Behind the Scenes: Making Forest For The Trees
(A Curious Refuge AI Animation Project)
I created this micro short (2 mins) to try out some new AI tools that I had signed up for, and I had an old short screenplay kicking around so I thought it would be a bit of fun to see what I could come up with! It's about an old faith healer who gets evicted from her home in the forest to make way for an eco-resort complex - but mother nature has other plans...
The Concept & Story
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My original screenplay (see below) was a lot more in-depth than what I ended up with.
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I started off with some ideas of how I wanted my characters and locations to look - have a nosey here
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Then I did some super simple storyboards - click here to see them , but I soon realized that time and budget has to be taken into consideration, even with AI are regens can get expensive!
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I set myself a week in total to create the new screenplay and final animation, and I would say in total it took about 8 hours, a few hours after work each night and cost around $50.
📌 Key Takeaway: AI can be a great tool for adapting stories on the fly to fit production constraints.
The Process & Tools
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So I had the original screenplay which I started with and then I broke that down into a super simple shot list.
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I used a customised ChatGPT to help me write a detailed prompt of the shot I wanted.
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From that description I used a GenAI image tool called CG_Dream to create an image, and used their 'Illustration' filter.
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From that image I customised it if needed in Photoshop using their Firefly GenAi.
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When I was happy with the image I went back into GenAI and used the image I had just amended in Pshop as the style and the structure and took off the Illustration filter and used the same prompt to re-gen again.
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Then Once I had that image I went into an animation tool called PixVerse and used their Animation tool (no filters) and if there was text I used the text voice at the same time. I used the same prompt that I used for the same two previous gens in CG_Dream.
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Then once I was happy I exported the MP4 video file into Imovie.
📌 Key Takeaway: AI is powerful, but you need to experiment and problem-solve to get the best results.
Challenges and Lessons learned
So, of course, the 'animation' looks super janky and nowhere near as good as traditional or 3D animation but as a writer, not an animator, I think it works fine as a proof of concept.
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I learned that much as you would love to, you can never really film exactly what is written on the page.
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I learned that even with AI animation, it is HARD! As a writer is so easy to write a scene, but to visualise it in an actual image it is tough.
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It was so hard to get not only the characters looking the same but the animation style too.
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I set myself a week to do it, but it would have taken another month to tighten up all the animation and re-do all the stock voices and music.
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I was on a limited budget using tools that needed to be used more in-depth.
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I had to 'flip' a few scenes in Imovie to make them fit the story progression as the camera angels were really jarring.
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I had to cut scenes from the original screenplay to work with what I had.
📌 Key Takeaway: AI filmmaking is still evolving, but with creativity and problem-solving, you can push its boundaries even on a budget.
Shown as part of the Lift off Online Festival.
