Over the last few weeks, I shared the joys of creating the scenes’ page for Azoth Khem. As it was being built, I discovered people wanted a little more titillation (BOOBS!), a few more explosions (BIG TINGS GO BA-BOOM!), a deeper dive into the uniqueness of it all (HOLY BAT SHIT! WHAT’S THAT?), more same sex imagery (YAY GAY!) and a few more examples of humans humiliating the chimeras (IT’S WHY THE CHIMERAS KILLED THEM!).

For your viewing pleasure, images have been added below in the order of these listed requests.

To your honest surprise, heh, these are also the exact same items people wanted to see in videos.

This is where things got tricky. You see, while animating a cat video using AI is pretty commonplace, my images are not cute kittens. They are elaborate fantasy images that make AI do bad things. And not in a good way. So, we (meaning ‘me’) had to come up with a plan. First, I had to build complex images. If you build prompts, go ahead and steal my ideas via that link.

Then I needed to figure out what my chimeras were going to do. Sure, drink beer and look cool sounds good, but who’s going to watch multiple characters do the same thing over and over and over, etc., etc., etc.? My apologies to The King and I.

Finally, I needed to pick an app that would allow me to do what I needed to do. There are many good AI programs out there. That said, I chose DeepAI because I knew I would get connsitent results. I’m not talking about general quality, although that’s always a factor, but color, motion, details, and so on are all important. Long story short, I wanted every image to look like it belonged with every other image. And I’m a whiny bitch when it comes to photorealism. I want you to believe these things exist.

One moment of transparency, since I have used and mentioned DeepAI so much, I am now a Community Advocate for them. Simply put, if you want to learn more about the app, I know where they hide the smart people and can get you in touch.

Once everything was done, I set about animating each chimera in short videos. Anything over ten seconds can cause an app to overload. That is as true for kitten videos as it is for this. There are ways around that limitation, but they involve using known variables, usually, and neither The Brittle Riders nor Goptri of the Mists meets that standard.

There is no way to do something like this without setting your ego, and one sad Online Modeling career, aside and listening to smart people who make rent doing this for a living. Some of the ones I listened to even own condos. All of the ones I listened to were doing their level best to make me, and this presentation, better.

I began annoying people whose opinions I valued by sending them video after video of my chimeras dancing (yes), killing (obviously), and doing all the stuff you could hope for that won’t get you fired for watching at work. And, after two weeks of doing that, building a custom video player so everything would be stored on my website where I could track analytics, and making sure I had all the clearances I needed, I took a deep breath and popped these evil kittens online.

Brittle Riders Music: Cinematic Tribal Drumming – by Nick Panek
Goptri of the Mists Music: This Indian House – by 9JackJack8
Both tracks licensed from Pixabay

For those who have never used an HTML video player, it’s not that different from a YouTube player. There is a box on the lower right that allows you to access or leave full screen (watch it big, you’ll thank me), and the play/pause button is on the left. Since people who beta tested these videos tended to keep playing them, I added a looping function so the videos will start again when they’re done. If you are one of the few who have the emotional strength not to watch them multiple times, just hit the pause button and go to the next video.

Also, years in the music industry also made me a whiny bitch about sound quality. I purposely picked professional recordings of high quality to enhance your viewing experience. Bust out that subwoofer, or listen on the good headphones at dangerous volumes. Your ears will tingle in joy.

One word of warning. If you use Amazon’s Sling as a browser via a Firestick on a TV you’re in for a world of hurt. Despite over six months of online complaints, it still turns any webpage with embedded content, like my link with its embedded videos, into a late 90’s cellphone, and you will not be able to watch these videos. This has not been an issue with any other browser.

Or, as my friend Ox said, just cast from your computer to your TV and God will forgive all your sins. I’m not sure about the theology, but that does work.

When you click the big link above, you will also have access to all the still images that have been created over the last year or so. That should keep you busy.

As always, thank you for all your support.