Fun With Text-to-Video AI
January 23, 2024—It’s walk the talk time.
One of my 2024 goals is to diversify my content offerings into video. I’m not a trained video producer, so I used a text-to-video AI tool to make a video based on one of my posts from last week.
I used Aug X Labs’ free Augie tool to make my video. It took about 15 minutes to turn the post into a script (mostly just text edits - the original post used the term “Gen Zer” several times, but Augie’s voiceover read it too literally, saying “gen zer”). Then, it took about 45 minutes to review the clips Augie chose and look for new ones on Augie's platform if they didn't fit right. About 3/4 of the clips weren't the right fit initially, so I had a lot of work to do. I also uploaded a couple images from my laptop when Augie didn't have one I liked.
The end result? IMO it's quirky and it makes me smile. It's also definitely not perfect. I could have spent more time finding the right clips and figuring out when I actually needed them and when I didn't. The end product also feels a bit choppy. And I didn't bother to include any marketing messaging about me - I'll save that for the next one.
This experiment showed me that the hurdle to creating a video isn’t all that high once you get started. I don’t think tools like these will replace the highly talented artists who publish really good videos, but I think they will deliver more-than-passable options for those who don’t regularly create videos.
