During this class assignment, I took the opportunity to explore creating motion within conceptual artworks that I have previously worked with. The first and second images were based on an exploration of media which I am currently studying across interdisciplinary fields. I have created several other versions that include 2D, 3D, and new media - like Blender. First, my goal in exploring mid-journey was to upload images of the blender files I had already finished and see if I could input more data (i.e. more blue spheres or more colored toruses) into the image to get a finished work as I had imagined. I used 4-6 images that were then uploaded to Midjourney. I don’t dislike the final product but it is significantly more futuristic and dimensional than I had anticipated.
(1) Within the initial prompt and animation. The spheres did not interact how I had hoped. There continually seems to be a glitching or a dream-like aspect that doesn’t compute correctly. There seems to be an invented space, motion, and blabbing effect that does not seem natural to how one would imagine this to be. My idea or hope was that the rings would spin at the very least or there may be some movement within the spheres. However, instead what happens is that not only does the center area bulge but there is a new sense of movement and input from the Pika program. For example, here we almost see one of these smaller circles become planet-like - almost as though it transforms and turns to expand into something that resembles Earth. This is also particularly interesting to me as this is more supposed to be a rendering of a still life rather than hold a scientific aspect.
1. Prompt:
https://s.mj.run/hjNN6JdX5YM ::
https://s.mj.run/Sb0YkVUls8I ::
https://s.mj.run/TgVONKgZXBs ::
https://s.mj.run/GdBjJPEat5Y ::
https://s.mj.run/uUZuemSpk8c ::
https://s.mj.run/123tRfZDCHM :: 3D composition with four blue spheres receding into space, matrix background stacking on top of each other, and eight warm colored torus, with cool lighting, many 3D objects g --ar 16:9 --style raw --s 250 - Image #1 @MAT 255
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 5645166602
(2) With this secondary image, I found it interesting, for something so similar to the previous seed image, how much closer or more interesting this animation was concerning what I had initially hoped to see. Rather than a bulging motion or expansion, we see the center rings moving in a horizontal and circular motion and this invention of a swirling color-changing cloud. I am curious how the program makes or justifies the creative decisions about what or how it chooses things within a scene to animate. Especially the difference between the two and where the lines of the dreaming within the programming start to become apparent. I would also be curious to explore further the defaults or color use that Pika gravitates to. This is considering how the sphere in the front of the image shifts from orange to become a cloud of blue-violet.
2. Prompt:
https://s.mj.run/hjNN6JdX5YM ::
https://s.mj.run/Sb0YkVUls8I ::
https://s.mj.run/TgVONKgZXBs ::
https://s.mj.run/GdBjJPEat5Y ::
https://s.mj.run/uUZuemSpk8c ::
https://s.mj.run/123tRfZDCHM :: 3D composition with four blue spheres receding into space, matrix background stacking on top of each other, and eight warm colored torus, with cool lighting, many 3D objects g --ar 16:9 --style raw --s 250 - Image #4
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 4164544573
(3) In the animations labeled 3-7, I used a concept from a claymation that I had previously created. The seed or generative idea was to have a scene from a claymation movie where the main character was a little girl and was essentially growing to be a part of her environment. For example - she blends into a leftover junkyard by adhering her environmental elements to herself to become one with her surroundings. With image 3, I used Midjourney to try to create a base idea or visual as a jumping-off point. I feel like out of all of the images, this was one of the ones that came conceptually closer to what I was looking for. After inputting this into Pika, I found that this was one of the more successful animations. There are very subtle movements here but not necessarily huge uncanny glitches. The hand does begin to blur out at the end and the fingers are not as distinguishable. The hair and slight body movement did feel realistic for how I would’ve expected this character to exist within a world. Overall, I felt like this was one of the most successful of all the animations conceptually, aesthetically, and movement-wise.
3. Prompt: cartoon clay sculpture of girl becoming her environment in a rugged, metal, industrial junkyard, futurism, weird lighting, mist --ar 16:9 --style raw --s 250 - Image #2
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 6673931274
(4) The remaining animations again follow the same prompt as outlined for animation number 3. From here I was curious to explore how subtle variations in movement shifted even across very similar ideas of generative seed images. Based on this scene, I feel like the background was significantly more successfully rendered/animated than the foreground. The movement and flickers of the candles feel like what I would expect to see. The main character in the foreground blurs out and doesn’t give us a chance as the viewer to understand how this figure would interact within the space. The lack of animation for her companion also seems like a bit of a miss. What I am seeing so far within Pika, is that it’s having a really hard time making sense of how to account for the entirety of a human body. Facial close-ups are possibly more sensical in their animation than some of these further-away stills or shots. The continual blurring out of areas for what is considered “animation” of the image is something I am interested in dissecting further.
4. Prompt: claymation cartoon clay sculpture of girl becoming her environment in a rugged, metal, industrial junkyard, futurism, weird lighting, mist --ar 16:9 --style raw --s 250 - Image #3
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 8935403602
(5) Of the senses in this series of trials, I felt that this one was a little closer to being a successful animation despite not being 100% perfect. The background here is what I feel is most compelling. It is almost like within the scene there is a dust storm taking place, there is movement without it completely overriding the components of the image or changing entirely. This is the only scene where I feel as though, there seems to be more of a story. I mean that by the way all the objects around the main character shift and feel like they are animate objects. The only thing I don’t feel is as successful in this scene is that the main figure’s head blurs too much out of focus and doesn’t give us a realistic understanding of how she would exist in this world.
5. Prompt: claymation cartoon clay sculpture of girl becoming her environment in a rugged, metal, industrial junkyard, futurism, weird lighting, mist --ar 16:9 --style raw --s 250 - Image #3
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 4901777439
(6) For prompt 6, I took a different direction and tried to allow the Pika program to imagine the same scene and animation together. I used the same prompt that I had previously put into Midjourney to create the generative seems images for 3, 4, 5, and 7. This was to compare and contrast the settings or presets of the two programs. For example here, I thought the eye movement was more successful and felt the program was probably better able to track/understand the subject as it is an extension of its programming. I thought that was the only successful thing about it though. There is not as much movement in this animation as any of the others. Additionally, I felt the stylization was rather a miss for what I was looking to find. It took the term claymation very literally - which could explain the greyed-out appearance of the entire scene. After this Pika generation, one of the questions I wanted to dive deeper into was how could the two informed AI systems possibly vary in what images were initially uploaded into their systems, and is that why we’re seeing stylistic or conceptual gapping here?
6. Prompt: Prompt: claymation cartoon clay sculpture of girl becoming her environment in a rugged, metal, industrial junkyard, futurism, weird lighting, mist --ar 16:9
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 4651854929 (animation without image attached)
(7) This was my final attempt in trying to animate this same scene. After seeing prompt 6 not quite match what I was hoping, I went back to Midjourney to create and refine a generative seed image style to depict a scene. I felt that this went the furthest off course to what I hoped. The scene begins to feel uncanny. This feeling comes from several components. For example, in the background, the elements appear to be taken over by a sort of sandstorm and then are engulfed and hidden, as if they are disappearing. The component of this that is the most uncanny, is how the main figure transforms. It feels like as we are watching the cartoon figure, it begins turning, and is being animated into a very realistic-looking small child instead. One of the programming aspects that I feel like I am fighting against is the program's want or default to incorporate realistic elements and in some cases override the input styles. Through several animations - I found once the animation went into effect, it shifted items and transformed them outside of the seed style. Again, this last study felt like one of the least successful of all the animations.
7. Prompt: cute claymation cartoon clay sculpture of girl becoming her environment in a rugged, metal, industrial junkyard, futurism, weird lighting, mist --ar 16:9 --stylize 50 --style raw - Image #4
https://discord.com/channels/1123665496 ... 9676869818 
