Final Project & Essay Description

Tommy O

My final project will be a visual narrative that leverages Generative Age technologies in its creation process. The current constraints include creating successive images that are cohesive. Three example strategies to work with this constraint are 1) maintaining overall style through detailed prompting/settings while crafting a narrative that does not rely on strict duplication of assets (like the same faces repeated throughout the work) and focusing on shot progression through other means, this is what I have termed a style based approach, 2) Incorporating the unexpected or errant output into the aesthetic of the narrative, embracing its randomness as a playful surreal element that is a tool-mark of Generative AI at this time, and 3) exploring the level of output constraint possible in achieving specific results. At this time consumer tools do not achieve the goal of example 3, but I expect rapid change iteration in generative tools will allow it in the near future for casual consumers at what will probably be a low cost.

At this time the essay is focused on generative tools for the creation of art in general and visual narrative in specific. I intend to include anecdotes about my exploration of various tools, which will include themes like the three example approaches to story cohesion in the previous paragraph. I will also approach other topics like the rapid development of tool features related to specificity and reproducible accuracy in what I hope will be as free of bias as possible. I intend to offer a report of experience rather than a value judgement on potential use/misuse.