Fish Films

As I have mentioned in other blog entries, it has been all too easy to rely on creating ambient underwater worlds as the AI video generators find that type of movement very intuitive. Meaning I spend less credits generating the clips I need to complete each film. As a small YouTube channel, I have to be budget conscious about how I spend my credits for services like Midjourney and Runway to generate image and video respectively. Especially when it is my goal to produce longer and more professional films as my skills develop. With ever changing work flows, all this experimentation can get expensive. Some tools are free to use but your mileage may vary. When I first began I mainly utilized Pika Labs as I could generate unlimited video through Discord, but more and more I turn to Runway, even if my generations burn through my monthly credits. I also have the ability to upscale my projects now that I have invested in Topaz Labs, which means I end up doing more upscaling in Midjourney which also eats into my monthly fast hours.

When I completed my film last week, The Elephant and the Bumblebee, I really hadn’t even scratched the surface of utilizing character references in Midjourney. Once I realized I needed to learn more I had already iterated so many images I felt it was too late to turn back. Since the renewal of my monthly credits, I have spent a lot of effort experimenting with the differences between image, character, and style references in Midjourney as well as begin utilizing the web interface for the first time, wohoo!

I always love an opportunity to share the weird, wild and delightfully wrong things the AI generates, and some of these elephant and bumblebee clips really show how strangely wrong it can all go. I hope you enjoyed this making of video. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for all the latest videos.