All the footage of the narrator is this video was first shot as live action then rotoscoped with the AI tool Ebsynth. I realize some of you in this community might never have seen this in action to it's full extent so here's a longer video showing what it can do. Again the whole video is edited on the free software Davinci Resolve, and the still images are rendered using the AI paint programs "Go Art" and "Vector Q"
There is more and more options online for high quality picture to art software, and when mixed with rotoscoping it allows for some cool effects
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Thank you for sharing! Is the example the animation of the narrator? There are painting-like stills in it, too. It's interesting, did you decide to animate the narrator because you didn't want the audience to feel pulled out of the experience?
Also, props on your pitch video! I'd be interested to see if you can make a 5-minute pitch video that would adhere to the verbal pitch parameters for pitching to Stage 32 executives. Or do you have a 2-page pitch document?
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I did decide to animate the narrator to keep the feel of the video consistent. I haven't checked out the verbal pitch parameters, but now that you've made me aware of it... I will
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I first heard of the program a year ago, when this filmmaker showed how he uses it for his comedy series. Because it glitches sometimes, he leaned into it and made that part of the aesthetic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq_KOmXyVDo
As I understand it, you shoot live action, then make a painting of a frame. Input both to the Ebsynth program and it tries to apply the painting as texture to the moving video.
Yes, that's exactly right Mike. And Joel (The creator of the video you referenced) is very much the pioneer in using this. But it can do so much more than what Joel does. The amazing power of the program for me is in the "painting" you use. It doesn't have to be something you draw by hand, or at all. You can use a different AI program to paint for you - as I did here - and feed that into the program. Counterintuitively the more detailed the painting the better it works. The glitches are caused when the program doesn't have enough detail to work with since it's essentially a tracking program. Use an image with lots of contrast and detail and it can do really nice work with very little bleed, or glitch.
This means it doesn't have to be just for animation. It can be used for VFX as well.
Take a look at this video
https://youtu.be/mOhAJ18V4nA
made by Sean Dove. He used an aging photo filter on his phone to make himself look older; then fed that into EbSynth for his video and the effect is really cool.
The other advantage this has is the initial video quality can be kinda bad, and that's fine. As long at it's lit well enough the art you choose will elevate your low quality film into something cool. Which eliminates one of the barriers to entry that camera gear can represent. You really can use your phone. (I do).
There's a lot here for people looking to try something different and cool. All free. All easy to use.
I hit the uncanny valley at 7 seconds.
Cool video. I wonder why he left that texture jump at the end. If he just left out that last keyframe it might have worked fine.
I'm more interested in doing something "arty" looking in a more fantasy way, not imitating reality. So a painterly texture would be fun to try.
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Very, very cool.
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I like the theme of this video which is about time travel and breaking the mental 4th wall. I follow the work of Linklater which this sort of reminds me of and have done something similar with the reversal of a nuclear scenario, and another AI experiment. I think you should play a little bit more to the morality aspects of the subject. Here's a little taste of one of those experiments I mentioned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CauP1yTpROY
Thanks Martin
I would go deeper with the morality aspect if this were a full length feature Terence. But I'm kinda limited with the short run time. Still, I'm glad I was at least able to suggest the moral struggle enough that you wanted more.