how expensive the cost of living is. It makes it close to impossible for me at the moment. That urge to create never really goes away for me, it’s a hunger that’s never sated. It doesn’t matter if I’m working a full-time gig or I’m busy with freelance, I always want my next project to be bigger and better than the previous. It’s why I haven’t shied away from AI technology. I’m seeing creators big and small using it and the truth is I don’t want to be left behind by ignoring it. All that said, it’s allowing me to produce more creative content, to a higher standard and quicker than ever before. I lived through analogue to digital. Spent nearly two years creating training data for Epic Games Metahuman Creator while at Cubic Motion… Being a creative in an increasingly more complex digital world has been my whole career so far. What’s bigger than the approaching AI singularity and the duality of what it means to be human? That’s what I found myself asking, and 2 weeks after releasing my last single I’d finished a 35 minute documentary/ video essay about Roko’s Basilisk. It’s a modern day Pascal’s Wager. Having grown up in a religious household, becoming an atheist and then agnostic, It felt like the right time to revisit the topics of spirituality viewed through the lens of technology. It’s not perfect by any means but the fact that I could make this within 2 weeks (albeit ridiculous hours) made me happy as a writer/ director/ producer. If I was just a motion designer/ editor I could see myself being frustrated because there’s a real fear of becoming irrelevant as the process is automated away. Still, if you’re a generalist like myself, you find yourself bouncing ideas off of AI and working with it to problem solve faster than you would on your own. AI is essentially another team member, it takes leadership and direction to get the most out of these tools (if you can call them that). I find myself talking to them as if they are people that I care about and want to work with. What I get back is enthusiasm that matches my own as well as novel solutions that I otherwise might have missed. I used my own custom GPT that has trained off of my book ‘Rob Like A Robot‘ it’s specifically tailored to help structure feature length documentary style projects. I spent 2 days compiling notes around Roko’s Basilisk, checking in with numerous thought leaders to understand their take on the topic. I explored my own understanding of psychology, religion, mythology and the human condition. Once I had 13 pages of notes, I uploaded them to my custom GPT and discussed breaking the topic into 10 chapters that made the most sense from a linear filmmaking perspective. 2 more days were spent refining the script. On the 5th day I read and recorded the entire thing myself to get an understanding of the overall length of the video. On the 6th day, I’d used Elevenlabs to generate the additional voices used throughout the documentary. Audio is never perfect from Elevenlabs, it takes a tremendous amount of editing. Luckily Adobe Enhancer does a lot to bolster the overall quality and you can get as many takes as you like. The ASMR voice used over the titles was originally without reverb, I wanted her to feel eerie and I had the perfect VST for the job. On the 7th day, the script was converted into a Google Sheets document where each line corresponded with a shot number. I then noted down which lines I was going to create titles for, which I was going to Stable Diffusion some stills for, and which needed more tailored motion design elements to explain difficult concepts. Everything else was going to be stock footage, toned down to black and white to try and make the piece feel more cohesive. By day 8 I had all of the voice over audio and music layed out for each chapter in Adobe Premiere Pro. I wanted to make sure the piece had the right energy from the sound alone before I started adding any visuals. Days 9 – 12 consisted of finalising the motion design assets, sourcing footage, cutting, grading and doing minor effects work. The 13th day was a major sound design day, utilising Splice’s sample library, which gave me access to incredibly unique sounds that probably not many filmmakers consider as it’s a website primarily for musicians not editors. The final day we spent in review and going over minor fixes. It’s set to release Friday 17th, April 18:30 GMT. I am absolutely shattered, this was a complete mammoth of a project t0 push over the line in such a short amount of time but it was also a fun challenge that pushed me to develop some new skills and figure

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Artificial Progression | Alias Here / James Cunliffe

Leave a Comment / Alias Here, Music, Social Media / James Cunliffe

Last year, I ventured into self-publishing with my first book, “Rob Like a Robot: How to be Creative When AI Does it Better.” This book explores the myriad of ways AI is reshaping the creative landscape. However, in hindsight, “Why Be Creative When AI Does it Better?” might have been a more fitting title, particularly reflecting on my experiences in music production, which underscore the core message. In my recent musical pursuits, I’ve leaned heavily on samples. This approach means that while I’m an active participant in the music-making process, I’m not the originator of every sound. My role is to manipulate pitch, duration, and timbre through various effects, acting more as a curator of sounds than their creator. Think of me as a culinary artist in the world of sound, mixing percussion, strings, and synths to cook up an auditory feast. The journey is all about exploring the range of inputs at my disposal. There’s a touch of personal flair in the final output, but it’s essentially a process of repurposing existing elements to forge something new. In 2024, we have AI music generation platforms like Suno and Loudly, which replicate this creative process autonomously, without human intervention. This evolution could be disheartening for some musicians, raising the question: How do I stay relevant in an industry where machines can churn out an endless stream of flawless tracks in moments? The answer lies in the pursuit of self-discovery, genuine expression, and fostering community. While I haven’t integrated A.I into my music production yet, I’m acutely aware of its impending impact on the music scene and am beginning to consider the wider implications. Take “Glorb” on YouTube, for instance, whose AI-generated Spongebob Rap videos have garnered 141 million views. We’re about to enter a world where every brand in the world can release chart topping music, I’m not sure how to feel about that. As a hobbyist musician, this shift is somewhat daunting, yet I’m optimistic about the new avenues and uncharted artistic realms that await those willing to dive in. On that note, I invite you to listen to my latest track, “Artificial Progression,” recently launched via Distrokid. It’s a small glimpse into my ongoing exploration of music and technology. Thanks for reading and listening.

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Skyward Reverie Album Release | Alias Here / James Cunliffe

Leave a Comment / 2D Animation, A.I, Alias Here, Animation, Music, Social Media, Stable Diffusion / James Cunliffe

At the beginning of the year, I decided to embark on a new record project. I’d give myself three months to create twelve tunes with a lo-fi theme. Throughout the first quarter of the year, my goals shifted. I opted to refocus on a more cinematic tone to appeal to an Artlist application that, regrettably, failed. It’s unfortunate that the effort ended in loss, but it doesn’t diminish the trip or the task itself. Mixing lo-fi rhythms with cinematic melodies seemed like a fresh perspective on the genre, allowing me to re-discover my downtempo/electronica origins in a new and exciting way. My first album, ‘Pomp Yin – World Celebration,’ was released 9 years ago and was one of the most enjoyable creative projects I’ve ever worked on, and I’ve always wondered if I’d have time to produce another with all the responsibilites of life that get in the way. Well, nearly over a decade later I have and although it missed the mark for Artlist, I’m still happy with the project for the amount of time I had to work on it. You can find more about the process in the video below: The album itself is a mixture of genres, drawing on the rich tapestries of ambient, electronica, downtempo, jazz, lounge and world music. All twelve tracks were named by my wife Martina, who, together with my best man Jonny Knowles, have been my main supporters and motivators to create more music. With so many excellent musicians and producers online and around the globe, it may be tough not to compare your work to others. When it comes to music, I usually feel like I achieve a level of quality that is above average but just below professional; perhaps this is due to impostor syndrome, but it doesn’t deter me. If anything, seeing people pursue artistic endeavours and push themselves to learn more inspires me to continue honing my talents in whichever area I focus on. If you would like to listen to the full album, you can do that by clicking on the video below. The full album with individual tracks will follow shortly on Spotify and all the other big streaming platforms. Thanks for listening

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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 / James Cunliffe

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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