AI is a BIG RED TOOLBOX looking for a project

AI is a shiny red toolbox. If you are mechanically inclined, you can relate. The top drawer is for screwdrivers. Standard and Philips arranged and separated. The second drawer is for wrenches. The third is for sockets. Bottom drawer for hammers. The most important part is to put the tool back exactly where you got it from. 

I am finding that my Chrome browser has replaced my shiny red box. It serves that purpose but doesn’t look as cool. I have a top drawer with links to AI brains much more efficient than my own. For some reason, my go-to source is “Perplexity”. That is my favorite screwdriver. I also have You.com, Claude, CoPilot, and ChatGPT handy. Next drawer I have AI art apps.  The first tool for me is Midjourney, then, Ideogram, and Leonardo. There is still Stable Diffusion, Firefly, and more. You don’t generally use every tool in your toolbox, you develop favorites.

In the past days, creating multimedia was a chore. Time, budget, and quality restrict your choices. One person can achieve tasks that used to take a room full of people to achieve. 25 years ago you had to rent an Avid bay with an editor to edit a video. Now I use my Mac mini. 

The next drawer is “video”. I must admit I, I don’t use AI video too much. When I watch TikTok some excited AI explorers talk about Pika, Plaiday, VideoGen, and HeyGen. The stuff looks great. Video production is taking a turn. For voice, one tool that I wear out is 11Elevenlabs…amazing.  The music drawer has Suno, Beethoven, and Udio. I find the music creation interesting, but I have many questions. How do you use the music effectively? If you want to write a funny song like a greeting card, OK, I get it. A song to market, I don’t think so. I rarely open that drawer.

Many years ago when I bought my first computer I remember thinking that I wanted to be able to play it like a fiddle. Do art, audio, video, design a logo, animate a character, and on and on. It’s a lot like playing the guitar. With practice, you can do pretty well but you can get caught playing the same cords over and over. Improving your skills takes time and influence. AI can open your mind and enhance your creativity. Many people didn’t create because they couldn’t draw. We have no excuses now. If you want to make something, do it.

If your digital skills are strong, AI allows for quick creation. Previous to AI, a request for four iterations of an art piece would take maximum effort. Today, you get 4 unbelievable creations in about 30 seconds. The struggle is within the instruction. How well can you describe your vision so your art app can render it to your liking? If it’s not quite right you can adjust it using generative tools in Photoshop.

We all have some really impressive tools available at our fingertips. The next question is, what’s your project? This is a discussion of my thought process to create my latest brainstorm.

My skill is drawing and animation. 2D not 3D. I spent a lifetime drawing in pencil, using watercolor, pen and ink, and an airbrush. My digital skills include Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, After Effects, as well as a working knowledge of Midjourney and Ideogram. If you put that all together in a pot and stir it, what do you get? I have some tools, but what is my recipe?

My previous idea was not meeting expectations. I had an, “Oh sh*t!” moment where you realize that you are doing the wrong thing.  Right around this time, I attended a regular WITI/ Odyssey meeting on Zoom. We discuss what is new in AI. One thing that I use are video backgrounds in my Zoom meetings. During our sessions, I often get positive feedback. A comment was made that this was my next business. I agreed. In most cases, you look for partners to help bake your cake. I have decided to wear the chef’s hat. With the help of AI I will create a product, make it available for sale, and introduce it to the public. Just me and AI. I’m going to have one person verify my sanity to make sure that I am on track.

The first thing to do is ask ChatGPT or Claude to ask you the questions that are needed to form a marketing plan and analysis. After soul searching and documentation you’ll get your answers. What is the demographic and how do you contact them? Is your idea a good one? After doing my homework I made a plan. That started with creating a Shopify website. I want to create two things, video loops for sale and a course on how to create your own Zoom backgrounds yourself. It is a way to use the Adobe Creative Suite and AI to create something fun and useful.

Some people say, “It’s easy”. Yeah, right. Shopify customization takes some patience. I used AI to make a list. I also used Perplexity like an answer man. I asked for step-by-step instructions all along the way. First, I had to pick a name, register the URL, and point it to my new Shopify website. I had to create an inventory with titles, descriptions, and keywords. Designing the messaging on the website is key. During the creative process bells will ring in your head with new ideas and insights. 

Discussing it with others or hiring a web builder is a different vibe. I did not ask for help from a professional designer. The best advice I got was to use the Shopify Help chat feature to get your questions answered. Between Chat Help and Perplexity I created the ZūmBak store. I always heard that “the camel is the horse designed by committee”. My Shopify creation process did not include any over-the-shoulder comments. I managed to create a store with an inventory of (20) Zoom backgrounds.

You can see how I did at: http://ZumBack.pro

I am open to comments and suggestions. Send an e-mail to: mike@zumbak.pro

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