2024

Short Film

⚎ FIND YOUR SELF-ISH

Short Film:
Find Your Self-Ish

Intro Film Stills Video Scenes Project Context Insight CGI Breakdown (Video)Styleframing + Concept Art Testing with Stable Diffusion Technical Foundation World Building Urban Remnents Fragmented Vision

Get in Touch

❯ intro

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Film Poster "Find Your Self-Ish":
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Movie Poster for "Find Your Self-Ish". An avant-garde short film, merging CGI and AI into an eerie journey of self-reflection. Very experimental and abstract visual style, utilizing frame in-consistency of stable diffusion. It feels very eery and nightmarish.

Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

"With a mirror on the wall, this is how we fall.
Find your self, be your selfish.
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Slices of life, cascade down the everlasting staircase, only to be persued relentlessly by their very own reflections.
There is life outside, or is it?
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Find your self,
be your selfish."
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[Film quote]

/ Selected Video Excerpts:

/ Still Frames of "Find Your Self-Ish":

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Intro shot, title scene. Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Dark clouds appear on the sky, looking at a street with old buildings. Lighting a cigarette from POV.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Standing in a corridor, a bike is standing on the right, a green door infront.
Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Red light filling a dark street, looking at a advertising collumn.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Nighttime, a dark and eery looking street, under construction, all empty, scary looking. Green and red lighting fills the darkness.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Nighttime, an old CRT TV on rocks and sand, looking scary, weird place.
Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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First scene, looking through a green tinted window into an old apartment complex courtyard.
Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Green lighting fills a small apartement corridor scattered with objects.
Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Its night, but green and red light is occluding the scary looking fassade of a kiosk. Everything looks empty.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Inside a dark buildings staircase corridor, a scary looking men is looking straight at the protagonists eyes (POV).

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Darkness and red light fills the distorted, abstract silhouette of a street, glitch effects, stressfull.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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Looking through a Revolving door, blocked by red light. A brutalist complex, a strange ring of old CRT TV´s can be seen inside the big hall.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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A big brutalist complex yard at night, blue light fills the dark shapes, surrounded by fog. Silhouettes of Concrete buildings scatter the background.

Red light filling a dark street, looking at a advertising collumn.

Still from 'FIND YOUR SELF-ISH,' an avant-garde short film combining CGI and generative AI (stable diffusion) to depict a first-person journey through anxiety, addiction, and self-reflection, featuring abstract visuals, morphing AI-generated characters, and an evolving environment

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

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/ / Project Context

An avant-garde short film, merging CGI and AI into an eerie journey of self-reflection.
‍

FIND YOUR SELF-ISH is an autobiographical and experimental CG film shot in first person. It explores themes of internal struggle and distress. The film is based on the filmmaker's own experiences with anxiety and addiction. The director experiments with cutting-edge AI techniques, to generate visuals that are being morphed with traditional 3D animation, enhancing the visual storytelling uniquely. The abstract narrative of the movie is driven by the sensations of the protagonist, which manifest themselves in visual distortions and an evolving environment. Without dialogue, there is a big emphasis on the visual narrative and intra-diegetic soundscape.

The movie embraces the aesthetics of generative AI, to distort the image in innovative ways and combines this technique with other experimental manipulation methods. This makes the lived experience of the protagonist tangible for the audience. The abstract storytelling and first-person perspective invite the audience to project their own experiences onto the narrative, which opens the movie to a wide range of interpretations. Even the characters are non-specific in their appearance and morph from one AI-generated person into another. The stunning visuals are complemented by an atmospheric synth soundtrack.

//Project Info
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data = {
    "date": "2024-03"
    "type": "personal"
    "contributor": "Benno Schulze"

    "category": [
        "EXPERIMENTAL",
        "SHORT_FILM",
        "AVANT_GARDE"
        "STABLE_DIFFUSION"
   ]
}
‍

❯ INSIGHT

Note: This section consists of concept art, testrenders, technical aspects, previz animations and other work in progress material,showcasing the steady improvement of quality and general workflow behind the scenes.

data = {
    "enabledSoftware": [
        "Cinema 4D.exe", //main 3D software
        "Blender.exe", //additional 3D software
        "Redshift", //render-engine
        "Stable Diffusion", //AI-DLM [link]
           "Automatic1111", //webUi [link]
           "sd-webui-control-net", //AI-NNM [link]
           "sd-dynamic-prompts", //dynamic prompt extension [link]
           "depth-map-script", //depth map generator [link]
        "InstantMeshes.exe", //remesher [link]
        "iRender.exe", //render farm for additional hardware [link]
        "AfterEffects.exe", //compositing + VFX + post-edit
        "Element.exe", //AU/LV2/VST/VST3 audio plugin host [link]
           "ARMINATOR.dll" //CS-80 emulator [link]
        "Audacity.exe" //custom foley refinement
        "Premiere.exe", //sound design
        "TopazVideo.exe", //video upscaling + interpolation [link]
   ],
    "webpages": [
        "textures.com", //cg materials (limited use *)
        "polyhaven.com", //cg materials + HDRIs (limited use *)
        "mixamo.com", //animations (limited use *)
        "freesound.org", //foley sounds (limited use *)
        "cttrax.com", //music (limited use *)
        "sketchfab.com", //3d models (limited use *)
    ],
}

//* Includes limited use of website-sourced [animations;materials;
HDRIs;objects;foleysounds;music] alongside original creations.
The vast majority of the work was self-created.

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/ CGI Breakdown: Intro Scene

/ / Styleframing + Concept Art

/ Digital concepting:

Concept render for an avant-garde short film, merging CGI and AI into an eerie journey of self-reflection. Very experimental and abstract visual style. The concept render shows a burried body, although the color and mood is positive and calming. The visual composition with the burried face looks kind of eery and scary.

Illustrative exhibition design concept render for the Short Film "Moving Still" Video Installation at Kaffee Hag in Bremen.

Rendered in Cinema4d and Redshift. Made by Yeman.Studio / Benno Schulze.

[SCROLL]

[SLIDE] > > >

↑ Visualizing the thematic ideas and overall stylistic vision I have in mind for the movie.

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↑ Test on visualizing feeling of distress / panic

↑ Concept on implementing Color / Projections as a means of Visual Storytelling (Inspired by the drug (heroin) scene in Trainspotting 2)

↑ Digital Styleframing, especially for color composition

↑ Digital Styleframing, testing a technical approach to morph CGI with Stable Diffusion, very basic and early stage with a simple overlay.

↑ Testing poses using adjusted poses and human model from Mixamo, edited using a Volume Builder + Mesher.
Custom Material utilizing various shaders (like Curvature + Ramp) and layering.

→
Styleframing, inspired by an exhibition by Phyllia Barlow in Hannover, the last one before her death.

↑ Styleframing on world building / architectual style.

/ Analogue concepting:

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Experimenting with rough textures and shapes on paper (Acrylic Paint + Charcoal Pencil on Paper):
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✺ [middle] →
Experimenting on combining Acrylic Paint and String on Linen, inspired by Anselm (2023, Wenders, Wim)

✺ [right] →
Working on Sandstone using Hammer and Chisel, further experimenting on compositions and shapes.

/ / Testing with stable-diffusion

← (left) ✺
First testing with Stable Diffusion + Control Net, utilizing it's facetracking features (input by me, overlay calculated by SD)

← (middle) ✺
Output by SD, with my facetrack given as an input and a generic person prompt.

✺ (middle) →
Test on a custom checkpoint, trained on pictures of myself. The results are not as desired to say the least... (All trained and running locally, no web connection)

✺ (right) →
Second test on a custom checkpoint, trained on pictures of myself. Input dataset of roughly 100 pictures of various backgrounds and poses. (All trained and running locally, no web connection)

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Test on Deforum + StableDiffusion
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Second test on using SD + ControlNet body + facetracking, this time on a animation
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Experimental test on giving SD very few sampling steps, resulting in rough shapes.
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← (left) ✺
Segmentation input sequence (rendered in C4D)

← (middle) ✺
Resulting output sequence processed by SD

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Experimenting on the idea of shifting environments, buildings scaling in size, people disappearing. In the end: left alone on a street through nothing. Segmentation input was rendered in C4D.

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Testing changing atmosphere (daytime switch)

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First attempt of morphing Stable Diffusion output with C4D Redshift.
In this case: Simple Projection Light with the image sequence, which is able to occlude and reflect on the C4D Street,

/ / Technical Foundation (Cinema4D + Redshift +sd)

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Camera Mapping SD Output inside Redshift as a means of stress inducing visual narrative (Test).
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/ Final workflow on implementing
SD Content in-Engine:

1. Sketch and segmentation maps rendered with a separate camera, which is locked to the moving POV camera of the final render. Rotation and zoom are manually keyframed to ensure the head and body consistently fill the frame.

2. Output generated by Stable Diffusion. The person depicted is not meant to be analyzed by appearance; rather, their shifting gender, ethnicity, and other traits serve to convey a generalized, symbolic portrayal of people as a whole. This was achieved using the Dynamic Prompt Addon inside Stable DIffusion

3. Alpha matte for keying out the background, batch processed via photoshop object selection.

4. Camera mapped SD output projected back onto the original person.

5. Enabled Subsurface Scattering in order to create a semi realistic lighting behaviour fitting to the 3D environment. Rendered with Alpha background in order to be further composited inside AE.

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Testframes with enabled motion blur in post-edit.
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/ Character Rig:

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One of two custom camera + character rigs. Camera movements are automatically transferred onto the protagonists head motion for creating realistic shadow.
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Quick realtime test on the rig. Head is casting shadows, but invisible to the camera, in order to prevent glitches on the POV render.
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/ Environmental lighting

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Test render inside a boxed out test-environment, focussing solely on the environmental lighting.
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Bird view on the main cloud shadows behind the scenes. A simple animated noise maps set with Alpha transparency.
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Viewport look at the Volume Cloud, which is visible to the camera.
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Test to morph SD Output inside Redshift (Camera Mapping)
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Procedural cigarette bud, which can be keyframed to a certain "smoke up" threshold using a combination of Emitters, Volume Builder / Mesher and Boolean.
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Custom made Skin Shader and Hair Rendering with realistic Subdivision Surface Scattering
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Render test on final, animated hand-rig + weight painting.

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Realtime render view at Subsurface Scattering in work.
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Testing limits of Hair Render, not be seen in the film
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Note: Due to complexity and performance limitations, the majority of the project's content is not available on mobile.

Curious? Check out the full page on tablet or desktop devices!

/ / Desktop Content Teaser:

/ concept renders + technical

/ world building

❯ World Building

Note: This section contains raw renders with camera angles and bright daylight that are not part of the final short film. As a result, some parts may appear lower in quality due to being optimized for distant camera viewpoints (LOD) and/or depth of field effects.

Find Your Self-Ish maintains a continuous shot throughout the entire short film, yet the narrative embeds a hard but seamless shift in the scenery. While certain aspects of the environment and overall layout remain consistent, there is a stark transformation in architectural style and atmosphere. The "historic" buildings appear in a state of partial decay, with large sections demolished to make way for imposing brutalist concrete structures, characterized by their raw and cold aesthetic. To simplify these contrasting environments, the images are split between the two of them.