Web3, The Metaverse, Crypto, NFT’s… we hear all of these worlds almost daily. The world is changing at a breakneck pace and artists are joining in. Whether it’s Justin Boretta teaming up with Aaron Penne for their generative art and music project, or Steve Aoki leading the NFT movement in the dance music community, it’s clear that technology and the music industry are now more connected than ever.
There is another artist who has had tremendous success over the past 30 years. Whether it’s the leader of a Hungarian pop band, half of a legendary trance duo, or producing beautiful progressive and trance music as part of his solo project, Shane 54 managed to continue to open up new ways for people to experience his music.
What do we mean by that? Well, it uses AI technology to create video clips and the result is breathtaking.
“I’ve been making animated music videos for over a year: I’ve made them for other artists as well as for my own music. Funnily enough, my very first animation was shortlisted for “Best Animated Music Video” at the Hungarian Music Awards in 2021. (I didn’t win, but THAT would have been a miracle I guess)
The past few months have been spent exploring AI imaging technologies. I was quickly sucked into it: I was part of a hot new art movement, which naturally led me to want to use my newly discovered art in my music videos.
When he started, it took months of experimentation – and failure. Nothing was working as he envisioned.
“The first issue with using brand new technology like this is that EVERYTHING looks fantastic and fresh. You create awesome visuals. Then as soon as the new version of your tool comes out , your previous work suddenly starts to sound less sharp.Then it gets outdated faster than you could say “Björk”.
Then he realized, with a separate app for animation, that he could avoid the cliches that were so easy to fall for when creating AI videos.
“The idea was to create every element of the video with MidJourney (my current favorite AI tool), creating a cohesive collage like no other. THEN animate it. Even though it was a stupidly simple idea, the impact she had on my work is amazing…
I really got to create my own unique world with a lion-headed king, a magic carpet, a castle in the sky, and everything else I could think of. Using the right keywords and modifiers makes the images look nicely textured/aged, so very little post-processing needed in the end: it was lightning fast and visually gave me literally everything I I wanted.
Although he doesn’t consider himself a filmmaker in the traditional sense, he is undoubtedly creating a new visual experience to pair with music that has an absolutely unique look and a story to tell.
“The global AI community is at the forefront of an art form so new and revolutionary that many of the old rules and etiquettes don’t apply here. New methods and techniques are released every week, and that’s no exaggeration. I am extremely happy to be part of this movement, giving me the opportunity to merge music, art and film as I have always imagined. It’s really unbelievable.
