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

Originally aired on May 22,2023.

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:

See the pretty pictures at: https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2023/05/22/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-406-using-ai-art-as-inspiration-for-the-once-upon-a-dream-lp-cover/

When I added the keyword, 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 ...

...Thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at Thirteenth Hour Arts on Patreon or adding to my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.
• Join the Thirteenth Hour Arts Group over on Facebook, a growing community of creative people.
• Have this podcast conveniently delivered to you each week on Spotify,  iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, Tunein, and Googleplay Music.
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify.  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at [email protected] for more details!