It’s a quiet afternoon surfing the Internet, when suddenly an attention-grabbing tape ad pops up. There are also posters, synopsis, ‘frames’ of the film. But when one decides to look for it, one finds out that it does not exist. How is it possible?
To find out, Expressions spoke with the graphic designer and director of the Cobra Blade Detective Agency, creator of the images, who shared with Medium the origins of this impressive creation.
In 1974, multi-faceted film director Alejandro Jodorowsky began work on an adaptation of the classic science fiction novel Dune by Frank Hebert.
Over two years, he and his team began to adapt the script and made several sketches of characters to be played by Mick Jagger, Orson Welles and even Salvador Dalí himself. It was agreed that the rock band Pink Floyd would be in charge of scoring the film.
However, the project was canceled before it began, and Jodorowsky never got to see the finished film. But, nearly 40 years later, one of the most relevant artificial intelligences in the world brought it to life based on a text.
design process
A storyboard was created with over 3,000 illustrations that recreated scenes from the film, shots to be filmed, and even dialogue. The script, which is sufficient for a 14-hour film, was canceled because the budget ran out before the film could be shot.
Salvador Dali will play the role of Emperor Padishah. Alien’s director Moebius was in charge of the character designs.
rebellion of the machines
The Midjourney Research Lab has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that generates images from text descriptions. Thus, Canadian Johnny Darrell provided the software with a paragraph with information on this unfinished production and within seconds, images of the film set, the actors playing the characters, and even a variety of special effects. were born. Psychedelic visual signature of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
However, the AI links its creation not with Dune, but with Tron, a science fiction film released by Disney in 1982 that the Chilean filmmaker had no idea about.
what are we waiting for
Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Dune never existed. There are no actors in the photographs or the recording set, absolutely nothing. Impressive images show how far technological progress has come and history is being written in our days.
What is to come is as extraordinary as it is dangerous. The question we must ask is whether humans are truly prepared to face a risk that defies the boundaries between reality and fiction.
hand in hand with mid-journey
The process of creating the images began with an inspiration in an artistic interpretation of Midjourney, a program that presented Star Wars as a black-and-white silent film. “I decided to try Tron as a tape without color, first emulating the style of Fritz Lang in Metropolis, but I didn’t really like the results. Then I shot Robert Wynne’s original production, The Cabinet of Doctor Calgary. The thought of the genre and the product was interesting. I thought the Tron idea might be more suited for color.”
The multi-winner of several awards for animation and production of series and films announced that he was interested in the distinctive style of Chilean playwright Jodorowsky. “I liked the idea of keeping its original style, so I wanted to see what the results would be. But for some reason I typed in a simple command: ‘1976 Jodorowsky’s production of Tron’ and what I got was pretty amazing. His extensive The client base includes major animation brands such as Cartoon Network, Disney, DreamWorks and Marvel.
The debate that marked a generation
- What is the difference between an AI and a person devoted to art?
The skill of the artists is immense and what is required of them in this type of business is deliberate and precise work, something that artificial intelligence will not be able to achieve in the long run. Although the leaps and bounds of this technology are formidable and fast, they are not precise and I would say they fail to execute 100% accurately what is expected.
- How can content creators take advantage of these new technologies?
I think AI has a lot to offer a designer in the way of idea discovery and conceptualization, but it is completely useless in achieving the precise demands of a client or art director.
- Get perfect camera angles for the modeling team or create a perfect model sheet?
It’s not going to happen and it will probably still be a few years before actual designers and artists have to worry about losing their jobs.
- What is the effect of being able to draw from text?
For me, a person who lacks talent and who has been artistically outdone by my team by 10,000% (‘can’t draw, can’t animate’), Midjourney makes me feel like an artist. It enables me to create impressive images and feel some genius. I’m not an idiot though and I know it’s all smoke and mirrors for the most part so I know I just feel like an artist but I know I’m not.
- If you had to choose… would you bet on the human or the computer?
I love the show, I enjoy the results, and I think it’s an enjoyable hobby for me, but I can’t wait to see it slowly turn into the work that true artists do on a professional level in any of their careers. do in presentations.
