Creating the Unattainable: A VFX Artist's Dive into AI
“You look lonely. I can fix that.”
That line, spoken by the holographic AI Joi to Officer K in Blade Runner 2049, is iconic. It captures a profound sense of melancholy, connection, and the blurred lines between the real and the artificial in a futuristic world. It’s a scene that has stuck with me, a perfect blend of stunning visuals and deep, emotional storytelling. I wanted to see if I could capture that same vibe—the flickering, ethereal hologram against a neon-drenched city—but with my own whimsical twist.
The result is the video you see here below.
This project was more than just a creative tribute; it was an experiment. As a visual effects artist who typically lives in the world of green screens, After Effects, and hours of meticulous, frame-by-frame editing, I decided to build this entire sequence using AI.
This journey into AI-driven creation was eye-opening, revealing a technology that is both incredibly empowering and surprisingly restrictive.
The Tools of a New Trade
For this project, I have used these AI platforms:
Higgsfield - talking avatar, AI clone of myself
Nano Banana - (inside of Higgsfield), change details in your generated content
Krea - AI clone of myself, change details in your generated content
Leonardo.AI - turning images into videos
ElevenLabs - voice over
The Grand Trade-Off: Ease vs. Control
My traditional workflow for a video like this would involve a green screen shoot, hours of keying, sourcing or building 3D cityscapes and compositing dozens of layers. It’s a labor-intensive process that demands technical expertise and, frankly, a ton of time.
I must tell you: I was stunned by how quickly I could generate a base for my vision using AI.
The ability to type a prompt and see a complex scene materialize in minutes felt like magic. But as I quickly learned, this magic comes with its own set of rules and limitations.
The biggest challenge in the world of generative AI is the battle between your creative vision and the algorithm's interpretation. AI is incredibly easy to work with on a surface level, but maintaining 100% creative control is nearly impossible.
Consistency is the main hurdle.
Getting an AI model to generate the same character, with the same face and outfit, across multiple shots is a significant challenge. You can guide it, but you can't command it with the perfect precision I'm used to when I film myself and then edit it in After Effects. Each generation is a slight variation, a new roll of the dice.
This leads to another, more practical problem: the cost.
Most "affordable" AI platforms operate on a subscription model with a monthly credit allowance for the lower-tier subscription in the $10-$30 range. While this seems reasonable, those credits evaporate quickly. To get a single clip that perfectly matches your vision, you might need to generate dozens of variations. Finishing a multi-shot project like this means you will almost certainly burn through your monthly credits long before you're done, pushing you into more expensive tiers or forcing you to buy more credits. The "free” entry point is often just a preview, with couple of daily free credits.
So, Where Does AI Truly Shine?
After wrestling with its limitations, I found where AI's true power lies for an independent creator like me. It’s not in replacing what we can already do, but in creating what we couldn't otherwise achieve.
My key takeaways fall into two categories:
The Wardrobe of Dreams: The cyberpunk armor I’m wearing in the video is a perfect example. This is not a real costume. Creating something like this physically would require a team of concept artists and costume designers, and the cost would be astronomical. With AI, I was able to design and "wear" the coolest clothing imaginable—something that exists only as pixels but is completely real in the context of the video. It opens up a universe of character design that was previously inaccessible to people on a budget like me.
The Hollywood-Scale Scene: Making myself fly through a futuristic city is a sequence I’ve dreamed of creating. With traditional methods, this would be a monumental task. I would need advanced knowledge of complex 3D software, a team to help with the practical. Or, I’d need the budget to hire a 3D artist to build and animate it for me. For a personal project or a hobbyist video, that’s simply not attainable.
My Stance: AI is a Tool, Not a Replacement
This brings me to my core belief about this technology.
I am not anti-AI. I am, however, for its mindful application.
AI becomes an incredible force when it's used as a tool to bridge the gap between creative vision and logistical constraints. It empowers artists, filmmakers, and creators who don’t have a studio budget to produce stunning visuals that were once the exclusive domain of major production houses.
However, I find it deeply uninspired when this powerful technology is used for mundane tasks that are easily achievable in the real world. Generating an image of a person holding a coffee on a park bench is, for lack of a better word, dumb. That's a photo you can take with your phone if cameras are not around. There's no grand vision there that requires a supercomputer to render.
This is where the ethical line, for me, becomes clear. If big companies with massive budgets use AI to cut corners and avoid paying real artists, photographers, and creatives for work that is perfectly attainable, they are misusing the technology. They are not pushing creative boundaries; they are simply cutting costs at the expense of human talent.
So, here it goes: AI should be used to create the unattainable, not to replace the attainable.
This project was a journey into the future of creation, a glimpse into a new frontier.
While I'll always love the hands-on, meticulous craft of traditional VFX, I'm undeniably excited about the new possibilities AI puts at my fingertips. It’s a wild, unpredictable, and powerful new tool in the artist's toolkit, and I can't wait to see what we build with it next.
Stay creative, and I'll see you in the metaverse!
xoxo, Timeless Anna
