A Hollywood film studio is leveraging a new real-time design and artist development process to adapt a popular young adult (YA) series, including an industry-first application of artificial intelligence (AI) that gives fans and artists active input in creating character design, sets and special effects.
Dan Cobb, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of OneDoor Studios, said development is underway on "Calculated," an adaption of the YA sci-fi series by Nova McBee. On a mission to become the "World's First Fan-Funded and Fan-Created Film Studio," Cobb and his team have developed a relationship with AI artists on the WeGo.One's Discord channel.
The artists, who are required to have deep knowledge of the source material, liaise with investors and the author to spawn images using MidJourney V5 Pro and a combination of other similar generative image technologies to build the film's storyboard, enhance concept art and develop shot lists.
"It's like every other tool we have," Cobb told Fox News Digital. "It's going to increase the pace, lower the cost, make filmmaking more accessible to everyone. It's the movement of the people. It's democratizing film, and it levels the playing field, so anyone can engage in the content."
The new development process was born out of interest from the crowdfunding audience to engage in creating the film, talk about the characters and visualize it. An example from the discord channel showed crowdfund members and AI artists discussing the character design of Kai, the son of bitter billionaire Chan.
Another chat exchange amalgamated illustrative concepts, storyboards and action scenes for the X girls, a group of women who are trafficked by the storyline's insidious empire. The pictures even helped to spawn conversations about what the extras in a scene might look like.
"We're determining the scenes, we're determining the camera angles, even the lenses. As a matter of fact, you can determine the amount of Boca that you want to see in the scene by choosing those lenses. So, it becomes an equipment list for setting up your shoot. It becomes what you're going to do for wardrobe," Cobb said.
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OneDoor Studios and the AI artists also improve their workflow by using face-matching technology, a system that helps match human faces across AI-generated images at scale. In Cobb's example, the team decided on specific facial characteristics for the film's hero, Jo. Afterward, all future artwork rendered could implement the same face, regardless of the angle or the scene. The solidified look will also help the team cast for the role.
"The difference in the past would have been that we would have hired an illustrator to sketch out concepts in a storyboard and you might pre-visualize using really raw and archaic approaches," Cobb said. "Now we can storyboard what looks like screen captures from the film itself, and it feels a lot more like what it's going to be like in the real world when you meet the characters and what they're going to feel like on the set. "
The OneDoor Studio CMO said the use of AI has greatly helped the speed-to-delivery aspect of the project, allowing the team and its fans to create more content faster without feeling overwhelmed about which creative direction to go. Sometimes the AI model will output images that were not conceptually intended, spurring healthy debate about the creative direction of the film and its characters.
"I haven't seen a negative yet. A lot of people are talking about the spooky aspects of the computer creating opportunities for us. I don't see it yet," Cobb added.
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Fielding concerns about the potential impact of AI on the job of concept artists and illustrators, Cobb said all these professions had accepted these models as another instrument in their illustrative process. He said any successful modern illustrator would use AI to get extra fill for image backgrounds and sample ideas for coloring and lighting. He also noted that images that generally take days, if not weeks, to create are now achievable within minutes.
"There are very few left who are going to be really, I believe, be around if they're working from scratch because of the time, the cost. It just doesn't make sense. And literally, this is less than a year in, and we're seeing to where it makes no sense to go back to the manual processes that we used to use," he added.
Recently, the Writers Guild of America, which is currently engaged in a strike, said writers want more regulation for AI. One of the aspects of their terms calls for studio bans on using AI to write or rewrite treatments and screenplays. But Cobb said no such concern yet exists in the artistic world.
"3D animation came in and a lot of people said, well, this is going to replace humans on the set. It didn't. It just gave us new tools to make our work better. So, I don't think there's going to be the same hesitation among the artists' community because we see tools as simply that, tools," Cobb said. "I believe there's going to be more embracing of it than a rejection of it among that side of the community."
The use of AI by OneDoor Studios expands outside the artistic process. Cobb revealed that the team has also engaged with ChatGPT about marketing strategies, such as how to engage with influencers. He said it is "scary" how adaptable the model is, even providing information on what social media platforms are best to utilize for crowdfunding and how to gather the most significant audience reach.
"What we believe these tools do is it allows every one of us the opportunity to create at the excellence level of a blockbuster film release," Cobb said. "And when you've got everyday people involved and contributing not only in a crowdfund where they could be part of the film and maybe get their name in the credits, but they can say, hey, that scene I had participation in creating that scene. I think that's going to be a new way where people look at creating content, whether it's films, movies or television."
