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!
