Transform Through Time: Using AI to Create a "Character Aging Effect"
Midjourney & RunwayML
Goal Outcome:
Hello and welcome to a step-by-step guide on crafting your own "Aging Effect" video using Midjourney v5 and RunwayML.
Midjourney v5 is arguably the best image generation model currently available & is incredibly easy to use since the main UI is simply a discord channel.
RunwayML is a fascinating company, most notable for their text to video models, but also provides a host of easy to use AI image/video editing tools
Step 1: Setting the Stage with a Character Prompt
Our journey begins in MJ, where you'll create a character prompt.
This is the basis of the image that MJ will generate. Remember to specify the age of the character right at the beginning of the prompt. Here's a little trick: always specify a --seed number and ensure you get a similar character for all generations.
For instance, my first prompt looked like this: street style photo of a 25 year old Harry Potter in NYC, shot on Afga Vista 400, natural lighting --seed 1 --v 5
If seeds are a foreign concept just check out the Midjourney docs here.
Step 2: Aging Through Prompts
The magic happens when you repeat the prompt, changing only the age of the character. Starting with a 25 to 35-year-old character worked well for me. Subsequently, you can adjust the age up or down in small increments of 3-5 years within your next prompts. For example:
street style photo of a 30 year old Harry Potter in NYC, shot on Afga Vista 400, natural lighting --seed 1 --v 5
street style photo of a 35 year old Harry Potter in NYC, shot on Afga Vista 400, natural lighting --seed 1 --v 5
<repeated>
Save down your images with good names - you will later find it helpful to have tracked the age of your subject in these image titles!
Step 3: Movement and Magic
Now, the exciting part - we bring your frames to life by using RunwayML.
Navigate to your Runway dashboard, click on "AI Magic Tools," select the frame interpolation tool, upload your images in order of age, set your clip duration, and hit generate.
Since I had 12 images, I set the duration of the clip at ~12 seconds so the transitions would feel smooth & fast. If you have too few clips relative to the duration, your images will look like they are “tearing” as they slowly reform to the next frame.
Bonus Round: Music
You want to add some music to give your video flair? I found Veed.Io to be a fantatsic as someone that knows nothing about video editing. It was as simple as creating a new project, dragging in my video file, and overlaying audio via their stock music library.
Done
There you have it! Your unique Aging Effect video is ready. Share your masterpiece and bask in the admiration of your peers. Don't forget to tag us when you post, as we'd love to see
Credits:
Nick St. Pierre on Twitter is a Midjourney pro. My project + tutorial were largely based on his twitter guidance & I strongly recommend following him if you found this interesting.