PROBLEM TO SOLVE
AI models like ChatGPT, MidJourney, and Runway have rapidly become mainstay tools for many creatives. Like any new technology, there are early adopters, cynics, and full-on resisters. I’ve had moments where I’ve identified as all three. As I prepared to re-enter the creative job market, beyond learning how to architect effective prompts, I needed to develop a perspective on how and when I’d use AI as a creative partner.
I was especially curious how an AI-led creative execution would compare to a more traditional process, regarding hours of labor and how creatively challenged I’d feel.
SOLUTION
Video 1: A Designer’s Role (animated with AI)
Video 2: The Waste We Make (animated with After Effects)
Both videos in the series focus on sustainability and design, where one argues designers' unique role in solving the climate crisis, the other asks the viewer to consider how convenience culture has contributed to over-consumption.
Watch Video 1: A Designer’s Role
(Animated in Luma AI)
(Animated in Luma AI)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. AI doesn’t necessarily increase efficiency or save time
Video 1, my AI generated animation, ended up taking more time: 57 hours, compared to Video 2, made in After Effects, which clocked in at 42 hours of labor. This was because I hand-made my assets as a way to offset the project’s environmental footprint. There was also a learning curve to the AI tool, Luma, which added time.2. AI animation was most successful following a traditional animation workflow
I set a start frame and an end frame and let the AI interpolate between them. Asking the AI to generate long stretches of complicated action was less fruitful. I had more success with my AI output when I got granular with the key frames I was setting, and using simple prompts like “stop motion transition”, “ radiate,” or “paper collage texture.”3. When using AI, look for opportunities to go analog
One of AI’s major criticisms is its exorbitant use of limited resources like water and energy. Since my topic was sustainability in design, I decided to hand-collage my assets for Video 1, rather than generate them. Creating a guardrail around where I’d use AI, and more importantly, where I wouldn't, allowed me to maintain integrity with my climate-conscious subject matter. Hand-collaging was also a welcome break from the intense screen time this project required and infused more creative play into the process.
4. AI is another tool in my creative toolkit
I assigned AI to a specific role in this project, animating key frames, and I anticipate using it similarly in the future, as one of the tools I use to uplift my human-creative intelligence: my ability to come up with interesting and conceptual ideas.