I’m just going to jump right into this one with some examples, thoughts, and candid feelings about how Escape From Planet Omega-12 is shaping up. These little video clips are all tests that helped me to learn where I’m going to use AI and where I’m not, to bring this story to life. I’ve been very open about why I feel AI is a tool for artists and especially filmmakers, not a cheat, so I won’t bother to go over all of that again. I’ve been an artist and a writer all of my life, and the advent of this technology does not somehow void that. 

These examples, which are all at the bottom of this post, are all AI-generated with some 3D elements, digital compositing, and painting on top. What you’ll see at the end of this first clip is me trying to figure out how to composite Tara into the scene. 

I think in these examples I’m about 80%, there and the learning experience they gave me will have me 100% there when I create the first scenes, which I will have done by the time you read this but those examples will be for subscribers, only. 

By the way, the reason I’m making this post public is that I want to start getting more content out there to drive subscriptions up. Although AI is supposed to make things inexpensive and faster I’ve found that if I want to stay on the cutting edge of both using all the latest in available programs and keeping ahead of all the other very innovative people using it, for now creating with these tools comes at a premium of both money and time, so your shares and contributions do help.

What I need to focus on next is getting Tara up to the level of beauty I originally conceptualized in my production art. There are ways to upgrade the details on her and enhance the prettyness of her face. I based the character on my wife so she has to be captivating. I’ll be focusing my attention on that aspect of things for the first scenes. 

When I first started this project my real passion was, and still is for environments. If you’ve seen my past work from the pre-AI era of my life, you’ll know that I’ve always been enamored with ways to create fictional worlds and fill them with details like fog, light, insects, and other moving elements, including the camera, that help bring them to life and make them another character in the story. 

Although South American temples are not part of the story, I thought I’d try my hand at them as a way to play around with them as a way to test the limits of making depth mattes with Midjourny and Stable Diffusion, bringing them into Adobe After Effects to make them look like 3D locations that our characters can exist in and interact with. 

I’m not going to lie. I absolutely love the results and with so many free services available right now, like Minimax to generate elements like water, smoke, fire, and whatever else I might need to add to the final composite, it’s an embarrassment of riches. 

But like I said before, none of this stuff comes ready to use, as is. It takes me hours just to generate them, get what I need, and then do the retouching and compositing to stitch it all together. Every image goes through three or four different programs before I then spend time turning it into scenes. Rocks just start out as pictures, they get turned into 3D elements, and then they become part of an arduous process of building a shot. 

Here’s where I’m going to level with you. Although I have help from my producing partner Dough Mayfield and a very small handful of other talented artists, I’m worried if the final product will be enough by the time it’s done. 

I can now produce anything that I could possibly want but so can everyone else and there are some talented people out there aiming for the same goal, I am. Weirdly, more resources mean that the stakes have never been higher to exceed audience expectations. Right now there is some very impressive stuff and where before I wasn’t concerned because most people were just creating vignettes that were novel but often not useful, now I see them pushing the same possibilities that I see but with more talent, time and resources to get them done ahead of me. 

I often wonder if with the realism AI can achieve getting exponentially better with every passing week, will all the extra effort I put into doing it “the hard way” make the difference I thought it would when I started this journey? Will what I produce measure up and resonate with audiences in a way that technology alone can’t do, or will it just seem kind of quaint and low-budget? 

That’s not what I want. I feel like we’re doing something special, here and it is by shear passion and drive, nagging at me like an addiction that I continue on, knowing that Escape From Planet Omega-12 will be worth it, despite the constant exhaustion and yes, sometimes misery that endlessly toiling at it can make me feel. Committing yourself to such projects without any promise of success or recognition can sometimes feel like living in a hopeless and lonely void, wondering if the thing you love is the thing that will come to nothing and leave you heartbroken. Disappointing those I care about is my biggest fear. Letting them down instead of delivering on success and elevating us all to a better tomorrow. That’s why I think a lot of people quit but I just can’t bring myself to do so because paradoxically that would also feel like letting it break me. 

The only way is forward. Another hundred miles and maybe another thousand after that, with what feels like a million people looking at you as if you’re a fool? Who knows? I do think that if you’re reading this, if you’ve made it this far, then you do believe in me and that gives me a little piece of mind, a little hope, and for that, I say thank you. 

Stories matter, and I think this one will, too. Knowing people are waiting for it is the light at the end of the tunnel I need. 

In my journey as an independent filmmaker, I’ve discovered that AI, particularly tools like Stable Diffusion, has dramatically enhanced my creative process, allowing me to achieve a level of detail and efficiency that was previously out of reach. While I’m keeping some methods proprietary, I must share that AI has significantly reduced both the time and costs associated with complex tasks like creating detailed character sheets.

For many independent creators, the real barrier isn’t a lack of passion or creativity—it’s the sheer volume of work that big studios can handle thanks to their deep pockets. As a one-man filmmaking team, taking on every aspect of production can be overwhelming. In the past, creating character sheets of this caliber would have been nearly impossible given my other responsibilities. But now, with the assistance of AI and the insights from experts like Mickmumpitz on YouTube, I’ve been able to get 90% of the way there.

Whether you’re an aspiring filmmaker or a seasoned creator, leveraging AI can be a game-changer, allowing you to compete on a whole new level.

Despite what the anti-AI corporate lobby might claim, the transformative methods I’m using are proving to be groundbreaking in my creative process. I’ll be sharing a variety of AI-generated examples with you, illustrating how these tools serve as powerful assistants in the creative journey. However, rest assured, the final product will still be uniquely crafted by me, drawing on the skills and experience I’ve honed over the years as both a traditional artist and a VFX artist.

As you can see, these first two renditions of Tara, the leading lady of Escape From Planet Omega-12, serve as an homage to iconic characters like Ripley in the final scenes of the original Alien, as well as the more alluring figures from the creative minds of Frank Frazetta and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Although the women depicted are similar, their distinct styles and colors make it clear that they could never be mistaken for the same person.

As we continue, it's clear that AI offers limitless variations in body type, hair, clothing (or, as we’ll see later, the lack thereof), and facial features. However, the usual AI challenges are present: malformed hands, color blotches, and missing details that will need restoration—but on which sheet?

With countless tasks like model building, recording live elements, compositing, animating, and wearing more hats than I care to count, I simply don’t have the time to perfect every last one of these. Instead, I’ll import all these variations into Photoshop, selecting the best elements from each. An arm here, a leg there, a face from another generation—all will be copied, stitched together, and painted over to create a refined, consistent, and fully usable character that will look nothing like the initial AI output.

The above example was created using AI training on a custom model, but even this process isn't flawless. Once I’ve perfected these designs, they’ll need to be rendered in high detail for face replacement techniques in the animations, which will also require upscaling.

Her clothing presents another challenge—so how will we tackle that?

As a filmmaker, my philosophy is that audiences come to see something that challenges the boundaries of their everyday lives—pushing beyond what is safe or normal. Why would anyone spend their time seeking out stimuli that mirror their daily existence? Hollywood seems to have forgotten this, aside from the clear market for...

Here’s where I have to limit viewing to my paid supporters whom I appreciate so much. Full post below this one.