Transitioning to Filmmaking Day 23: Using AI to Create Custom Titles
I needed help designing titles because frankly the titles in my short film, The Adversarial, are a bit boring. So I turned to generative AI to help me out.
I found the following 4 tools useful to create text, each varying in the quality of their results. Pick and choose whichever tools works best for you!
Pika Labs
Pika introduced a new command called "/encrypt_text" which allows you to add a specific message (as text) and a prompt to stylize it. The text will be encrypted / embedded within that style. It works fairly well, but at this point, I feel it's more about getting ideas then using the final product as it does not always return the actual text you put in it.
The new command offer various attributes. See the image below for the full set of attributes you can use.
You can also mix in camera movement with those commands by using the "-camera" command. There are various attributes for that command as well. See the image below.
Running a few test for my short film called "The Adversarial", I got some interesting results, none of them really usable as is, but it provided me with some nice ideas that I can then either create on my own or hire a designer to do for me.
I used the following 3 prompts to create the video below. I then edited all the videos into one piece using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Prompt: Modern, Robots, Photorealistic, Futuristic, Dramatic Lighting, Cinematic Message: The Adversarial (Font: MODERN)
Prompt: Modern, Futuristic Message: The Adversarial (Font: MODERN)
Prompt: Futuristic, Robots, Metalic, Cinematic Lighting Message: The Adversarial (Font: SANS SERIF)
Adobe Firefly
Adobe is incorporating their generative AI engine, Firefly, into all of their apps, but you can still use the actual Firefly website to play around with their technology. One of the features they offer is called "Text Effects", which is currently incorporated into their Adobe Express web app (more information about that below). I'm hoping they will add it to Adobe Photoshop soon!
Using the site is very easy. At the bottom of the screen, you will find an "Enter Text" prompt. Just enter what you want to see as font style and click on "Generate".
For my example, I'm using "Robots Futuristic Modern Space".
Once I clicked on "Generate", it takes me to the next screen.
( 1 ) The first result of the text prompt you provided.
( 2 ) You can select from 4 different styles it creates.
( 3 ) You can select from other sample prompts if you don't like this one.
( 4 ) You can change the shape type to be looser or tighter.
( 5 ) You can change the font type.
( 6 ) You can change the highlight and background colors.
( 7 ) After you made your selections, you need to click on "Generate" again.
Unfortunately, this web interface just lets you play with ideas, but you can't really download the results and/or change the word. It always uses "Firefly" as the example. To change the actual word and download it, you can use Adobe Express.
Adobe Express
Adobe Express is a web app that allows you to create a variety of designs, such as social media images, videos, marketing documents, presentations and more. Think of it as Adobe's version of Canva. One of the cool features of Express is the incorporation of generative AI, specifically Firefly's text effect. To create a custom font and use it in your design, you need to start by creating a design.
I chose to create a simple video, 1920 x 1080.
I clicked on "Text" to add to my video.
I clicked on "Add your text" button to add my text.
After adding my text, I clicked on "Text Effects" (that's Firefly behind the scene).
I entered my text prompt (same one I used above in Adobe Firefly) ( 1 ). Customized the font attributes ( 2 ) and clicked on the Generate button ( 3 ).
I then got the same exact results I did with Firefly, including the 4 variations. I can then easily update my text using this new font.
You can then click on the "Download Button" ( 1 ), customize the file type and then click on the Download Button again ( 2 ).
DALL-E 3 via Bing
Even though DALL-E 3, as of this journal entry, is not generally available on OpenAI's site, it is available via Bing. One of the big improvements of DALL-E 3 is that it can generate text, among creating more realistic images, closer to Midjourney's quality.
Using it is very simple. For my text prompt, I typed in: The words "The Adversarial" in 16x9 aspect ratio 3 robots friendly talking theme modern.
I got 4 results to choose from. As you can see from below, the text is not what I typed in, but it is giving me some really nice ideas of what I can do design wise.
Once you click on a particular design you like, you can download it or share it.
That's it. I hope this article gives you a good introduction into how to use generative AI to stimulate ideas for custom titles for your next videos! Are the tools ready for you to fully implement amazing motion titles using AI in your next film? Not yet, but they will get there as these tools give us a good glimpse of the future.
Until the next entry!