bookmark_borderSatisfying GIF: Frame to Video with Flow Veo3

Satisfying Kawaii Tiger Jelly Cutting

The reality is whether you like it or not, AI is here to stay and we have to adapt to it, adding it to our workflow. In my case, I’ve been experimenting with Google’s Flow Veo3 because my employer no longer wants to pay for commercials that don’t capture his vision. So I’m here learning how to use the tools so I can do what’s required of me.

Admittedly, I’m actually having fun creating these; am I so vain that I enjoy seeing myself in my creations even though it’s AI generated? That’s where the frame to video feature comes in – you can add a frame (photo) to make your AI generated stuff more original.

So yeah, enjoy my little experiments. I’m going to post more when I get a chance.

bookmark_border051625 – Images Created by Chat GPT

Here are some random images I had Chat GPT create. I’m late to the party of course but having fun with it. I saw people on Reddit do prompts like: create a living room with my stuff in it or create an image based off my relationship with Chat GPT.

I know you might be judging me, as I’m definitely judging myself. HARD. But the reality is, I don’t have much time to create art or draw the way I used to these days. It sounds like a lameass excuse I know but it’s true. In a lot of ways I’m low key stressed out thinking about money constantly and how to save, invest or make more of it, while also figuring out how to keep on living in Los Angeles on one salary while renting. So in some ways, Chat GPT is my escape right now. It does help me with coding and writing but for the most part, I ask it a lot of astrology stuff and to interpret my Tarot pulls.

By the way, I’m also aware that Chat GPT has the ability to gas you up – meaning that it will never judge or tell you that you are wrong unless you tell it to. So beware and have some critical thinking skills because Chat GPT will get it wrong; I have tested this with astrology stuff.

bookmark_borderA Witch for All Space and Time

I just really love how this gif came out (it was a gif, but made it into an mp4 to make the file size smaller). I could probably create a million more versions of this, and I most definitely will.

This is a photo that I took of my Butterfly Witch painting. I setup my Aura Quartz crystal skull in front of the painting among other Quartz crystals and took the photo. I then took it into Photoshop and cut out parts of the background. I then brought it into After Effects. I can’t remember the rest of the steps from there, but I’m using the Tunnel effect that you can probably search YouTube for the After Effects tutorial.

As soon as I hit “post”, I fixed up another version that I will make into a bigass gif just like this one 😉

bookmark_borderVideo: James with Mika & Miriya

Lol I’m super proud of this video that I edited on the desktop version of CapCut – James doesn’t like to show his face which actually presented a fun challenge for me to put an emoji on his face while motion tracking it. Mind you, I’ve never really played with CapCut (only on my phone for Tiktok) but it was such a pain to edit on my phone so luckily CapCut offers a desktop version of their mobile app.

Anyways, if you’d like to follow my 2 British Shorthair cats’ Instagram it’s @mika_miriya_bsh

bookmark_borderOuterspace Crystal Skull Witch – Oct 2022

I gotta say, this was fun to make. I started doing this because I hated how things looked on TikTok – the white outlines around text BUGS me, like nothing is pleasing to look at on there.

Initially, I used the Rotoscoping Brush in After Effects, but it didn’t work. So I started rotoscoping it manually. Rotoscoping is the fancy term in After Effects that “cuts” the person out of the background. It’s painstaking to do it frame by frame, that’s why they have the Rotoscoping Brush tool.

The downside of rotoscoping this manually? I experienced tennis elbow. My right elbow, arms and hand all became stiff and it hurt to move it for a few days. Luckily, some electrical stimulation and Aleve helped me recover quickly.

Should I blame it on getting old or just overdoing it with this project? I probably overextended myself. Either way, I feel as if my body can’t do fun things anymore because I’m getting old. Like I have to watch what I’m doing now, like working on something for too long and injuring myself…

so lame.

bookmark_borderIs It Halloween Yet?

I must’ve drawn this 5 years ago. I usually date my drawings but for this one, I didn’t.

Halloween last year was pretty non existent. I still look forward to it even though I don’t even dress up or actually do anything for Halloween.

I think it’s just mostly the vibe for me – the darkness, the fog, spooky atmosphere, horror movies, Samhain, etc. Just like how I like the design of the main Sanrio characters enough to get it tattooed on me but not be an actual collector of those items (unless it’s Badtz Maru). Ok, I’m rambling.

I live in my head, I live in the world of ideas. It must be the combo of my Fire and Air signs (Sag and Aquarius).

I’m missing my cat. I’m missing Roxy. This drawing was pulled from a 2016 folder of photos and both Tabby & Roxy were in there. She had an art show so we made a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas and texted her when we were already there. She was so stoked.

I’m also reminded that she passed 11 days before Halloween. First year anniversary on top of the pandemic was hard. This year is already flying by quickly. The years are just flying by as I get older, period.

And yes, I made a bigass file size, looping gif of my cat Tabby so I can look upon her sweet face until this blog is gone.

bookmark_borderHappy Full Moon – 6/14/2022

Some apps along with my personal calendars say the moon is in Sagittarius, others in Capricorn. Shrug if I know BUT I always tend to feel more energized & motivated when the moon is in Sagittarius since it’s my Sun; determined and ‘into my work’ when the moon is in Capricorn (my Mercury).

I don’t have anything to say, as you can see I’ve gone ghost on nearly all my IG accounts or simply deactivated them. It takes so much energy and effort to be on there; I don’t know when I’ll feel motivated to pick up my side projects again.

Introverts gonna introvert I guess…

I just wanted to post this meme as it was buried in my Instagram saves. Credit: @thatcatbobbie

I hope you’re doing well. I’m just here lurking and being on the internets and pondering the next stage of adulthood: do I want a house, or do I want to retire with lots of money? I constantly go between wanting everything and wanting nothing. It’s hard to decide when you’re a Libra moon!

bookmark_borderJust Minding My Business…

My life is pretty boring these days. I’m still trying to think of how to work less while making the same amount of money or even more and I still want to take a year off work. But I’m super thankful to have this creature in my life. Her name is Mika and she’s a black tortie British Shorthair. You can follow her on IG @mikatortiecat. I couldn’t decide which pic I liked better so I made both into a gif.

What’s life like for me right now? Well I still can’t afford to buy a home in Los Angeles but at least I live where I want to live and it’s close to work so that’s a tradeoff I suppose. If you want to be in LA, you simply can’t have it all unless you’re rich AF.

I can hear my mom saying that I should’ve bought a home in 2003. Knowing myself at that time I was still hella irresponsible though and just wanted to paint and do whatever the fuck I wanted to do. I mean, why do parents project their dreams unto their children? She made me feel like THAT was supposed to be my ultimate goal in life.

Also it takes me a long fucking time to grasp real estate terms and concepts. I’m in my mid-40’s and I’m just barely starting to understand it. Sheesh.

And maybe I’m okay with living where I live WHILE not owning the place. Maybe we can normalize that homeownership is not as attainable as it used to be. Besides, we entered this world with nothing and we’re going to leave with nothing but our souls. So why even put myself through all that?

The so called American dream is dead and your life doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s.

bookmark_borderComplex Thoughts, Feelings, etc…

It’s strange, isn’t it? The things we’ve spent time building up crumbles eventually as soon as people start to make fun of it.

Perhaps I’m too overly concerned…sensitive…about what people think but at the same time, you also have to put your feelers out there to see what people actually think.

It can be a downer on your energy for sure and it makes you want to hide (at least for me).

For example – my crystal shop. A few months ago on Reddit, I put up a photo of crystals for sale – some were natural while some were aura treated. It was then reposted in a subreddit forum called Mineral Gore. The purpose of the subreddit is to post unnatural, manmade or enhanced mineral specimens so people can comment at how ugly and atrocious they are.

One man’s treasure is another man’s trash. Again, to each their own.

But still, it personally affected me and I never wanted to post again.

The point of this post is that people ARE out there…UNCONSCIOUSLY making you feel bad for the things that you personally love. And when somebody shares their opinion that you don’t necessarily agree with regarding that thing you love, you’re most likely going to feel like shit and you’re going to want to hide.

Just understand that most people aren’t doing it on purpose or personally attacking you, they’re just sharing their opinion and preference.

But it still comes off harsh.

Reddit is a strange place…well, all social media in general. It feels good to have your posts or comments “liked” or “upvoted”, it feels awful to have them “downvoted” or when people leave shitty comments.

It’s hard to not take things personally, but I’ll keep on working on it.

(Yes, that’s me in the background with my husband taking a photo of this claw machine filled with kawaii stuffed animals).

bookmark_borderI Like Creating Cute Things II

I didn’t realize how much digital stuff I’ve created over the years until I had to organize it this week.

This one’s super cute. I like creating cute things, remember? I made everything except for the baby chick. Unfortunately I don’t have all the time in the world to create everything from scratch so often times I gotta cheat.

Here’s one I did for work using the same concepts from

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make DAT ASS Shake!?

Just literally two frames repeating over and over again.

I struggle with using the actual animation timeline in Photoshop so it seems easier to just animate things frame by frame. Also the file size needs to be small.

I’ve not been in a Halloween mood even though I’m glad it’s this time of the year and all. It’s been 2 years since Roxy left and I’m not feeling festive.