I thought I would share some updates not related to writing, at least not directly. Many of you remember that during the past year, Lynne and I built a workshop next to the house. You have seen pictures of the exterior and the interior. I even showed you a modular mobile workbench that I put together. The bench is great, and while I haven’t had to move it, I have used it a lot.
However, I found that some things I work on are either too heavy to lift onto the workbench or are not a good fit. That’s when I saw something on YouTube that caught my eye. Harbor Freight sells a 1000 lb capacity hydraulic lift. It is on wheels and has a metal work surface. The problem is that the work surface is too small. So, I followed the guidance of another person and secured a 30×36 inch piece of 3/4 inch plywood to the existing surface to give me more room to work on larger items. If something is too heavy to lift, the hydraulic lift function is great at bringing things to a workable height.
Of course, not all things are too heavy to start with, but when they are assembled, they are awkward to handle. So, when I assembled a portable hose reel, the new lift and table were perfect. One simple project helped another to reach completion.
I don’t mind telling you that the old plastic hose reel I had broke down after the first use. The new one will not. Remember, I told you that some or all of this was not related to writing.
I mentioned that this blog was not directly related to writing. That is true. However, indirectly, I completed two experimental AI projects for marketing.
The first was a video of the Argos AI, Wizzy, talking and walking through the inside of a ship. I think I was motivated to push this experiment along after I used the AI function of Canva. Until then, I did not know much about it, the AI function that is. I have been a Canva user for a long time.
Anyway, I uploaded a picture of Wizzy and asked the Canva AI to animate it with the background of a spaceship. To my surprise, it did a great job. The only problem is that it will only make videos in this format that are 6 seconds long. That’s not much time. And, I couldn’t figure out how to lip-sync Wizzy with the electronic voice I generated with Speechelo . So, I used Filmora 15 to put something together, sort of like Frankenstein. I had to use several 6 second Wizzy videos spliced together. Then I added the audio and a little background noise. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it was a fun project you can see HERE. I learned a few things as well. Looking to make things better. However, research so far suggests that having an Avatar such as Wizzy talking and walking with lip-sync may not yet be possible.
Finally, knowing I had to do a better job of marketing, I bought a product called Hey Gen (after a recommendation from Chat GPT). Hey Gen allows you to put together much better videos. I tried using it manually, but I wasn’t doing well. That’s when I discovered Video Agent, the AI in Hey Gen. I uploaded a bio (that ChatGPT helped me refine) and then told Video Agent what I wanted in terms of a video of my bio. It took several times of my making changes, but I eventually got something that isn’t bad. You can see it HERE.
So, this is a change of pace, letting you know about some of the things I have been doing other than writing. I hope you found it interesting.
Tell me what YOU think.
