The Power of AI Generation
Here at Big Sound Marketing, we’re always looking for unique ways to provide interesting and innovative ideas for our clients and there’s no better example of this than our 30 Years of DAF video. On the surface, the short clips within seem nothing more than just regular trucks driving throughout the UK. However, on closer inspection you’ll notice that all of these were generated with the power of AI. In this blog, we want to discuss the direction we took with this video and celebrate how much of a spectacle this is for the future of marketing.
What makes AI generation so special?
It’s no secret that AI is slowly making its way into the digital marketing industry. The question therefore is how can it be utilised to not just enhance workflow but also to assist in creative efforts as well. With our 30 Years of DAF project, AI highlights a shift towards using it in tandem with other traditional content creation methods. For example, our team was able to generate these truck videos from single still images, bringing them to life with Runway, a tool designed for AI generation. Once these videos were created, we were able to send them to our design team who used traditional video editing techniques to combine them into a ‘scrapbook’ theme.
This process of combining both AI with traditional techniques shows that there’s a place for both within content creation and once utilised together can create something magical. It’s not about how AI can replace what we know and love but how we can use it to enhance the process. Our 30 Years of DAF video demonstrates this perfectly, showcasing both the power of AI and what our video production team can do with it.
What was the process like?
It’s not just as simple as clicking a button and generating a video. Despite common misconceptions, there were a few stages to making sure the AI videos were as perfect as they could be. The process started with various pictures, showcasing DAF trucks throughout the years. After selecting the best ones, Runway was used to help bring these images to life by generating videos of these trucks driving on a road. This stage was particularly challenging as a lot of the trucks weren’t positioned perfectly for the AI to generate a consistent video of them driving. This led to a lot of hilarious videos being generated where sections of the truck would be cut off or extended in unnatural ways.
To help remedy this, Runway was given specific instructions to focus on and create shots based on each individual image. Rather than providing the prompt ‘truck drives on road’ for each and every image, the prompt was adapted and tailored depending on the context of the image. For example, if more of the background was visible in the original image, the prompt ‘truck driving on road, drone shot pans upwards and highlights background scenery’ would have been used. This method meant we were able to disguise the weaknesses of AI generation and have it focus specifically on what makes the image special when generating the video.
After all of the videos were generated, they were once again returned to our video team to create an amazing scrapbook theme to position them on in the final video. It’s one thing that we were able to create these videos, but it’s even more impressive that our video production team were able to express them in an authentic and fun way. We think we achieved exactly that with our 30 Years of DAF video.
How did it turn out?
For this next section, we got an opportunity to hear from Marlon and his thoughts about the result of this project:
“Overall I’m very impressed with how this video turned out! It’s still unbelievable that this kind of thing is possible in this day and age. Generating the right prompt for the videos was actually quite challenging. A lot of the generations would look unnatural or have inconsistencies within them. That’s why it was important to specify how the camera should move and what shot the camera should take. I think by doing this we were able to hide the inconsistencies and generate videos that looked incredibly realistic.
What impresses me the most is how Greg was able to bring these videos even more to life with the scrapbook theme. It’s amazing what we can do with both AI generation and video editing skilled used in harmony. I hope we get an opportunity to do this again in the future”.
We hope this blog demonstrates the processes used when generating content for AI and how the process involves more than just clicking a button. In the right hands, AI can be used together with traditional video editing techniques to create something incredible.
If you’d like to integrate AI generation into your marketing strategy, but still encapsulate the authenticity of your brand and approach, get in touch today.
