AI-generated video has been getting a lot of hype lately as a tool that will likely revolutionize Hollywood. But Craig Good, a former Pixar animator who worked on such classics as “Toy Story'' and “Finding Nemo,'' is not convinced. Good believes there is one big problem with AI video software that can easily frustrate anyone working on a film. It's currently impossible to make small changes using AI alone.
Artificial intelligence tools allow users to create images and videos with just a few text prompts. When you want to create something out of “nothing” so to speak, it's very impressive. However, these tools do not allow for the iterative changes needed when creating a film.
Good made this point in a video recorded by one of his students at California Institute of the Arts, where he is now an assistant professor, and the two discussed a public video of OpenAI's Sora.
“If I'm trying to use this in production, the first question I have is, how do I fix this? “I don't like what's going on in the background. Is it a locked-off background? “Can I do the same thing again with a different background?” Good says in the video.
Sora is not yet publicly available. This means that we've only seen examples from artists who had early access to the tool. And frankly, we don't know much about the options Sora can offer artists at this point. But as of now, there is no indication that smaller changes are possible, and Good's point seems very valid.
One of Sora's videos that Good and his students watched was an animation of a cute, fuzzy monster that appeared to be obsessed with a candle. Good gave the video some praise, but noted that the framing was a bit tight and that “the flames don't really do anything.” What would it take to capture the exact same scene with the camera pulled back and the candles flickering more? That seems to be the biggest hurdle so far.
“Making a movie is about repeating it. It's repetition. And if you can't iterate on one of these, I don't know how you can use it in production,” says Good. .
“I mean, I've been tweaking shots for decades at Pixar. The director would give us some pretty specific notes, the animators and artists would interpret them, and we'd show that revised work the next day.” “And then you have to get more notes. If you can't iterate in a controlled way, I don't know how you're going to use it in production,” he continued.
It is not only good that thinks like this.A tweet went viral last week This is intended to highlight the exact same issue. Although we cannot confirm the authenticity of this story, everything sounds very plausible.
Basically, this post claims to be from an art director at a major studio. It is said that the head of the studio hired an AI person to make the film, but it did not work out. The director said that the AI video he produced wasn't actually bad, but that he couldn't make changes when asked to, such as a new camera perspective or changing the color somewhere in the scene. I am. In fact, they get angry when asked to change things because that's not the way it is done.
“People who can actually use Photoshop aren't trained to see their own mistakes, so they get mad at me for not understanding that they can't make certain changes,” the viral post reads. . “The girl, who had a hobby of taking small pictures, gave me 40 images that got worse and worse, with worse and worse mistakes each time. She was on her fourth day of the project.”
Again, it is impossible to verify the claims made in this anonymous post. But they are completely consistent with what we know about these AI tools. Good also seems to think this type of tool is great for his user-generated TikTok videos, but it's not yet ready for full-scale film production.
But Good was quick to point out in the video that things could change. These tools may be further improved in the future, and he introduced his Sora-like generative AI tools to his first computer graphics conference, SIGGRAPH, in the early 1980s. Animation was even compared with his demonstration.
“This reminds me of my early days at SIGGRAPH, watching movies about walking mechanical ants,” Good said. “And we all fell in love with it. I mean, wow, we're looking at a walking mechanical ant, right? A big robot ant from 1984.”
And Good has a point. No one knows what the future holds. But these tools aren't really useful until the director can make small adjustments that truly bring the story to life.
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