A lot of people ask me how I make the expressions and emotions in my AI videos feel so nuanced, and whether there’s some special technique behind it.
For me, it always starts with putting myself in the character’s shoes. How would I feel hearing those words? Would I meet the other person’s eyes or look away? Would I try to act like everything was fine, even if I was hurting?
I share their joy, their sadness, their disappointment. Every emotion a character feels passes through me first, before becoming an expression or a movement on screen. Sometimes, even after finishing a scene, it takes me a while to come out of it.
Technique matters, of course. But before any of that, I need to understand the character and care about what they’re going through. Only then can I communicate the performance I want to AI.
The tools will keep evolving. I hope I never lose sight of why I wanted to tell these stories in the first place, or why these characters moved me. And I hope that when you watch, you can feel a little of what I felt while creating them.
I’ve also noticed quite a few creators using the same character faces from my work. I hope they’ll treat them with the same care and give them genuine emotions, too.