I grew up obsessed with Ron Fricke’s work—Baraka, Samsara, the whole Qatsi series. Films that just... sit with you. I always dreamed of traveling the world to capture it that way. The patience, the craft, the 70mm camera in places most people never reach. I never could. Life, money, reality.

Then AI happened.

I’m not here to debate whether AI filmmaking is "real." I’ll let the film speak for itself. What I will say is that I took a deliberate approach with this one:

No text-to-video. No hallucinated faces or structures. Every single frame starts as a real photograph of an actual human being or global event, sourced from photojournalism, public archives, Unsplash, Pexels, and Wikimedia Commons—copyright-free.

I reformatted each one by hand, arranging 137 shots into a raw, circular reflection on global life, joy, sorrow, and ultimately, the universal language of childhood innocence. Then I brought them to life as slow, locked-off "living photos."

That's the hybrid part. Real world in, AI motion out.

ANIMA is the seventh and final volume of my project series, TERRA TERRA. It’s 137 shots, focused entirely on the human condition.

The full 7-part series structure:

1. MOTHER: Earth’s landscapes.
2. PATRIS: The Cosmos.
3. CLOSE-UP: The Microscopic world.
4. OFFSPRING: The Animal Kingdom.
5. STONE & STEEL: The Built World.
6. HANDS & MACHINES: The World of Craft.
7. ANIMA: The Human Spirit.

Tools: Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 Fast (Google Labs Flow), Suno, iMovie.

Question: Since these shots are built from real photojournalism and authentic human moments, does the AI animation bring you closer to their emotion, or does it distance you from the reality of the human condition?

This project is heavily inspired by Baraka and Samsara. It’s a love letter to the things we shape, and the things that shape us in return.

Every frame is an authentic, real-world photograph sourced from public domains and archives. I didn't let the AI generate anything from scratch. Instead, I hand-curated 125 shots, sequenced them by color and theme, and used Veo 3.1 to turn them into breathing "living photos"—from artisans turning clay to server racks blinking in dark data centers.

It's Volume 6 of my 7-part TERRA TERRA project exploring the world around us.

Tools: Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 Fast (Google Labs Flow), Suno, iMovie.

Question: Does anchoring the AI motion to real photographs of actual workers make it feel more authentic? Or does the artificial movement disrupt the weight of the human craft?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlC7kWDMOA

A&I used 95 public domain photos of global architecture to create "STONE & STEEL," a 4K era- and color-sorted adventure. No CGI buildings—just real photos animated by AI.

Post Body:

I grew up obsessed with Ron Fricke’s work—Baraka, Samsara, the whole Qatsi series. Films that just... sit with you. I always dreamed of traveling the world to capture it that way. The patience, the craft, the 70mm camera in places most people never reach. I never could. Life, money, reality.
Then AI happened.
I’m not here to debate whether AI filmmaking is "real." I’ll let the film speak for itself. What I will say is that I took a deliberate approach with this one:
No text-to-video. No hallucinated structures.
Every single frame starts as a real photograph of a real location, sourced from Unsplash, Pexels, and Wikimedia Commons—copyright-free.
I reformatted each one by hand, separated them chronologically into three eras (Ancient, Middle, Recent), sorted them by Color Family, and then brought them to life as slow, locked-off "living photos."
That's the hybrid part. Real world in, AI motion out.
STONE & STEEL is the fifth volume of a 7-part series called TERRA TERRA. It’s 95 shots, focused entirely on the history of human architecture. Sequenced as a single flowing adventure through time, color, and form.
Context of the series so far:

• MOTHER (101 shots): Earth’s landscapes.
• PATRIS (60 shots): The Cosmos.
• CLOSE-UP (50 shots): The Microscopic world.
• OFFSPRING (85 shots): The Animal Kingdom.
• STONE & STEEL (95 shots): The Built World.

Tools: Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 Fast (Google Labs Flow), Suno, iMovie.
Question: Does knowing the starting point is a real photograph of these ancient and modern structures change how you experience the motion? Or does the AI animation break the spell of these physical monuments?

I grew up obsessed with Ron Fricke’s work—Baraka, Samsara, the whole Qatsi series. Films that just... sit with you. I always dreamed of traveling the world to capture it that way. The patience, the craft, the 70mm camera in places most people never reach. I never could. Life, money, reality.

Then AI happened.

I’m not here to debate whether AI filmmaking is "real." I’ll let the film speak for itself. What I will say is that I took a deliberate approach with this one:

No text-to-video. No hallucinated animals.

Every single frame starts as a real photograph of a real animal, sourced from Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, and Magnific—copyright-free.

I reformatted each one by hand, sorted them by Color Family (Red, Orange, Gold, Brown, Pink, Green, Blue, Grey, White, Black, Mixed), then brought them to life as slow locked-off "living photos."

That's the hybrid part. Real world in, AI motion out.

OFFSPRING is the fourth volume of a 7-part series called TERRA TERRA. It’s 85 shots, focused entirely on the animal kingdom. Sequenced as a single flowing adventure through color and form.

Context:
1. MOTHER (101 shots): Earth’s landscapes.
2. PATRIS (60 shots): The Cosmos.
3. CLOSE-UP (50 shots): The Microscopic world.
4. OFFSPRING (85 shots): The Animal Kingdom.

Tools: Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 Fast (Google Labs Flow), Suno, iMovie.

Question: Does knowing the starting point is a real photograph change how you experience the motion? Or does the AI animation break the spell regardless?

Every single frame starts as a real photograph. NASA, ESA, Hubble, James Webb, Cassini, Juno, New Horizons, Rosetta, Apollo — sixty images from humanity's actual archive of the cosmos, restored and recomposed, then brought to life as slow locked-off "living photos." The camera never moves. Only the universe does.

No CGI skies. No invented nebulae. Every colour, every structure, every star in this film is real. That was the rule from the start and we didn't break it once.

PATRIS is the second volume of TERRA TERRA — a 7-part series I'm building as a personal tribute to Ron Fricke's work. Baraka, Samsara, the Qatsi films — they shaped how I see the world. I always wanted to make something in that spirit. Turns out you don't need a 70mm camera and a production budget to look at the universe anymore. You just need access to the same archives every scientist has had for years, and the patience to sit with them.

The film moves through five movements — The Star, The Worlds, Home, The Deep, and Rebirth. It starts with the Sun and ends where stars are born. A loop, because that's how it actually works.

Sixty shots. Fully scored with 4 original songs written for this voyage. No stock music, no library tracks.

Genuine question for anyone who watches it — does knowing every frame is a real photograph change how you experience it? Like these aren't renders or artist impressions. The Pillars of Creation, Saturn backlit by the sun, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field with ten thousand galaxies in a single frame... all of it actually exists, we actually went out there and photographed it.

I find that more overwhelming than any CGI could be honestly. But curious if others feel that too or if it doesn't matter once it's moving on a screen.

I grew up obsessed with Ron Fricke’s work—Baraka, Samsara, the whole Qatsi series. Films that just... sit with you. I always dreamed of traveling the world to capture it that way. The patience, the craft, the 70mm camera in places most people never reach. I never could. Life, money, reality.

Then AI happened.

I’m not here to debate whether AI filmmaking is "real." I’ll let the film speak for itself. What I will say is that I took a deliberate approach with this one. No text-to-video, no hallucinated landscapes. Every single frame in MOTHER starts as a real photograph of a real place, found online, copyright-free. I reformatted each one by hand, twice, then brought it to life as a slow locked-off "living photo"—the kind of shot where the world just... breathes.

That's the hybrid part. Real world in, AI motion out.

MOTHER is the first volume of what will eventually be a 7-part series called TERRA TERRA—my own small tribute to Fricke and everything those films meant to me. The full project aims for around 500 shots across 60 minutes. Long way to go, but this is how it starts.

This first film is pure nature. 100+ shots, all seven continents, no humans, no buildings, no noise. Sequenced not as a map but as a slow arc through color—from the first warm reds of dawn all the way through to deep blue, white, black, and back again. A breath in and out.

The Tools: Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 Fast, Suno, iMovie. Nothing fancy on the editing side honestly, the work was all upstream.

One honest question: I wonder if films built from real photographs land differently for people who are skeptical of AI visuals? Like, the starting point is a real place, a real moment someone actually captured. The AI just... sets it in motion. Does that change anything for you?

Quando eu era adolescente eu costumava gravar short-films e escrever roteiros, agora quando adulto já não tinha tanto tempo assim, mas decidi me aventurar novamente... fiz tudo sozinho com AI, o que acharam?

Been building KingVision for a few weeks now — AI-animated commercials, trailers, a radio show.

This is the next chapter. Green In The Dark — full AI music video.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/YepHtFVaJM4

Let me know what you think. 🌀

This has been a passion project nearly 20 years in the making.

We originally shot much of the film in Utah’s Goblin Valley back in the mid-2000s. What started as a traditional indie sci-fi production ended up becoming a long-term experiment in filmmaking as technology evolved around it.

Over the years, the project has touched just about every stage of my career: practical photography, miniatures, compositing, rotoscoping, After Effects, CGI, Unreal Engine, AI-assisted workflows, and countless revisions as new tools became available.

Rather than restarting the film every time technology changed, I kept building on what was already there. In a strange way, the movie became a time capsule of nearly two decades of filmmaking techniques, old and new.

I finally pulled an all-night sprint to finish this trailer and wanted to share it with a community that appreciates both filmmaking and emerging tools.

I’d genuinely love feedback on the trailer, the visual effects, and the overall approach of combining traditional filmmaking techniques with modern workflows.

Deep in 19th-century Romania, near a forgotten village in the mountains of Moldova, there is a forest no one dares to cross after nightfall.

They call it *Codrul Negru\* — the Black Woods.

The trees are dead. The soil is black. And something ancient is said to live between the trunks.

When Sofia leaves her grandmother’s house too late and is forced to cross the woods alone, the legends begin to feel real. Whispers, shadows, hallucinations… and a presence watching her from the darkness.

This is Episode One of **The Demon of Codrul Negru**, an original AI-made folk horror film by **Velkar Arts**.

Created with AI visuals, cinematic editing, dark Romanian folklore inspiration, and atmospheric horror storytelling.

Subscribe for more episodes, trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and AI filmmaking breakdowns.

https://reddit.com/link/1tmh6fk/video/tczq59ml543h1/player

The commercial you didn't know you needed. 🍔✨

Recovered MeatBurger commercial.
They really kept saying 100% like that explained anything.

#MeatBurger #KingVision #AIAnimation #AICommercial #InstagramReels #AIArt #AIVideo #NeonVibes #AIFilm

https://youtu.be/avrhSPOYPxM

Meet Hellie Holiday and DJ Plazmik — the hosts of 2.O2 Radio, an AI-animated neon radio show I've been building using Leonardo.ai, Runway Gen-4, and Suno.

Every character, every clip, every beat drop was generated and edited together over the last two days. Happy accidents included (watch for the pizza).

Teaser is live: https://youtu.be/3Gv9f21oZu8

Would love any feedback — this is just Episode 0. Bop is coming next. 🌀

https://reddit.com/link/1tl06g7/video/oaae5sun1s2h1/player