“They say everyone has something unique about them, something that makes them stand out. In my case, it's very clear what that is.” begins. The special thing about the main character is that instead of his head, a yellow balloon grows from his neck. The movie itself is also special, as it is entirely generated by artificial intelligence.
Sora turns text prompts into videos
The video clip was generated using the as-yet-unreleased text-to-video generation AI tool Sora. This technology is provided by OpenAI, the company that also develops the chatbot ChatGPT. Sora works very simply. Describe the video you want to generate and receive it within seconds.
“When Walter heard about Sora, he immediately said, 'We're going to make a movie,'” said film producer Sidney Reader, a screenwriter and co-founder of Toronto-based multimedia production company Shy Kids. She talked about her husband, director Walter Woodman. Together with her second director, Patrick Cronenberg, she made the film in just one and a half weeks. That's an incredibly fast time for an animated movie of this kind.
The team entered hundreds of text prompts, called instructions to the AI, to achieve the end result. It's a short film that at first glance is indistinguishable from a live-action film.
Sora's speed allowed the team to quickly generate new images at every stage of production. This is nearly impossible with traditional animation.
Admittedly, not everything in Air Head was created by AI. The human masterminds behind it had to put the clips together and perform post-production with small adjustments like color correction.
face and hands still have problems
Like the protagonist in “Air Head,” who tries not to explode in a cactus store, the filmmakers also had to avoid a few pinpricks. “It's hard to get a lasting face and performance, so we got around this problem by going with yellow balloons,” says director Patrick Cronenberg.
In addition to consistency, I also have issues with my hands and certain movements. “It's easier to create something beautiful. It's harder to make something beautiful do what you want it to do,” says Walter Woodman. It was especially difficult to make the headless body run after the balloon head.
AI as a creative tool
Director Cronenberg describes working with Sora as a crazy new kind of collaboration. “AI prompting is tricking the computer into doing what you want it to do.” The AI often drew a smiley face on its head. “It's not enough to just tell the AI not to put faces on balloons.” Then do the opposite and put faces on balloons. The most promising proposal was “a man with a yellow balloon on his head.” The yellow balloon is clean and has no traces. ”
Volker Helzle is head of research and development at the Institute of Animation at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, where he researches AI animation. Although he was impressed by the film, he criticized the rise of Sora, saying it meant that some of human creativity would be lost. As an animator, he says, “Typically you spend hours and days immersed in a theme, animating every detail. In Sora's case, you sit in a time machine and don't participate in the creative process.”
But for Walter Woodman, Sola is just another team member in the creative process. “As a director, it's frustrating. Sometimes you want the actors to do exactly what you want them to do. You have to find a way to work with them. It's the same with Sora. If you don't work together, you have to find a way to work with them. You have to leave space for the actors.'' God, come into the room. No matter what collaborators you have, you need to make sure their voices are heard. But once you start jamming together, that collaboration gets better. ”
“Our understanding of creativity will change.”
“We are on the verge of a fundamental change in our understanding of human creativity,” Herzl believes. “In 10 years, my 5-year-old daughter may not be interested in whether something is generated by an AI or not. The content will already exist.”
Airhead characters are “endangered by a single pinprick” every day. Is this also true in the anime field? Walter Woodman doesn't think Sora will replace all animation. “It always depends on the artist and their vision. For example, Studio Ghibli. I think part of the reason people like them is that their production is done by hand. I think it's the right thing to do. They may not use this technique at all. ”
200,000 jobs are at risk, but new ones will be created
Everyone in the industry agrees that changes are coming to the labor market. This is also confirmed by a survey conducted on behalf of animation workers in the United States.The paper concludes that AI will disrupt approximately 200,000 entertainment jobs in the country by 2026.
However, new professions will be added. One of his is held by AI engineer Jonas Trotnow. He believes that new areas of work lie in the field of prompt engineering and technical understanding of generative AI.
Has OpenAI become too powerful?
Trottnow criticizes Sora for the fact that U.S. companies such as OpenAI centralize control over their models. Herzl also sees this as a problem. “This is dangerous when it comes to serious themes such as conflict in movies and documentaries. What parameters will the AI adopt? And who will control them?”
He also noted the “clear backlash against American companies that have squandered a lot of trust.” There are also legal concerns as it is unclear what data was used to train the AI.
Anyone can create animation works using Sora
Nevertheless, everyone agrees that Sora will open up endless possibilities for small production companies when it hits the market at the end of the year. Soon, you may not need much knowledge to animate. Now anyone can animate clips.
“We're going to see what ideas they put into it, and that's very exciting. I'm always looking for originality, and this is an opportunity to encourage that.”Walter Woodman says. “The next world-changing movie will come from a place we least expect. Maybe it's an animated dragon in a cyberpunk setting.”
This article has been translated from German.
