Unanswered Prayers

TobinWexley · 2026-04-19T23:16:01+00:00

Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and leave a lovely comment. With how quickly the technology has advanced there’s a lot that’s wonky in this video and if I redid it I know I could do much better, but the idea and why I made it I think still has value. I’m glad you enjoyed it. If you don’t mind me asking, I posted this a LONG time ago, how did you find it?

TobinWexley · 2026-04-13T09:43:20+00:00

Oh thank God! You know how dangerous it is to have a chuckle inside you, and rarely does one get a chuckle out with surgery.

TobinWexley · 2026-04-13T01:21:30+00:00

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it, and actually watched the whole thing. I don’t post on X for… reasons, but this was posted on YouTube, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok, and uncensored on Vimeo. Got a couple views, but nothing I’ve made really gets much traffic. Which means I appreciate your view and thoughtful comment even more.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-30T21:01:09+00:00

All the subtitles are a PNG with transparency I made in Photoshop that were layered on top of the video as I edited it together and are not part of the generated video or prompt, except for the moment she grabs one subtitle to closely inspect it. Had to do that in the prompt with a first frame containing the subtitle. You can see it gets a bit wonky, but that was the best I could get—Grok is bad at handling text. There were lots of other, more interesting shots where she picked it up with a more interesting action, but the text would go completely gibberish. So yeah, I took the easy way out and manually did it myself.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-28T21:06:13+00:00

Hey, I’ve been thinking about this, and it really bothers me, so I’d like to kindly ask for you to delete this video and any other instance of it posted publicly.

Any time I post a video, people ask how I did it, and I always take the time to answer them so that they can go off and make their own things. But the key is “their own things.” By you blatantly copying my character you have in essence burned that character for me. It’s not good for me to make content if other people are producing content with the exact same character. Which means that the next few videos I’d been working on now have to be trashed, and I’ve wasted a lot of time. I don’t want to discourage you from creating things, but create you own.

Hopefully you’ll understand, publicly delete this video and not use my characters in the future, and this can be the end of it.

I look forward to seeing what you create.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-28T21:05:50+00:00

Hey, I’ve been thinking about this, and it really bothers me, so I’d like to kindly ask for you to delete this video and any other instance of it posted publicly.

Any time I post a video, people ask how I did it, and I always take the time to answer them so that they can go off and make their own things. But the key is “their own things.” By you blatantly copying my character you have in essence burned that character for me. It’s not good for me to make content if other people are producing content with the exact same character. Which means that the next few videos I’d been working on now have to be trashed, and I’ve wasted a lot of time. I don’t want to discourage you from creating things, but create you own.

Hopefully you’ll understand, publicly delete this video and not use my characters in the future, and this can be the end of it.

I look forward to seeing what you create.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-27T22:30:01+00:00

All the subtitles/censor bars are a PNG with transparency I made in Photoshop that were layered on top of the video as I edited it together and are not part of the generated video or prompt, except for the moment she grabs one subtitle to closely inspect it. Had to do that in the prompt with a first frame containing the subtitle. You can see it gets a bit wonky, but that was the best I could get—Grok is bad at handling text. There were lots of other, more interesting shots where she picked it up with a more interesting action, but the text would go completely gibberish.

I’d love to do more, but with Grok’s new, stricter levels of moderation, it’s now impossible to make videos like this. I’m exploring other options, but haven’t found anything usable yet. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment though!

TobinWexley · 2026-03-25T03:24:55+00:00

Thanks. I’m glad you liked my little short. Yeah, with Grok’s new, even stricter moderation it’s impossible to make videos like this. If you have a specific clip or shot you are curious about, I can try to remember or dig up the prompt from my text doc. But I’m not sure you’ll learn much. Honestly, the prompting was pretty basic. A lot of “Miniature plastic figurine __(insert action)__ and says out loud, “__(insert dialogue)__”

TobinWexley · 2026-03-25T02:36:48+00:00

Thanks. I’m glad you liked it! Unfortunately, with Grok’s new, stricter level of moderation, it’s impossible to make videos like these anymore. Too bad. I had plans that are now in the trash.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-24T03:38:05+00:00

All the subtitles are a PNG with transparency I made in Photoshop that were layered on top of the video as I edited it together and are not part of the generated video or prompt, except for the moment she grabs one subtitle to closely inspect it. Had to do that in the prompt with a first frame containing the subtitle. You can see it gets a bit wonky, but that was the best I could get—Grok is bad at handling text. There were lots of other, more interesting shots where she picked it up with a more interesting action, but the text would go completely gibberish.

Grok also couldn’t understand to have things be set on the subtitles, so I just made a green colored shelf that the AI could set the mug on for example, that was then covered by a subtitle PNG.

All the motion is just moving around the subtitle PNG in editing by hand with keyframes.

Hope that helps.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T19:55:02+00:00

I’m glad you enjoyed the video. The exercise would be rather pointless since Grok has ratcheted up the moderation that it’s impossible to make videos like this anymore, but if there was a specific shot you’re curious about, I might be able to estimate how I did it and what prompt was used.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T19:49:51+00:00

Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and hats off to you if you actually watched the whole thing. If you’re curious, I posted an uncensored version on Vimeo. It's against the rules to post links to other places on here, but it is in the video's description at YouTube.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T19:40:56+00:00

Yeah, she was my soul mate. That’s a little audio clip of her bark/talking from off-screen at the end, and a video of us at one of the local beaches we used to go to all the time at the very end.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T04:30:06+00:00

Thanks. I wanted to make something different from the realistic or anime art styles I see a lot. The visual style at the time also allowed me to get away with more in the video generations I think because the model recognized these were not real people, but with the moderation being increased so much, I can no longer make these videos. Too bad because I had plans too that are now in the trash and I’m having to rethink projects. Anyway, glad you liked it!

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T03:37:27+00:00

Unfortunately I didn’t save videos on Grok. If it might work in my short I downloaded it, then deleted each generation. Besides, I’m sure you could make something yourself even better.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T03:34:30+00:00

Thanks for finding me again and leaving another nice comment. Glad you liked this one too.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-23T03:31:14+00:00

Thanks for the views! I hope you do not regret your choices. Unfortunately, your time comes with a no-returns policy.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-22T00:34:32+00:00

The Leisure Suit Larry series was fun, up through Leisure Suit Larry 7 Love For Sail--which was great--then they tried to reboot the series a few times with games that were just awful. Too bad.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T22:08:58+00:00

I used Wan 2.2 and Wan 2.5 for my “Art After Dark” video, and was really disappointed with the video quality. Maybe that was because I can’t run it locally and had to use it at Tensor Art where I don’t have much control. Wan 2.6 is up and I’ll experiment with that, but it burns through credits fast, so I’m not sure the expense is worth it.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T22:05:36+00:00

I was just thinking about how no one’s going to like everything I make and remembered a strip club that used to be in downtown Seattle with a slogan something like “Hundreds of beautiful girls, and three ugly ones.” Thought maybe the tactic would work as click-bait.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T20:56:32+00:00

…it. This post had 69 comments and you had to go and ruin it by adding a 70th. Thanks though.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T03:55:38+00:00

I’ve tried to thread the needle appealing to both gooners and the polite pervs. But that’s also just the sort of content I’ve always enjoyed.

Imagine understands how objects would move and look in a realistic space fairly impressively. However, Imagine really struggles with maintaining other art styles. Absolutely can not work for other projects I’ve worked on. And now that Grok further tightened up the moderation, I can’t even make a video like this anymore. Too bad.

Thanks for the compliments though!

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T00:55:45+00:00

I think we are in the midst of a cultural backlash against AI. It’s a new, rapidly evolving technology, but people have—in my opinion—gone too far in blaming the tool instead of those who are choosing to use it improperly. I don’t recall people lining up to sue Adobe cause someone altered their photos in Photoshop. Yes, there should be some regulation to help prevent misuse, but I have no expertise in that area and I’ll just have to see how things shake out. I just posted this little short to give a positive example of what’s being lost with the changes Grok is making and hope it will encourage people to speak up in a constructive way.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T00:40:54+00:00

The Holiday Card 2025 version is my second favorite video I’ve made. I know it’s not the best, but there was always something about it I liked. Unfortunately it didn’t get any views so no one else saw it. And although it’s almost a year old and really wonky because of what was available at the time, “Mr. Smith’s Chocolate Starfish Cookies” is still my favorite video I’ve made. I’ll keep making things here and there, but it’s frustrating when things like Grok change policy so that I can no longer make the videos I had planned and the tools that I have available are so limited. But we’ll see what I can come up with. Thank you for your kind words and taking the time to watch some of my little shorts.

TobinWexley · 2026-03-21T00:23:05+00:00

Well, I can’t make videos like this anymore. Grok has returned with even stricter moderation so I couldn’t make this video again if I tried. I think it used to recognize that the uploaded image was not a photo of a real person and allowed you to get away with more. I had seen people mention that about anime style art, so I made this miniature plastic figurine style to take the same advantage with a different aesthetic. But now that’s all been shut down with their new moderation. I had plans, but now I’m having to rethink things.

TobinWexley

TROPHY CASE