My Toe Dip into Attempting to Generate a Video from my "Taterskin & The Eco Defenders" Trilogy
Tales in Auto-Storyboarding — U B the Judge
Similar to so many other probably delusional starving artists down through the centuries (and beyond), I still think my “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders” trilogy (about time-and-space traveling talking animals and a few human companions) is a masterpiece waiting to be discovered.
Perhaps it would succeed as a series of children’s books? Perhaps as a “CGI” movie, or as a cartoon movie?
Still flailing away at trying to find a way to bring it them to the masses, I took LTX Studio for a test run today after googling “how can i generate a free video from my writing” and finding LTX Studio in the search results.
It turns out that the video-creation offering of theirs is not free (you have to “upgrade” to try it), so I then used the Storyboard feature which is free to try and fed it the first chapter of the first volume in the trilogy (Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Wonders Never Cease), which is:
We had settled into our new life in idyllic Zenia amid the mountains of far northern California. It was the year 2525. I was so happy that I would sometimes run around singing, Nothing could be keener than to be in Zenia ... (in the morning, or any other time of the day).
The humans equipped with Doolittles knew what I was crooning, and agreed with me as to that. But for those without these human-to-animal auto-interpreting devices, or who weren’t wearing them at the time, or had them turned off, all they heard was barking — but they could doubtless discern it was a happy sort of barking.
The animals all knew what I was singing, especially my fellow Mammals. Even those who spoke Reptilian or Birdian or Fishian got the gist of it. They, too, agreed with my sentiments.
The only creatures who took exception to my expressions of joy were those who, speaking the Insectian lingo, also got the general idea of my song, but did not always entirely agree with it.
This was partly because my good friend Drako Pogona, the Bearded Dragon, would sometimes invite them to luncheon, a meal at which they turned out to be Drako’s main course.
For that reason, the insects in general — and especially the crickets and grasshoppers and other orthoptera — learned to decline Drako’s invitations. In fact, they never got over their resentment toward him, and would hide any time they saw him in their vicinity.
Drako was a wily one, though — and quick! Once she spotted a cricket, grasshopper, locust or roach, she was on it in a flash and within milliseconds she would be crunching away with delight, her eyes closed, and wearing a self-satisfied grin on her scaly face.
The Bearded Dragon also ate various worms and such on occasion (when she was especially hungry and the hoppers were hiding exceptionally well). She wasn’t a dyed-in-the-scales insectivore, though; She would often eat vegetables, such as endive, kale, butternut squash, even bell peppers and many other plants. She even toyed with becoming a vegetarian once, but it didn’t last long. It may have just been a ploy to get the crickets to trust her again; if it was, it didn’t work.
Albert isn't always thrilled about Drako trespassing in his garden and gleaning from it at will, but he was happy when he discovered that Drako also loves (eating) Termites.
Once Albert found out about that part of Drako’s diet, he considered the trade even. He is more than willing to share his vegetable garden with Drako, as long as the Bearded Dragon continues to keep his house Termite-free. Besides that, Albert likes Drako on a personal level, and so, even if Drako didn't eat Termites, Albert would still tolerate her self-invited forays into his vegetable garden.
And this is what LTX Studio presented me with:
So … it gave the project the name “Harmony in Zenia” and generated images of a couple of characters, but why in the world did it name the dog “Max Johnson”? There is no Max Johnson, or Max, or Johnson, in the book at all, let alone in the first chapter. Actually, it was kind of clever to figure out that the narrator (Taterskin) is a dog (doubtless because in the passage above he says that he barked). The image description of Taterskin is not accurate, either, as he is a Labrador Retriever. LTX did get Drako Pogona right in name and description (“Cunning Bearded Dragon …”), but in appearance not so much (too human-like). And why was Albert given the surname Green? The “funny” thing about that is my maternal grandfather was named Albert, and my maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Green … coincidence?
So, I then tried the “Add a Character” button, but it just presented me with some random “off-the-shelf” characters. And how could it do otherwise, as the only characters named in Chapter 1 are Drako Pogona and Albert (whose full name, Albert Spartacus Joad, has not yet been revealed).
When I tried to go back to where I was, though, my progress had been lost — I couldn’t go back and experiment with the other video styles (Vintage, Low Key, and whatever else is available) nor check out the tabs at the top (Concept, Storyline, Breakdown).
So, in order to explore a little further, I started again from scratch, appending Chapter 2 into the mix this time. Chapter 2 is:
My name is Taterskin, by the way. I am what is called a Labrador Retriever, but I don’t know why, as I have never retrieved a Labrador in my life. I don’t even know what a Labrador is. I do retrieve tennis balls, though — especially when they are thrown into the lake! There are few things better than fetching tennis balls thrown into a lake. I could do that all day long.
Albert got me when I was a puppy. He named me “Taterskin” because he thought my coat looked like the skin of a potato. It was a compliment, he told me, because an Idaho Gold potato is a thing of beauty (so he says, anyway). I think the main reason he likes the look of them is because he loves to eat them; he tells me that the skin is the best part of a potato. Unfortunately, potatoes don’t agree with me, especially the uncooked ones, so I leave them alone.
Anyway, friends, I already told you about Drako the Bearded Dragon. She’s a type of Lizard, in case you didn’t get that from what I was saying earlier. I should introduce you to some of the other Eco Defenders now. I will tell you about our closest friends (Albert and mine, that is) in chronological order from when I met them.
After Drako came Yookie. His legal name is Ulysses Calyptus, but everybody calls him Yookie. He is a Koala Bear. He’s not really a Bear, though. He’s more like a Wombat. If you don’t know what a Wombat is, it’s kind of like a Sloth. If you don’t know what a Sloth is, well, I don’t know what to tell you. You’ll just have to see him, and decide for yourself what he reminds you of.
Yookie climbs trees well, and can spend hours and hours, even a whole day, in a tree — if it’s the right kind of tree, that is. To Yookie, the “right kind of tree” is a Gum tree. By gum, I don’t mean those thin flat chewy rectangles that humans eat, which stick to the roof of your mouth — humans have the weirdest taste in food! The Gum tree that I’m talking about sprouts eucalyptus leaves, and this is the food that Yookie is simply wild about. He likes eating eucalyptus leaves as much as I like chasing tennis balls. Maybe more, even.
Yookie is a clumsy walker (to put it bluntly, he’s uncoordinated). That’s OK, though, because he spends most of his time at the top of the Gum trees, chewing and sleeping, chewing and sleeping.
But Yookie is no longer with us. By that I mean he doesn’t live with us here in Zenia. He had to go back to Australia, because ... you guessed it: He missed his Gum trees too much! You could say he absolutely pined for his Gum trees. Too bad he didn’t pine for Pine trees, because we’ve got plenty of those here, along with Redwoods, Oaks, and Maples; but — alas! — there are no Gum trees here.
The other three of our best animal friends who were living here with us at the time this story begins were Stripes, Marmalade and Tubthumper.
Stripes is a Bengal Tiger from India. He’s a great guy, and just who you want to have around if you need to intimidate someone — he can roar like nobody’s business! He makes my angriest, loudest growl sound like a soft throat grumble. He’s somewhat of a loner, but he does enjoy having Marmalade hang out with him.
Marmalade, by the way, is an Orange Tabby — a kitten. She joined us when we were in Switzerland dropping off a lady named Marianne Trieste-Trench (now Trieste-Kollenborn, as you will find out later). I didn’t know Marianne that well at the time, but she was a Security Ex-pert, whatever that is. I guess, based on the word, a Security Ex-pert is someone who is secure in the knowledge that they used to be pert, but are no longer pert; I don’t know for sure, though.
Marmalade thinks that she looks like a smaller version of Stripes, so she calls him her big brother. It makes sense that they look somewhat alike, as they have a distant relative in common, or so they tell me.
Some people are surprised that I, a Dog, get along so well with Stripes and Marmalade, who are Cats, but that old superstition about Dogs and Cats not getting along is an old husband’s tale. Canines and Felines just have to accept the differences between each other, and then most of the misunderstandings are cleared up. Mainly, we need to keep in mind that we Dogs growl when we are angry and wag our tails when we are happy, whereas Cats are exactly the opposite — they wag their tails when they are angry and growl when they are happy.
Finally, there is Tubthumper, an Elephant who decided to join us when we came home to Zenia after we met her in her native Africa.
A man named Ward, who was Warble McGorkle’s “right-hand-man” and “Image Consultant” (whatever that is), stayed behind in Africa. I never liked Warble. Truth be told, you could say I hated him. We even got into some scrapes with each other. I guess you would characterize them as violent disagreements. Since Ward was Warble’s friend, or seemed to be, I wasn’t all that fond of him, either. But, he left me alone, for the most part, so I left him alone (for the most part).
But getting back to Tubthumper. She is a lot of fun to be around. She’s almost incomprehensibly smart! Once she learns something, she’s got it down pat. She’s friendly, too. She eats mostly grass and hay and stuff like that, which nobody minds, but when she gets into Albert’s (and other peoples) gardens and decimates their carrot crop, she becomes Pachyderm non grata!
The humans have learned to hide their carrots in green tents they put up, wherein they grow vegetables and herbs and flowers and stuff away from the main garden. The roofs of these green tents are too low for Tubthumper to squeeze into. She could easily just march right in and knock the tents down if she wanted to, but Tubthumper is basically a mellow and gentle soul and doesn’t want to cause trouble that way.
Tubthumper’s skin looks kind of like Drako’s: gray and scaly; more wrinkly, though. The main difference between them — besides the fact that Drako is a reptile and Tubthumper is a Mammal — is that Tubthumper is about a million times larger than Drako (when at her normal size, that is).
Even though she is normally docile, you wouldn’t want to get on Tubthumper’s bad side, that’s for sure! If you see her ears flare outward and hear a deafening trumpeting noise — which sounds as if the entire brass section of an orchestra is practicing scales and arpeggios with their amplifiers turned up to 11 — watch out! She is about to go on the rampage! Wise persons (and animals) will get out of her way on those occasions. But that hardly ever happens with Tubthumper. She has a brother named Chumbawumba, back in Africa, though, who is a real Barnstormer!
And here’s what was then generated:
So the story is starting to get “fleshed out” (no pun intended). For one thing, the name of the project changed from “Harmony in Zenia” to the slightly more appealing “Tales from Zenia.” It now got Taterskin’s name right (although doing away with the human Albert altogether while retaining Drako Pogona), and added several other characters, giving them in most cases their species as a last name.
Changing the video style from “Cinematic” to “Vintage” improved the characters appearance, a bit, in my opinion:
I then tried several other video styles (Indy, Pop, Hand Drawn, Boost, 2D Novel, and 3D Cartoon). Most of them didn’t differ much from the others, but here are the ones that were significantly different:
Hand Drawn
3D Cartoon (this would be a good look for a cartoon version of the story)
… but this video style, Boost, is my favorite. This is how I picture those characters in my mind (but then again, where else would I picture them?).
This is the Breakdown that LTX Studio created based on those first two chapters (LTX’s synopsis is accurate, but the funny part is “dietary quirks,” which apparently refers to Drako Pogona’s love for eating crickets).
After that, though, when I hit the next “Next” button, I got this:
That put an end to my experiment with LTX Studio. I am curious to see what it would do with the entire novel — not only the (many other) character images and an updated Breakdown of the story, but even more so the video it would come up with.