#Magic Hour AI

[medicalweightloss100]

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[milesofstars]

'' ladies and gentlemen!! ''

someone get this thief out of my head, hes stolen my thoughts

[lyrinami]

Mystic of the Golden Fields

[lacnunga]

i need to have books beamed word-for-word immediately into my brain now

[9virtualvividvisionsblog]

[girlelle]

magical sunset in the galaxy

stargazing during twilight

such a beautiful sight!

Twilight is the magical time between sunlight and darkness. The sun is setting below the horizon.

Look at all the beauty that can be seen in the sky as the Sun begins to set, and the world gets darker. The sun's rays create the colors of twilight.

This is the first stage of twilight.

Imagine sitting out near the mountains and looking at the stars, sunset and moon and forgetting about everything else for a moment.

omg, it's magical!

[baldinar]

skyler does grand chase digimon lines finally (part 1)

decided to do some digimon lines for the grand chase characters, starting off with the sword wielding folks (mainly swords, specifically)

sieghart, elesis, uno, ronan, edel, and zero (bear in mind i'm working off of what i actually am able to access in our system about this series rn lol, but i thought of this because i got smacked in the face with an idea for lines for sieghart and uno)

i want to note that while a lot of ref book entry stuff is why i picked some of these digimon, i also like the idea that any digimon can be companionable, so i think that in a digimon setting, even the more "violent" digimon partners would be capable of becoming close with their GC partners. a huge thing in digimon is how the emotional state of the human partner (in this case, humanoid) affects a digimon's evolution and stability. soooo yeah.

lines explained under the cut (SUPER DUPER LONG). some liberties taken with these lines because i couldn't make them line up perfectly but i did want some little through lines here and there.

sieghart: spadamon -> leomon (x-antibody) -> crescemon -> ancientgarurumon -> chaosmon (valdur arm)

like i said, this line along with uno's line are kind of the first i put together for this post. you're gonna need to follow with me a bit here, because this line might look like nonsense.

spadamon was chosen because, to me, it's the most go-to "rookie with a sword" there is. digimon like kotemon exist, yes, but spadamon is a member of the legend arms, which are digimon that can literally turn into weapons that other digimon can wield. spadamon's also almost always seen in a position where it's learning from another more experienced digimon. i think this parallel, alongside it being a digimon with a sword, really, makes it a good fit for sieghart as a partner. sieghart's whole deal is that when he got found by the highlanders, they taught him a whole bunch about their techniques and that's how he gained immortality. i think it's only fitting to give him a partner digimon who's associated with being already quite skilled, but needing to learn more.

leomon (x antibody) was chosen partially because i think leomon x antibody objectively rips since it wholly owns the idea of "guts from berserk's fursona) but also like. look at its ref book entry for the effect the x-antibody had on its core: "In order to defeat more fiendish Digimon to enforce its justice, it has mastered swordsmanship through intense training in addition to physical training. It freely handles the longsword "Jūga-maru" and the magical sword "Shishiou-maru", which are said to have sharpened more through countless battles, by dual wielding them, so it is definitely a "Beast Gladiator". Since its red cape was obtained when it confronted an Ultimate Digimon, it is said to be the proof of a hero."

i couldn't NOT pick the digimon literally called "Beast Gladiator." also, the decision to use x-antibody here was inspired further by the fact that the x-antibody is associated with "cheating death" in a way by becoming stronger. in other words, like sieghart, by becoming stronger in combat, leomon refused to die.

crescemon is kind of on here because i thought including one little nod to the soluna would be kind of nice. i couldn't find an ultimate i liked more, either, and crescemon is another dual-wielding digimon. while the aesthetic and ref book entries might better fit others in the chase, i also think crescemon is a good bridge between leomon (x-anti) and ancientgarurumon.

ancientgarurumon was picked for a few reasons. in part, it's the ancient warrior of light (the "sol" to crescemon's "luna," if you will). that ancient warrior thing also means that it's a digimon who is mythologized (like sieghart). its weapons of choice are also, again, swords!! another dual wielding sword user! (sieghart has like three jobs that dual wield, this was so easy to gravitate towards)

and of course, chaosmon valdur arm (VA). i chose this because it's reminiscent of omnimon (one of the many mascots of digimon), and also both extremely powerful and unstable. but also, hehe, leomon head for a sword pommel. bringing the champion back in (even if it is through bancholeomon being part of chaosmon's components). VA was chosen over regular chaosmon because i wanted to further the light theme of ancientgarurumon, rather than use darkdramon (the regular variant of chaosmon). also, chaosmon's instability works as a parallel to sieghart's rage mode; chaosmon is a digimon that can barely exist, and will either break apart or die quickly.

elesis: hackmon -> leomon -> grademon -> shinegreymon -> shinegreymon burst mode

this was a fun line!

hackmon was chosen because, similar to spadamon, it often takes a mentee role to another digimon, a member of the royal knights (gankoomon). hackmon also, however, oftentimes becomes a member of the royal knights as well. this connection to them was chosen over just using the whole hackmon line partially because elesis has some family clout, and also partially because i wanted to include a more diverse line than the hackmon -> JESmon line. also, while gankoomon may be primarily a fist-fighter, i think having a digimon partner with pre-established relationships to another as a mentee parallels nicely with elesis initially traveling in search of her father, who trained her in the way of the sword.

leomon was chosen in reference to sieghart's line, as well as the fact that in GCDC, elesis's pet is a lion. leomon is known for using hand to hand combat, but it also wields a sword like its x-antibody counterpart! and its physical combat moves are associated with fire, much like many of elesis's skills!

grademon was chosen to bridge the gap between leomon and shinegreymon. grademon is another dual wielding sword digimon! but also, its skills are said to surpass that of lordknightmon (a royal knight), bringing it back around to why i picked hackmon in the first place.

shinegreymon was chosen for a few reasons that aren't as obvious when seeing its ref book entry. it's the mega level of another agumon (one of digimon's mascots), so fitting in with the fact that elesis is kind of the face of GC, i picked it to fill that role in her digimon's line. however! shinegreymon also has a sword (it's just not visible in its ref book entry). while this sword isn't exactly like any of elesis's weapons in the game, i think the combination of having a sword, being associated with fire, and also being part of the family of digimon associated with playing a role as mascot to the franchise, makes it a good pick.

for mega+, i figured nothing better would fit than shinegreymon burst mode, as it really just dials up everything about shinegreymon. not much to say with this pick, it just makes sense since i gave elesis shinegreymon.

uno: gammamon -> duskmon -> oboromon -> tactimon -> omnimon zwart defeat

this alongside sieghart's line was the first one i had an idea for. i wanted to focus on the fact that uno, somewhat like elesis, has a relationship with sieghart (thanks to being made out of highlander blood). also, i wanted to highlight the difference in how uno's swordplay works versus the others in the series, so oboromon and tactimon are meant to help elicit that difference in style.

gammamon is a digimon associated with the GRB virus in lore, which is something he utilizes in the ghost game anime when gulusgammamon fronts. the choice for gammamon as uno's rookie is explicitly due to the fact that uno is known for losing control to his bloodlust in what little canon we've seen of him in GC.

the choice for duskmon here calls back to sieghart's line. beowulfmon is the ancient warrior of light in digimon lore, and duskmon is the corrupted human spirit of darkness. in frontier, the wielders of light and dark were twins, and duskmon in particular is associated with the leomon line thanks to both darkness evolutions purifying into leomon-adjacent digimon (lowemon and kaiserleomon respectively). this reinforces the tie that uno's line has to sieghart's twofold--- through darkness and light, and through the connection to leomon.

oboromon was chosen primarily due to a lack of other fitting digimon at the ultimate level. however, its reference book entry still fits thematically with this line, emphasizing that oboromon is a digimon who "has an unusually intense obsession with victory is because it has taken in a large amount of hatred data from the Digimon it has defeated."

at the mega level, we have tactimon, who wields a sword that it doesn't even draw from its sheath: "If it stabs the ground once it generates an earthquake, if twice it awakens one hundred dead warriors, and if thrice it collapses the surrounding land with a shock wave." in xros wars, tactimon is comprised of countless digimon who died in battle with extreme regrets and hatred in their hearts.

finally, we have omnimon zwart defeat. i'll just share this sample from its ref book entry: "The raging virus program and lingering vaccine program within its body clash with each other, causing it to become unstable, and so its wounded body continues to run wild and tire without ever recovering. Occasionally, it will restrict using both of its weapons in order to suppress any damage the instant the vaccine program pushes back and it regains its sense of self."

part of the reason i chose omni zwart d is because of its ref book entry, but i also chose an omnimon variant due to the fact that sieghart's mega+ digimon, chaosmon VA, is a variant of chaosmon (duh), which is a digimon that has a similar build to omnimon (i would wager it was designed after it in the first place). by picking an omnimon variant to parallel sieghart's chaosmon VA, i wanted to tie uno's line with his still.

ronan: rurimon -> wizardmon -> mistymon -> dynasmon -> ragnalordmon

this is almost beat for beat a stereotypical dynasmon line but i don't care, it fits ronan really well lmao. i wanted to lean into a mixture of magic and swordplay with this line.

rurimon was chosen as the rookie because it's visibly similar to agumon--- almost like a witchelny variant of agumon (witchelny is the place where a lot of magical digimon come from). ronan, as one of the first characters in the game to use swords after elesis, almost feels like a "variant" of her gameplay introduced, so i thought it would be a neat callback to ronan being among the first new swordsman characters introduced to GC by using a variant of digimon's own "mascot" (agumon is only one of them, as digimon actually has a lot). i debated using rurimon for mari, but i think i have some interesting ideas for lines for her, so i'm okay using rurimon here.

wizardmon continues the magical aspect of the line, mostly because there are very few champion level digimon that i think would fit ronan here. the mixture of different elemental magics is especially nice, and while this might limit what i'm able to use for arme's line when i do the spellcasters, i do think wizardmon fits nicely into this line.

mistymon is kind of a no-brainer--- another witchelny digimon, mistymon gets a sword and a crystal ball! who else has a sword and a little crystal thing that they fight with? that's right, ronan! mistymon fights differently with his crystal ball, but like. come on. how could i not pick the digimon whose whole deal is literally magic and swords?

dynasmon was picked because i thought using a royal knight would be a nice way to tie together ronan's relationship to noble status. dynasmon was picked because ronan also has a whole job that focuses on dragons, and what is dynasmon? a big fucking dragon that's also part of the royal knights. i didn't go with examon here mostly because dynasmon fit the line better and dynasmon also has the crystals in his palm. examon is cool, and would also fit, but again: dynasmon fits this line a little better imo, and examon is often classified a level higher than mega. dynasmon is also a digimon that has been placed in an antagonistic role before. why would i specify this here? well, who do we know that got possessed for a while and put into an antagonistic role? yup.

finally, ragnalordmon was chosen because it is the fusion between durandamon and bryweludramon. both are legend arms digimon (like spadamon in sieg's line). it's a fighter that uses both a sword and a shield (the transformed durandamon and bryweludramon). and! and! you know what bryweludramon is? A GIANT DRAGON MADE OF SHIELDS. you can't tell me that doesn't go hard as hell. only reason i didn't use bryweludramon is because i wanted the RK member for ronan's mega, but you still get to see it as ragnalordmon's sentient floating shield. i love digimon.

edel: lunamon -> sistermon (ciel) -> sistermon (ciel) awakened -> hexeblaumon -> omnimon merciful mode

i'm not gonna lie, this line kind of made itself like ronan's.

lunamon was chosen not with relation to crescemon in sieghart's line, but because edel is associated with the moon through a lot of her attacks. like edel, lunamon also utilizes ice/water in its attacks. (ice and water are really the same thing in most digimon games, as they share the same attribute)

sistermon (ciel) was chosen because we have a very "proper" appearing digimon that wields a sword and guns. i was a little bit limited with what i could work with here, as digimon really doesn't have many mons that use a rapier like edel. this, however, feels like a fitting choice for edel, especially thanks to her family's tie with divinity.

i chose to use ciel awakened as the ultimate here despite it usually being classified as a champion, because fuck you bandai. it really works as an ultimate level, considering how different regular and awakened look, so i'm using it as an ultimate. while i can say this plays into how edel's gameplay works, it's also a pick of convenience. that said: edel being one of few AMP characters that don't have separate jobs, but rather special classes, parallels nicely with ciel awakened usually being classified as the same level as normal ciel. more of a fun coincidence than anything.

with hexeblaumon, we reintroduce the ice theme back into edel's partner line. and we also reintroduce witchelny! because edel is from a part of the world associated with magic, but uses swordplay! hexeblaumon is depicted in its ref art as using a sword, but all of its weaponry is actually crafted from its ice magic. imo the sword in its ref book art looks the closest to a rapier we really get in digimon (aside from gladimon, who i was not going to put in this line much as i love it).

zero: arcadimon (child) -> shademon -> dexdorugreymon -> darkknightmon (x antibody) -> dexmon

i had a little bit of fun with this line, and it looks like nonsense to anyone that isn't me, but bear with me.

arcadimon is a digimon whose whole deal is that it can absorb data from other digimon and incorporate it into its evolution. i didn't want to use the whole line, but i figure using the rookie form fits here because zero's whole gameplay style centers around using the techniques of others in his own way. plus, zero is able to utilize grandark to absorb energy from his enemies. like, you can't not give the digimon whose first sentence in its ref entry is "A cursed Digimon artificially created based on the data of various Digimon" to zero, the artificial demon created based on the techniques of other fighters and using another demon's core.

shademon was chosen because, to quote its ref book entry, it is "A Digimon with no substance that haunts the shadows of humans and Digimon." i figured it would be a good reference to grandark, and the way it can possess zero during domination mode. inadvertently, this also works as a reference to how zero functions as a tank in GCDC, as shademon has a move that manipulates other digimon into attacking whatever it's in the shadow of.

dexdorugreymon. AGAIN, OKAY, LET ME COOK, I PROMISE THIS MAKES SENSE. so, x antibody digimon, as we established talking about sieghart's leomon, are associated with death and escaping it through strength. dexdorugreymon was chosen here as a reference both to the fact that zero is made using the core of a dead ancient demon, and also because it is essentially driven by instinct (much like zero in the lead up to grandark functionally possessing him).

darkknightmon (x antibody) was then chosen because it is a digimon comprised of two digimon who achieved a stronger form thanks to cooperation, rather than domination. dexdorugreymon works really nicely as an ultimate to this digimon, because it gives zero's digimon an excuse to have and maintain the x-antibody, in this case manifesting as a digimon that would, without it, be only an ultimate level, rather than mega. its weaponry doesn't entirely line up with zero's, nor the traits described by its ref book entry, but i think the idea of zero's mega level digimon being one that is comprised of two is befitting for a character whose whole arc revolves around finding himself and learning to live as someone inextricably tied to a living weapon.

finally, dexmon was chosen to tie the line together because it calls back to dexdorugreymon and also, again, that idea of the x-antibody subverting death. also, according to its ref book entry, "this type of program cannot be classified as a Digimon, and although it appears solid, it has no actual substance." in other words, this also ties back to the artificiality of zero, whose identity as a demon is complicated by his crafted status.

[gojoest]

weekends always worsen my already terrible sleeping schedule ☹️

[aytonai]

Golden Hour

[theinvitedrider]

[daveinediting]

The AI Travels in Venice exercise serves a number of purposes not the least of which is learning how to predictably and reliably master the suite of tools I used to create the piece.

The basic premise is simple: using only photographs and AI tools, make a short travel video like any number of other travel videos I made before with analog tools then digital ones. Now I'm using AI tools to fly virtual drones through 2D space that's transformed into 3D space.

BAM. Easy.

Probably the first thing I learned during the process is how easy it is to trigger a time lapse shot and how convincing is such a shot even at the hands of AI.

The second thing I learned is a tiny step toward pushing me to prompt for more than camera moves. For example, twelve seconds in I asked for a slight zoom with a pan toward the nearest mask on the wall. What I got instead was that nearest mask on the wall turning toward the camera as if someone wearing the mask was turning toward the camera. It's a subtle, cool, and slightly odd effect that I didn't ask for...

But it's better than what I asked for and joins the ranks of prompts I should've written.

The lesson was enough so that I've begun to ask for what I need and/or what I want. For example, the shot at thirty-six seconds covers a bit of narration about romance. With that in mind, it seemed the shot would be better, would serve the narration perfectly had the shot been taken during golden hour. So I asked the AI to apply golden hour lighting to the shot and the results is incredible especially on the waves to the left of the couple.

Again at a minute twelve in there's a couple at the far end of the alleyway who I thought would come across more authentically Italian if at least one of them was speaking with their hands. So I added that to the prompt and BAM. The one facing the wall from the opposite side of the table was speaking with their hands.

Also, in one iteration of this shot, the sun flared into being once the camera move cleared the first arch. I liked the effect so much that I asked for it in every subsequent prompt so that I wound up with both the hand talker and the sun flaring into being.

One thirty-nine is the AI calling the shot and me taking advantage of it. The original photograph is the silver orb with reflections of people in it. So my prompt was simply to have the AI camera push in slowly to the reflections.

Simple.

Cool.

And yet.

And yet the AI camera wanted to see what was up and to the left, so... up and to the left the AI camera tilted and panned to reveal a woman in costume enjoying this moment as well.

Not what I wanted...

Better though. And if not better.... intriguing.

And convincing.

So I kept it.

At two minutes twenty seconds we have a gondolier with his gondola next to a building along the canal. The gondolier seems to be in waiting mode with the handle of the gondola's long wooden paddle in one hand. 

By this point in the script, our host is talking about being serenaded so I find a bit of music, a song in Italian where, at one point, the singer sustains a long note. This way I can fake lip sync without having to account for individual words. So I prompt RunwayML accordingly and not only does the gondolier hold a note for me... before he does, he whips out a large black microphone from inside the handle of the gondola's paddle.

Classic.

It takes a few tries to get the motion and timing right for this one moment of music... not too many, though, before I get one that's perfect. A true gift. ❤️❤️❤️

By two minutes twenty-six seconds, I'm all in. You see, at this point I have another gondolier who's waiting, standing in his gondola. Back in the day, when I was on shoots and my friend Tom saw people like this he'd catch their attention, smile, and wave. Inevitably they'd smile and wave in return... and so a lot of the travel shows Tom photographed include a lot of happy locals and tourists. So, as an additional nod to my experience on the road with Tom, I wanted this gondolier, this Italian man captured in a photograph, to smile and wave. 

Here's the prompt:

"Gondolier turns to the camera, smiles, and waves."

And darned if he doesn't do just that. No fancy camera work. Just a guy in a photo who turns, smiles, and waves. It's all a touch hesitant but still. It impressed the hell outta me. Seriously. 

So that's a thing for me now. Regardless of what I believe the AI can or can't do...

Ask.

For what I need.

Or want.

Straight up. That actually takes a lot of getting used to because I operated most of my professional life within the boundaries of hardware and software. My creativity was restrained by what I knew for a fact was possible or not possible.

And now?

Those boundaries are, at the very least...

Fuzzy.

So there it is: Ask for what I need...

Or what I want.

In great detail if the spirit moves me.

Or if I just feel like it.

And finally...

The last most obvious thing I learned from this experience is that you can't ever ever ever, you can never go wrong with sunset shots.

You just can't.

They're just damned magic. 

🤯☺️😁

[verum-artifex]

Golden Hour.

[fashion-foxy]

Went to Best Buy to check out the android 15 phones; appalled

[stablepics]

it really is a great time to take photos, or make AI make an image that represents that time

[snapscube]

had a dream last night that trucy became like a mainstream celebrity by pioneering a new type of magic show where she would do tricks like normal but every once in a while she would let the audience "peep the horror" and put this like red and black pulsating mass on stage (it kinda looked like an ai generated image) and the whole deal was that everyone who saw it thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen but every time she'd show it one audience member who saw it would die

it ended when she showed it on stage and dropped dead. the show was left going for 72 hours to honor her memory, it was dead quiet with just her body and a slowly pulsating red mass on stage beside her

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

what’s the story about the generative power model and water consumption? /gen

There's this myth going around about generative AI consuming truly ridiculous amount of power and water. You'll see people say shit like "generating one image is like just pouring a whole cup of water out into the Sahara!" and bullshit like that, and it's just... not true. The actual truth is that supercomputers, which do a lot of stuff, use a lot of power, and at one point someone released an estimate of how much power some supercomputers were using and people went "oh, that supercomputer must only do AI! All generative AI uses this much power!" and then just... made shit up re: how making an image sucks up a huge chunk of the power grid or something. Which makes no sense because I'm given to understand that many of these models can run on your home computer. (I don't use them so I don't know the details, but I'm told by users that you can download them and generate images locally.) Using these models uses far less power than, say, online gaming. Or using Tumblr. But nobody ever talks about how evil those things are because of their power generation. I wonder why.

To be clear, I don't like generative AI. I'm sure it's got uses in research and stuff but on the consumer side, every effect I've seen of it is bad. Its implementation in products that I use has always made those products worse. The books it writes and flood the market with are incoherent nonsense at best and dangerous at worst (let's not forget that mushroom foraging guide). It's turned the usability of search engines from "rapidly declining, but still usable if you can get past the ads" into "almost one hundred per cent useless now, actually not worth the effort to de-bullshittify your search results", especially if you're looking for images. It's a tool for doing bullshit that people were already doing much easier and faster, thus massively increasing the amount of bullshit. The only consumer-useful uses I've seen of it as a consumer are niche art projects, usually projects that explore the limits of the tool itself like that one poetry book or the Infinite Art Machine; overall I'd say its impact at the Casual Random Person (me) level has been overwhelmingly negative. Also, the fact that so much AI turns out to be underpaid people in a warehouse in some country with no minimum wage and terrible labour protections is... not great. And the fact that it's often used as an excuse to try to find ways to underpay professionals ("you don't have to write it, just clean up what the AI came up with!") is also not great.

But there are real labour and product quality concerns with generative AI, and there's hysterical bullshit. And the whole "AI is magically destroying the planet via climate change but my four hour twitch streaming sesh isn't" thing is hysterical bullshit. The instant I see somebody make this stupid claim I put them in the same mental bucket as somebody complaining about AI not being "real art" -- a hatemobber hopping on the hype train of a new thing to hate and feel like an enlightened activist about when they haven't bothered to learn a fucking thing about the issue. And I just count my blessings that they fell in with this group instead of becoming a flat earther or something.