Open AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
I was really excited when I heard that OpenArt AI can make a whole 5 minute film at one time. Mine is 4 and 1/2 minutes so I really fell into that category. Didn't take long for my illusions to get completely shattered. THE GOOD: The visuals are nice but you pay for it. I chose Full HD 1080p so I was at the top of the tier. But I imagine nearly all paid AI subscriptions render images pretty cleanly at Full HD. THE BAD: OpenArt AI costs a small fortune and most of that is spent valiantly but ultimately fruitlessly trying to fix OA's prodigious mistakes, glitches and errors. I bought the monthly Pro for $54 and started with 24,000 credits--more than enough for a 5 minute film, or so I thought. The 24,000 credits got burned up in short order setting up the film using OA's "Director" function guided by Ori, an AI construct that helps you with arranging things. When it was ready to render my film I was hit with a message, "Need 50,000 credits to render" so I spent $180 to buy 100,000 additional credits. "More than enough to get this movie made", I thought. No such luck. After 6 or 7 attempts to render the movie and making corrections I was hit with another message, "Need 50,000 credits to finish movie." So I sighed and bought $90 more, determined to see this through to the bitter end. Total $326, and I unbelievably end up with a surplus of 45,000 credits. THE UGLY: Needless to say, as many have already pointed out, the resulting 5 minute movie was underwhelming--an absolute mishmash of out-of-order sequences, glitches, and silly errors that had Ori read the script none of it would have happened. OA simply cannot follow a script no matter how detailed. Example of one small part: "Three women stand inside a church at the giant church doors. The women face three men standing outside the church at the front doors. Two feet separate the women from the men, the women within to doors, the men without. The redhead turns and walks forward into the church's darkness. The blonde and brunette follow her and the men follow close behind. Immediately upon entering the church the redhead raises her arm, flicks her wrist and immediately hundreds of unlit candles ignite illuminating the church nave." What does OA do? It buries the three women deep inside the church near a dining table prop and then has the women walk away from the table when the script clearly calls for the women to walk up to the table. The front doors are nowhere to be seen--until about 30 seconds later when after showing the characters way inside the church, all six characters suddenly appear at the front doors. Long story short: I burned 100,000 credits trying to correct dozens and dozens and dozens of glitches, errors, omissions. I finally gave up, realizing I'd be in hock to a loan shark if I spent the money to try to fix this mess. My advice: don't try to do a full movie. Take it scene by scene. Much less trouble and you'll save yourself an ulcer. And don't forget to get a bank loan before you undertake something really BIG.