AI Creation is similar to Rubik's Cube

Recently, I connected with another creative on LinkedIn. His name is Nate St. Pierre, a great and talented guy. We had briefly met on Zoom and scheduled an online meeting. During our Zoom call, our topics varied in our approaches to creation. He asked me a question that had been asked the day before: "How would you describe your creative journey?"

I said, "Making digital art is kind of like doing Rubik's cube" There is always a new twist.

I am a traditional artist. I have spent countless hours drawing and painting, mainly using pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, and airbrush. One thing I described was pace and expectation. Digital art has made me very impatient. Back in the day, I used to start my day reading the newspaper. Yes, a newspaper. I am a boomer. I'd start with international news, then local, entertainment, and sports, and finish with the comics for dessert.

Man, do I miss "The Far Side" and "Calvin and Hobbes". It was nice to get the news without any pop-up ads. During that hour, I was planning my art activity in the back of my mind. I would prepare, and then carry out the task of the day. My expectations were based on the clock.

In the mid-90s, I knew that digital art was next. I spent $10,000 to buy my first system and did not know how to plug it in. There were no classrooms or YouTube. There were a few books, but you were basically on your own. I used to meet once a week with a group of people to discuss how to use a machine to make art. I had Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, and Quark. If you know what Flash and Quark are, you're a fossil. Trying to figure out how you fit was an exercise. To give perspective, Photoshop didn't even have layers. You had to buy the software and get CDs to update. There were compatibility issues from day one. To make things more interesting, a bad font could crash your machine. I used software called RAM Doubler to open large files. It was painful. There was no AI to prompt me for answers to my problems. It was trial and error time. There was also a digital divide between PC and Mac users. It was kind of a Hatfield vs. McCoys vibe. In today's climate, Mac users were "woke".

When it came to my digital road description, I mentioned that every day seems like I am trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube. At first, the changes came slowly. Photoshop would update, and I would use it the same way. Adobe Illustrator hardly changed for years. Eventually, video became available. I had to rent time at an Avid or Media 100 bay to do video editing. This was the beginning of my Rubik's Cube syndrome. Every day started with figuring out a puzzle of some kind. Depending on the task, time flew by with my mind racing. I found myself always looking for an easier way to accomplish a task. I wonder what it would be like to start learning now without the weight of the past. Turn the cube.

You don't need the ability to draw to be an artist since the inception of AI. You can play art director and order a drawing like a burger at a restaurant. Yes, you can draw on a tablet. Artistry is not dead. But Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Ideogram, and all the AI available change the ballgame. What happens from the artist's perspective is choosing to master a skill that will stay relevant.

Years ago, everyone said to learn Java, HTML, and Lingo. You need to learn more software. Avid-type video editing was being upstaged by iMovie, Final Cut, and Windows Movie Maker. At the time, it sounded like the thing to do. But how do you choose what's important to advance your learning and career? Turn the cube again. You try to line up the colors, but each twist just changes the pattern. What really makes you crazy is when a Rubik's genius flips it 4 times and solves the puzzle in 10 seconds.

Today's puzzle is AI. Everybody is trying to figure out how it will benefit their situation. This approach usually makes you compare your current methods and discern how to apply new technology. Cars were first designed based on horses and buggies; eventually, you end up with a Ferrari. The process requires many Rubik's twists.

Developing ZūmBak, I decided to do it alone with the help of AI. My goal was to create a Shopify website to sell video background loops. That is a very general description because there are a lot of details to make it a reality. I have gotten some nice comments about the site, http://zumbak.pro. This is what I did to create the whole enchilada. I didn't use 100 tools to make everything. I used Perplexity as my main info source. I wrote a prompt outlining what I wanted to accomplish and asked for a list to reach my goal. I took that list and used Gamma to make a presentation. I used that presentation to further plan my action. I have often heard, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". The tricky part is to create a framework that has room for adjustments that can be manipulated easily. Case in point, the logo. Try to set up a way that you can change it once instead of a thousand times. It's hard to do in the beginning, but you can save a ton of time down the road.

First, I started making inventory. The creative process for a series of videos takes some experimentation. I prompted Perplexity to first identify the Zoom user demographic and then to suggest backgrounds that they would be interested in. I decided to use Adobe Animate as my main tool and developed a template to make a series.

I needed a name. This is one case of not using AI. I sat down with a sketchbook and wrote out ideas. Within a short time, I came up with "ZūmBak". It worked for me, so I registered the URL using Namecheap. I have been experimenting with video backgrounds for over a year. My original plan was to have 12 to choose from. I chose a few that I created in the past and made a list of new topics to make my new videos. Every video needs a title, description, and keywords, so back to Perplexity.

Next, I set up a Shopify website. I have used it before, but I know there are nuances that would need answers. I used Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude for answers. When I was really stuck, I used Shopify's Chat Help. It starts with an animated answer and then gives you the option of chatting with an advisor. They are not paying me to say this, but their customer service is excellent. I used chat advisors to figure out many questions. Every session I was treated very well; I was surprised.

I wanted to make a video using a realistic-looking character talking with an animated background. I wrote a script, unaided by AI, describing ZūmBak's offerings. Midjourney was used to make the character. After some Photoshop adjustments, I used HeyGen with audio assistance from ElevenLabs. I took that video into After Effects to construct the final video.

Creating the site is one step; the next is promotion. Back to spinning the cube.