Leonado

The Leonardo Creator Program

The Leonardo Creator Program (LCP) is a vibrant community of artists, filmmakers, and creators supported by the Leonardo AI platform. Members of this exclusive program receive numerous benefits, including a Leonardo AI subscription with 200,000 tokens, early access to new features, and opportunities to collaborate and learn from fellow creators and professionals.

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Key Members of the LCP

1. Alex Patrascu: Designer and Filmmaker based in Bucharest, Romania.
2. Hilary Campilan: Filmmaker and Motion Director.
3. Damian and Petr: An Artist Collective.
4. Kevin Burke: Animator and Illustrator

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The Role of Leonardo AI in Filmmaking

Exploratory Tool

Leonardo AI serves as an exploratory tool for filmmakers, allowing them to generate thousands of images and videos as visual references and starting points for their projects. This capability accelerates the creative process and helps filmmakers quickly iterate and refine their ideas.

Visual Reference and Inspiration

Leonardo AI provides a vast library of styles, effects, and elements that filmmakers can use as visual references and sources of inspiration. This diversity of options enables creators to experiment with different looks and themes, pushing the boundaries of their creativity.

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Efficiency and Organization

The intuitive interface of Leonardo AI, especially on a vertical monitor, allows creators to view multiple creations simultaneously. This enhances efficiency and organization, enabling filmmakers to quickly identify and focus on the most promising concepts.

Custom Models and Image Guidance

By training custom models and utilizing the Image Guidance feature, filmmakers can create consistent characters and styles, ensuring a cohesive visual narrative throughout their projects. This level of control and customization is crucial for developing high-quality, professional films.

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Future Prospects

The future of AI in filmmaking is incredibly promising. With continuous advancements in technology, filmmakers can expect even more sophisticated tools and features that will further streamline their workflows and enhance their creative capabilities.

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Creating a Feature-Length Film Using Leonardo AI: A Filmmaker’s Journey

Background

Alex Patrascu is a seasoned filmmaker and creative professional from Bucharest, Romania. With over 25 years of experience in the creative industries, Alex has embraced generative AI to develop a feature-length film using Leonardo AI.

Interview with Alex Patrascu

Leonardo: Can you tell us about your background in film and video?

Alex: I’ve worked in the creative world for over 25 years as a graphic designer, product designer, illustrator, and creative director. I grew up in Romania and was always fascinated by Hollywood, watching everything from ‘Back to the Future’ to Tarantino films. The rapid evolution of technology always intrigued me. A friend handed me a copy of Photoshop back in 1998, and I was hooked. I was doing animations of all kinds in Flash, 3D Studio Max, and eventually Premiere Pro and Final Cut.

Leonardo: How did you get started using Leonardo AI?

Alex: When I first heard about GPT and OpenAI, I realized everything would change. Leonardo AI came onto my radar around June 2023. I was trying to create some client work in a specific style using Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. After a couple of weeks of failing, I decided to give Leonardo a try. I trained some custom models, and they were a hit! The client was very happy, and we could actually complete our project. With the release of VisionXL and DiffusionXL, Leonardo became my number one choice for generative AI. Since then, I’ve pretty much dropped every other AI tool and focused only on Leonardo.

Leonardo: How are you currently using Leonardo in your filmmaking process?

Alex: I use Leonardo AI as an exploratory tool, a visual reference, and a starting point for my videos, creating thousands of images and videos daily. When I find something I like, I dive deeper into it. At the end of the day, if there's something that still captivates me, I turn it into a small film, a trailer, or the basis for a client project. Leonardo is the first tab I open each day when I start working. It’s the most essential app in my creative workflow.

Leonardo: How has Leonardo AI unlocked your creativity?

Alex: Leonardo AI has made me faster and more organized. The interface is sublime on a vertical monitor. I can see many creations at once and quickly decide where to focus my attention. Next, I want to create a big custom library of poses to take my movies to the next level and play around with Image Guidance to create consistent characters and styles. I plan to use Leonardo as the starting point for my first full-length fully AI-generated movie, coming later in 2024. The future looks amazing, and I can’t wait to get all these workflows in place with Leonardo.

Leonardo: What are you most excited about in terms of the future of creativity?

Alex: Absolutely everything. I feel like AI enables us to do amazing things. We are seeing incredible implementations, like real-time AI rendering in canvas, extremely realistic AI video, custom GPTs to assist everyone in their daily lives, and who knows what amazing tools will be available in the future. We’re still in the very early stages of generative AI, and I think in one year from now, we’ll look back and be amused at the tools we were using.

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