The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #406: Using AI Art as Inspiration for the Once Upon a Dream LP Cover

Experimenting with AI generated art as inspiration for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP coverart.

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #406: Using AI Art as Inspiration for the Once Upon a Dream LP Cover

https://archive.org/download/podcast-406/Podcast%20406.mp3

This week, I’m working on the coverart for the upcoming next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream.  I’ve had ideas percolating for a number of years about what I wanted it to look like but as an experiment, I decided to see if one of the many AI art generators (in this case, a very cool, free app called Diffusitron) could provide additional inspiration.  I’m fairly new to using these programs, and I would never call myself an early adopter of such things generally.  However, they are really cool!  As mentioned in the episode, I take a more optimistic view of these programs that some do.  Yes, there are issues in terms of potential changing or loss of work, copyright and compensation issues, and so forth, but I suspect it will just give artists new tools to work with, kind of like how electronic music production programs gave musicians additional means to create music that would have been much more time consuming and expensive to produce in years past. 

In any event, if the future really is now, I wanted to see if it could provide some inspiration and perhaps amplify the current ideas I had for the cover.  Here are the keywords I fed into the program initially:

synthwave, TRON style grid, 80s, ballad, purple mountains, sandy beach with tan and green rocky cliffs, sunset sky with pink, purple, and blue clouds, rainbow, unicorns, dragons, fairies, medieval castle, love song
 
And here is what was generated:
 

When I added the kyword, pixelated, I got ones that looked a bit more 8 bit.

When I took out TRON style grid and synthwave and added The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Rocketeer, Back to the Future, Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, here’s what I got:

This last one is perhaps my favorite, as it looks like the cover of an 8-bit NES game.  

I did a quite sketch using the ideas I already had and some of these new ones below which I will make in a pixel art creation program and in Photoshop over the next few weeks.

Also, this month, I committed to doing 3000 push-ups for St. Jude’s Hospital, which offers free treatment for children and young adults for conditions once considered terminal / hopeless (hence, St. Jude – apparently patron saint of hopeless causes)!  Please consider contributing to the cause here! https://www.facebook.com/donate/1287747998791772/?fundraiser_source=external_url

I’m also matching all purchases made of the handmade resin 3.75” Rocketeer action figures on my Etsy store (all of which normally goes to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation in memory of Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens) with a matching donation to St. Jude’s.  Each figure comes with its own protective case and access to an exclusive interview with Billy Campbell, the Rocketeer from the 1991 film. https://etsy.me/3ZXRPq

So, two ways to support a good cause!

Thanks for listening!

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Check out the growing line of Thirteenth Hour toys and other products on the Thirteenth Hour Studio Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio).  There are a number of custom figures from retro films being sold for charity that available there as well. 

Check out this collaboration with past show guest Jeff Finley on handpan: 

Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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