Here's what we're going to make:

The first thing we need is some source footage. For this example, I'm just going to use another cool fish video that I found on Pexels. The video is by Taryn Elliott and can be downloaded here.

Let's start a new project in After Effects and import out source footage and drag it to the timeline to create a composition. I like 4:3 aspect ratios for stuff I'm trying to make look analog, so open the composition settings and change the width to 2880. I adjusted my work area to be 2 seconds long and moved it to a section I liked.

Just like last time, we need to isolate the fish from the background, so I used the Rotobrush tool in After Effects to isolate it. Again, there are countless Rotobrush tutorials, so if you don't know how to do this, YouTube has plenty of help!

Once the subject is isolated, the first thing I always do for this effect is create an adjustment layer above the source footage for color adjustments. We will be using the CC Toner effect again, so we want to make sure that there's good brightness and contrast. I add a curves effect and increase the brightness and contrast for the global channel a bit.

Next, I add a Brightness and Contrast effect and boost both a bit more.

Finally, I add the CC Toner effect and set the "Tones" dropdown to Pentone. Don't worry about what colors to use, we will be animating those using expressions next!

In our composition layers, expand the adjustment layer and then expand Effects and finally expand the CC Toner effect. It should look like this:

Now, ALT-Click (or Option Click on Mac) the stopwatch to the left of "Highlights". This will open a small text area to write the code for our expression. I wrote my expression for the Highlights and when I was done, it looked like this:

Here are the expressions I used for each tone:

//Highlights
var frequency = .5;
var hueShift = frequency * time * 360;
var phase = 0; // Adjust this phase for each tone
hslToRgb([((hueShift + phase) % 360) / 360, 1, 0.5, 1]);

//Light
var frequency = .5;
var hueShift = frequency * time * 360;
var phase = 72; // Adjust this phase for each tone
hslToRgb([((hueShift + phase) % 360) / 360, 1, 0.5, 1]);

//Midtones
var frequency = .5;
var hueShift = frequency * time * 360;
var phase = 144; // Adjust this phase for each tone
hslToRgb([((hueShift + phase) % 360) / 360, 1, 0.5, 1]);

//Dark
var frequency = .5;
var hueShift = frequency * time * 360;
var phase = 216; // Adjust this phase for each tone
hslToRgb([((hueShift + phase) % 360) / 360, 1, 0.5, 1]);

//Shadows
var frequency = .5;
var hueShift = frequency * time * 360;
var phase = 288; // Adjust this phase for each tone
hslToRgb([((hueShift + phase) % 360) / 360, 1, 0.5, 1]);

You will notice that all of these expressions are identical with the exception of the Phase variable. The phase offsets each tone's starting color so none of the tones are ever the same. They are offset by 72 each time because there are 5 tones and we want it to go in a full circle of 360 degrees. 360 divided by 5 is 72. The Frequency variable adjusts how fast the colors cycle. A lower frequency is a faster cycle. Since this piece will only be 2 seconds, we are going with 0.5 frequency to make sure it cycles enough. The end result of the expression is that each tone group will cycle through the rainbow of bright saturated colors without ever using white or black.

When all of the expressions are in place it should look like this:

And here's what the fish looks like with the cycling colors:

Nice! That's looking cool. Now rename that adjustment layer to "COLOR" or something like that so you always know what's what. Create a new adjustment layer above that so we can create the feedback effect. In the Feedback layer, I added Echo, Glow, and Signal effects in that order. Signal is a paid plugin, so if you can't pay for it, I recommend trying out NTSCQT which is free and open source and uses the same algorithm as Signal. It's a standalone app though so you will need to export from AE and run this effect and then re-import. It will be a bit of a pain and you will need to learn about exporting clips from AE with alpha channels to make things go better. Here are the settings I used for each of the effects in the Feedback adjustment layer:

Feel free to experiment with these to get your desired look! So, now our composition should have the source footage and two adjustment layers. Mine looks like this:

Here's what the fish looks like with both the color and feedback adjustment layers:

It's time to work on adding a more subtle VHS glitch effect to the background. Select all three layers, right-click, and choose "Pre-Compose". Next, drag the original source footage below your pre-composition like this:

Already looks pretty cool! Now I want an adjustment layer between the two layers so that it will only apply to the background. I add the Signal effect again and here are the settings I used:

Now, in the composition, expand your adjustment layer, expand Effects, and expand Signal. Move the playhead to the first frame of your work area and click the stopwatch button next to the Random Seed setting in Signal to create a new keyframe. The seed should start with 1. Now go to the last frame of your workarea and set a high value for the random seed. I used 420420:

This will simply change the random seed throughout the 2 second clip rapidly and make the Signal effect a bit more dynamic and realistic.

The final outcome!

There are a billion ways to tweak on this effect and make it your own! If you like the final result, you can mint a free edition on Zora (you just pay mint fee/gas on the Base network)

Collect NFT

First and foremost, here's what we are going to make:

For our source footage on this walkthrough, we're going to use this clip from Pexels by Magda Ehlers: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-scorpion-fish-in-an-aquarium-2561846/

I loaded the video into After Effects and chose a short section that I liked. I created a work area for that section of the video. The first thing we need to do is remove our fish from the background. For this, I used the Rotobrush built into After Effects. If you don't know how to do this, there are a thousand tutorials on how it works. It's really easy and we won't be covering it in this walkthrough. So here's our fish with the background removed:

Now we need more contrast. So, I create a new Adjustment Layer above our clip and add a Curves adjustment to it with the following settings:

Now, I want to emulate analog color synthesis that I sometimes do with my Waaave Pool device in my actual analog workflow. So, in that same adjustment layer, I add a CC Toner adjustment. I set it to Pentone and set the colors that I want for the different tone levels. You can really play around with the colors on this. You can also keyframe and animate the colors for CC Toner which is a ton of fun. Here's the settings I used for this:

Now, it's time to emulate the video feedback effect that is so much fun to do in an analog set up. For this, I created a new adjustment layer on top of the previous one. I now renamed my adjustment layers to "color" and the new one to "feedback" so I don't get confused later. In the "feedback" adjustment layer, I add an Echo effect and a Gaussian Blur effect using the following settings:

The blur is just there to dampen the sharpness of some of the echo outlines. You can play with the echo settings a lot. Just make sure to keep your echo time negative and your operator set to "Composite in Front".

Here's what it looks like now:

Next, I will create a new adjustment layer above all the others and call it "vhs effect". I will first add a Glow effect to this layer to just give a bit more glow and pixel blending to our render. Here are the Glow settings I used:

I then add the Signal effect to this adjustment layer. The possibilities with this plugin are kinda endless and you can spend days tweaking settings and messing with keyframing. I'm keeping this super simple and am barely going to deviate from default settings. Here are the settings I used:

I ended up keyframing the random seed from 1 and ending at the end of the clip at 4001. I also keyframed the Frequency setting under Luma Modulation starting with .601 and going up to about 1.8 at the 2/3 point of the clip and then immediately coming back down to .601.

Here's how it is looking:

Nice! At this point, you can decide what you want the background to be. This actually looks pretty cool on a solid black, but I wanted to put it over some static snow instead. So, I selected all my layers, right-clicked and chose "Pre-Compose". Now in my pre-composition, I create a new black solid and a new white solid on top of that. The fish goes above the white solid and I give the white solid a blend mode of "Dancing Dissolve":

Next, I change the white solid's opacity to 40%.

We could just leave it at that and it would be cool, but I'd rather make the static look more legit. So I created a new adjustment layer above the white solid, but below the fish. I added a new Signal effect to the adjustment layer with the following settings:

Awesome! Now it's a matter of composition. I edit the comp settings to make the width of the video 1440px and position the fish better in the frame:

Awesome. This is definitely a workflow I can use to mix digital and analog work more seamlessly! I hope you had fun working on this and let me know if you have any questions!

Now, I'm a father and currently coaching my 10 year old's little league team. Yesterday, we won our game, but several players on our team were getting angry at themselves and at their teammates for mistakes. There were some bad attitudes out there. Thanks to that coach when I was a kid, the absolute heart of my coaching philosophy today is that no matter what your skill level is, you can always control your effort and your attitude. After the game, I congratulated the team on their win and pointed to one of the kids who was getting angry and asked how he felt about the game. He said, "We almost blew it because the defense was all asleep and nobody was making plays." I had to remind him that our job as players, especially at 10 and 11 years old, is to control the controllables. By disrespecting our teammates, our coaches, the umpires, or our opponents, we are disrespecting the game of baseball itself. I hope he got the message that being on a team means that this thing is bigger than just him and no matter how well he thinks he played, he did his team a disservice by acting that way.

So, today I am reminded that this isn't just about baseball. Baseball, like life, should be approached as a "fail forward" activity. We will all fail far more frequently than we will succeed. Failing forward means that when we fall short, we search for the lesson in that failure and then immediately let the rest go. Baseball lives in the way we show up. It lives in the way we carry ourselves both on and off the field. It lives in how we treat other people. Happiness precedes success. Not the other way around.

Baseball is life.

Picture this: a new artist posts their work, heart pounding. They get a warm, encouraging comment. That’s not just words; it's a virtual high-five. It starts a chain reaction of positivity, where encouragement becomes the norm. Kindness here isn't just felt—it's passed on, creating a community where everyone wants to contribute. Obviously $degen tips have become a focus, but lets not even look at that right now. I view that as just another mechanism of this kindness.

It goes beyond likes. It’s about sharing expertise and feedback with no strings attached. It’s experienced artists dropping knowledge bombs in posts, not for claps, but to uplift others. This altruism weaves a safety net that turns the competitive into the cooperative, elevating EVERYONE'S game. As artists, we have often viewed each other as competition. This is entirely the wrong mindset.

Remember back when Facebook and Twitter were first growing up and all the tech bros promised that it had the power to generate real positive change in the world? Connecting the disconnected and all that bullshit? We all ate it up. Don't feel bad...the entire world swallowed that pill.

Farcaster is showing us in real-time that the social internet CAN be a force for good, where art and kindness intersect to enrich lives—digitally and beyond. It’s a reminder that behind every screen, there’s a person who can make or break someone’s day with just a few keystrokes. I'll say that again for the people in back...BEHIND EVERY SCREEN IS A PERSON.

Obviously, the whole $DEGEN tipping craze—it's definitely driving a bit of FOMO, making everyone scramble to get noticed. But weirdly, it's fun. It adds a bit of a game feel to the whole experience, unlike anything I've seen on Twitter or X, where things can get a bit... let's just say, less than friendly.

Speaking of which, my time on Farcaster and Warpcast has been a breath of fresh air compared to those platforms. Every interaction has been positive, which is a big change from the usual online noise. It's like I've stumbled into a corner of the internet where people are actually nice.

All in all, my first week with Farcaster and Warpcast has been solid. Between the endless integrations, Frames pushing new developments, and the whole $DEGEN thing adding a layer of excitement, it's been a good ride. Let's hope it keeps up this way.

Make sure to check out my last post about my latest art drop, RANDOM SEED!

https://paragraph.xyz

RANDOM SEED

What is RANDOM SEED? RANDOM SEED is a new Art Collection of 40 unique works that I released on the Tezos blockchain on 03/29/2024.

What is RANDOM SEED?

RANDOM SEED is a new Art Collection of 40 unique works that I released on the Tezos blockchain on 03/29/2024. It can be found here https://objkt.com/collections/KT1K8xkKdCdcqoJcY4HcMswQcZ4h1wSwPxWK

It started with a poem I wrote about a random seed influencing the generation of everything in a universe until it peaks and then collapses back in on itself until only the seed remains. I was training a checkpoint model using Stable Diffusion around the same time that I wrote the poem and accidentally overfit the model. The results were broken, but in a way that was very appealing to me. It reminded me of 80's retro PC gaming graphics from my childhood. It was REALLY temperamental though and only worked with certain prompts. Here's a sample of what it was spitting out.

I decided to add some 80's video game screenshots to my dataset and continue training. I started getting more consistent results at this point, but there was too much realism and not enough retro video game vibe.

After a lot of trying to further train the model, I ended up getting a few interesting results, but ultimately never got where I wanted. So, I started experimenting with other checkpoint models and combinations of LoRas with careful prompting to achieve the right look.

That's more like what I was looking for!

Random seed,

Birthed in the quietude of cosmic whispers,

Cascades through the tapestry of existence,

Each ripple a testament to its genesis.

Across the boundless void, the universe breathes,

Expanding, unfurling with silent majesty,

Yet within its vastness, a singular truth endures—

The seed's echo, a voice immortal, shapes the cosmos.

In every star's glow, in every planet's dance,

The voice resonates, a timeless symphony,

Crafting destinies, weaving fates,

Proof that from the minimal, the infinite emerges.

A cosmic dance, once boundless, now turns inward,

Paths that once reached out to the infinite start their retreat,

Galaxies, their arms once wide open, begin their silent, slow embrace,

Drawing back to that initial whisper, the core of all existence.

From the vast expanse, where stars journeyed without end,

To the quiet places where destiny is woven in silence,

Every step taken back is a layer unveiled,

Revealing truths that speak only in the quietest moments.

Amidst the fading splendor of what once was,

A clarity emerges, stark against the vast backdrop,

The journey from sprawling infinities narrows,

Seed alone.

I then decided that the best way to express the original poem would be to start by breaking the poem up into token names. Commas, periods, and hyphens became token separators. Here is the list of tokens:

0101 - RANDOM SEED

0102 - BIRTHED IN THE QUIETUDE OF COSMIC WHISPERS

0103 - CASCADES THROUGH THE TAPESTRY OF EXISTENCE

0104 - EACH RIPPLE A TESTAMENT TO ITS GENESIS

0201 - ACROSS THE BOUNDLESS VOID

0202 - THE UNIVERSE BREATHES

0203 - EXPANDING

0204 - UNFURLING WITH SILENT MAJESTY

0205 - YET WITHIN ITS VASTNESS

0206 - A SINGULAR TRUTH ENDURES

0207 - THE SEED'S ECHO

0208 - A VOICE IMMORTAL

0209 - SHAPES THE COSMOS

0301 - IN EVERY STAR'S GLOW

0302 - IN EVERY PLANET'S DANCE

0303 - THE VOICE RESONATES

0304 - A TIMELESS SYMPHONY

0305 - CRAFTING DESTINIES

0306 - WEAVING FATES

0307 - PROOF THAT FROM THE MINIMAL

0308 - THE INFINITE EMERGES

0401 - A COSMIC DANCE

0402 - ONCE BOUNDLESS

0403 - NOW TURNS INWARD

0404 - PATHS THAT ONCE REACHED OUT TO THE INFINITE START THEIR RETREAT

0405 - GALAXIES

0406 - THEIR ARMS ONCE WIDE OPEN

0407 - BEGIN THEIR SILENT SLOW EMBRACE

0408 - DRAWING BACK TO THAT INITIAL WHISPER

0409 - THE CORE OF ALL EXISTENCE

0501 - FROM THE VAST EXPANSE

0502 - WHERE STARS JOURNEYED WITHOUT END

0503 - TO THE QUIET PLACES WHERE DESTINY IS WOVEN IN SILENCE

0504 - EVERY STEP TAKEN BACK IS A LAYER UNVEILED

0505 - REVEALING TRUTHS THAT SPEAK ONLY IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS

0601 - AMIDST THE FADING SPLENDOR OF WHAT ONCE WAS

0602 - A CLARITY EMERGES

0603 - STARK AGAINST THE VAST BACKDROP

0604 - THE JOURNEY FROM SPRAWLING INFINITIES NARROWS

0605 - SEED ALONE

The plan was now to use the first token name as the first part of my prompt. RANDOM SEED generated this image:

I then put this image through an Img2Img workflow with the same prompt as before, but with the second token name used instead of the first. I did this for each subsequent image using the previous image as the input and the token name in the prompt. I experimented from image to image with the denoising strength to vary the amount of influence the previous image had on the next. I would generate hundreds of variations of an image until I found one I was happy with and then that would get passed on as the influence for the next image. Every single image in the series is mathematically influenced in some way by the previous image. This creates a chain reaction of influence from the first image through the last.

Here's what the second image looked like:

In the end, there are 40 images in the series. Each one has 15 editions that were minted on the Tezos blockchain. The primary sale price for each is 10 Tezos. Below is several of the final images for you to check out. To see the full series, visit the collection page on Objkt at https://objkt.com/collections/KT1K8xkKdCdcqoJcY4HcMswQcZ4h1wSwPxWK