Collab - Animating the Imperial Guard (The AI dilemma)

Last Thursday the tiny dirt road I needed to take was blocked by a concrete barricade. I cursed (several times) and then I thought: "That's actually a cool barricade for a Warhammer 40k shoot." So I got out of the car, took a picture and had an even worse idea.

It took 2 old urbex pictures from back in 2016 and the new concrete slab cellphone photo plus some Photoshop compositing magic to let Firefly AI finalize this composition into the kind of Space Hulk tunnel I wanted.

Then I combined 2 stills from @Kyden_cosplay 's props + Cadian commissar cosplay (made during @GeekVillagebelgium + @GeeksandFreaksnl ) and noticed I had not photographed his legs, so I added the lower part from a macrophoto of a commissar-miniature I had shot during Trolls-et-Légendes (Sorry, don't know who painted it). The magic of Photoshop, Luminar Neo and Firefly got me the character and heroic pose I wanted.

Then I had Photoshop combine, relight & harmonize both compositions and I could start re-colouring (Yes, I ended up making 3 versions > only on my Flickr) And after several hours of work it looks almost like a painting instead of a photo-collage. 

This was the final result.

So is this AI, or is it a photo collage? Let’s call it an ”AI assisted collage”.

 A Warhammer photo gallery (Click on the arrows on the side to scroll):

Anyway: the day after I filmed myself sneaking around and I used that footage in Kling 3.0's Motion Capture Control to animate this commissar.. and some other Imperial Guardsmen.. I then edited that into the tunnel collage with Premiere, Omni & Capcut (because I have zero experience with Unreal Engine).. and then I threw some silly video filters over it to hide some massive flaws and called it a day. 
Yes, the final clip looks far from perfect, yet it also looks a bit like a scene from the storyboard of that WH40k cosplay short film I wrote exactly 14 months ago, storyboarded 10 months ago, but never got to film. I don’t think i’ll ever animate, nor film my entire storyboard for that shortfilm, but someone said : ”Just make it exist first, you can make it good later.” 
So this is just a silly old man trying to create something new out of his old work. 

▶️ The scene on Youtube
▶️ The scene on Clapper

"We only need to hold the docking bay of this space hulk until the terminators arrive.. how hard can it be?", that was the premise of the short film I had scripted & storyboarded, but never filmed. At least now one scene is animated.

▶️Testing more extreme video filters on the opening shot of this scene:
▷ Test 1 on Clapper
▷ Test 2 on Clapper 

 

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So now I wonder: how do people manage to just use 1 prompt and often no real photos to get the perfect result they wanted? 
I'm glad that my way.. the hard way.. also works and on the positive side: at least it's all based on self-made photos. However my method is too much work and less "2026'ish perfect" than the 1-prompt-results. 
Reality and truth are no longer defined by: look at the images.
So I guess photographers are now completely obsolete. Because cosplayers are using cheap AI-apps on their cellphones to turn simple bedroom selfies into amazing action shots. On LinkedIn, FB & even professional curriculums/CV’s, AI‐profile pix are nearly outnumbering the ones made by photographers. Corporations are using AI for product shots, for training/presentation videos & even for their corporate portraits, Hell, even my GF’s new profile pic is the black & white AI-prompt that was trending last week. Soon, brides & grooms will have all their AI-wedding pictures ready the week before they say Yes.

And amidst all of this, that silly old man still tries to create and distill something new out of his old ideas & works. 

It doesn't look any good, but it can only get better!

Maybe it's time to sooth myself with words like: there's only so much you can do by yourself.
And the old man never stops doubting himself.. yet sometimes he has to force himself into publishing.. even if it is with some help of AI.

So yes, AI is definitely taking away revenue.
Yes, AI is ruining many creative things and businesses.
And yes, AI can help bring ideas you never realized to live.
AI itself is not the enemy; corporations using AI to force people out of the way are the enemy.

And my guess is that the added value of human photo/videographers will solely become ”Seeing things, or seeing-things-in-a-way, non-creative people and their AI tools did not think of.”

▶️ Cosplayers from:
@hellhound_belgicus_411
@180thkrieg
@adeptus_cosplay_instag

Songs in the clips:  Awake Again - Violins / Paradise lost - As I die / Ardenite - Hater

And here's the reason I only read books in Dutch for my #Page1Project bookseries: 

@deeprednoise_vzw The PAGE 1 PROJECT - For this winter project, I'm always reading aloud the first page of a book that appeals to me. Normally, I only read aloud in my native language, so please forgive me for butchering the English pronunciation. This is how the original creator of #warhammer40k truly envisioned the emperor, the Imperium of Man, and the vast galaxy. Txt (c) By Rick Priestley - Warhammer 40.000 Rogue Trader #booktok #page1project #warhammertok #warhammer40000 ♬ origineel geluid - DeepRedNoise_vzw

Please @warhammerofficial don't sue me. 

#warhammer40000 #cosplay #imperialguard #cadia #deathkorpsofkrieg  

More links because you love links? Got you covered!

▷ All photos can always be found on/downloaded from my Flickr !
▷ A "How to download stills from Flickr" tutorial was posted here.
▷ Some highlights might go to Instagram, Threads or Bluesky.
▷ A video might go to Clapper & to Tiktok
▷ Buy Red Cathedral a whisky on Ko-Fi
▷ Updates are on THE Facebook.
▷ Give a follow to this young creative foundation: Deep Red Noise vzw/asbl 

Or rather: give a follow & like everywhere.

 

 Some of my other cosplay photos (Click on the arrows on the side to scroll):

A direct link to this article: https://tinyurl.com/krieg2026

Namaste