And since After Effects is my first love I figure it's worth sharing a walkthrough of what Chris Lavigne and I lovingly refer to as the 'Hakuna Matata' sequence. There's serious power is taking your generations - breaking them into assets - and then crafting your start/end frames in post

With the launch of Sora 2 I had to know how it would fair against the tools I used to create this - Seedance / Kling. to be honest - I was incredibly hopeful that it was going to be a serious level up....buuuuut The first is Kling and the second is Sora 2 - both using the same exact prompt: A golden brown fluffy labradoodle with a red and white striped bowtie runs across a tennis court in autumn, colorful leaves swirling around. The dog is carrying a cracked black VHS tape in his mouth at first. As he runs, the VHS naturally slips and falls to the ground. Without hesitation, the dog’s focus shifts—he spots a bouncing tennis ball ahead and chases it with excited, playful energy. The camera tracks backward smoothly, keeping pace. Emphasize realistic dog-like motion, whimsical animation timing, and a clear transition from dropping the tape to chasing the ball.

Then off to home sweet home in After Effects for some clean up. One of the favorite shots involved google street view + a green screen run cycle produced in nano + MJ - finished in AE. The real unlock: think in assets. Use multiple tools to build your start/end frames. Stitch them into story.

I leaned into my “vibe animating” workflow: Toss out ideas - test quickly - keep what works - sculpt it to the flow / music track Here’s how the tools stacked up: Midjourney = unmatched aesthetic Nano Banana = angles + edits Seedance + Kling = motion Midjourney = surprisingly solid video too Suno = nailed the music track in one prompt Elevenlabs = bespoke sound effects

I teamed up with my favorite folks at Wistia to tackle a fun challenge: use AI to recreate one of their classic ads starring their lovable mascot, Lenny. It started as a shot-for-shot recreation…but soon took on a life of its own.

I created a million-dollar Pixar-quality short in just 8 days using AI. Workflow: nano banana + midjourney + seedance + kling 2.5 + Suno + Elevenlabs I also tested Sora 2…and the results were surprising (see below) Excited to finally share this! 🧵

As promised, here’s the custom GPT I built to assist in crafting prompts for each LLM. So far this has coverage for Midjourney, Nano Banana, Kling, and Seedance. I'm adding to it all the time! Last thing: the way I like to engage it is simply type the model you want the custom prompt for (ie. Nano Banana: [insert instructions here]) with a short explanation of what you're looking for. Best part is that it's conversational so you can tweak to get the results you want. happy prompting

And finally - here’s the original Wistia ad with our pal Lenny What started as a shot-for-shot AI recreation evolved into a full short of its own Reinterpreting past content with these tools feels like a huge opportunity moving forward. More soon!

@crlvideo this was fantastic. more please, more...

Thank you! It was about 8 days of work all in. That includes music and sound design. Actually no boards for this! Originally it was going to be shot for shot with the original ad but ended up taking a life of its own. Did a brainstorm session with a handful of gags that could be funny to see act as Lenny's distraction and then off to the races. Because of that I was able to pivot and make directorial decisions on the fly - which is insane in the form of animation. Still boggles my mind

@crlvideo The workflow, the story, the music, nailed every bit of it man!!

@crlvideo So you ripped off a scene that already existed AND also had to use AI to make it for you. You are genuinely useless

@crlvideo I don’t think nano-banana can do video-to-video… How was the green screen asset created?

I created a profile image of Lenny on a street in Midjourney (funny thing is that MJ kept wanting to have the bg at 3/4 angle) took that image to nano banana and prompted "replace background with chroma key green and retain the dog's shadow" then I used my prompt wizard to help me craft a run cycle in seedance. This was the successful one "A golden brown fluffy labradoodle walks forward in a seamless looping trot cycle. The dog stays perfectly straight, facing profile view, never turning or circling. He carries a black VHS tape in his mouth, tail bouncing and ears swaying naturally. Happy expression, looking around slightly while continuing straight. Static camera, clean in-place walk cycle."

@crlvideo but how did you not notice the dog's awful run/walk cycle? that's not how quadruped's move! both front legs moving as one?

@crlvideo That's... Thanks 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

@crlvideo Man, INCREDIBLE work Instant follow, absolute dig it and exactly the way we have to think!

@crlvideo Amazing work flow, and just goes to show what can be achieved

@crlvideo It's great to see some passion here. So much AI 1 click slop out there. This shows true evolution and advantages that AI can be used as a tool to elevate an artists imagination.

@crlvideo Could you provide the PromptGTP that you mention in the video, could not find it anywhere ? Maybe I'm missing something. Thank in advance and great work.

@crlvideo My expectations were very low, but oh boy I was wrong!, Your approach is very smart and using After Effects as your backbone for your outputs is the way to go. Could you be so kind as to share the GTP Prompt tool that you mentioned?, I could not find it. Anyway, great work man!