Out of City is the first Macedonian AI animated music video, the work of artist and musician Aleksandar Peshevski. It took Aleksandar three days to make the video, using the Runway AI and Movavi video editor tools.
Why using AI? Apart from his curiosity, Aleksandar was also working on a tight budget. In Macedonia, full production of a music video might set you back several thousand euros. With AI though, making a video costs far less.
“You save both time and money, not only in terms of casting characters and finding proper locations, but also in terms of having the adequate equipment for recording a music video. However, I’d like to make myself clear that I am also doing this out of curiosity, not just due to budgetary limitations.” says Aleksandar, who recently released his album Blank Page. Out of City is one of the eight songs featured in the album.
Is this bad or good news for artists? Aleksandar is adamant that his creativity will never be replaced by artificial intelligence.
“My experience and creativity cannot be replaced by AI. If used correctly, AI can only be a tool for the whole process. Photoshop has its own functionalities, and, in a way, the same can be said for AI. It is up to the designer to either accept the generated design as a final low-effort product or to use it in a partial capacity” he says.
Regarding the process itself, he says that although it may seem easy at first glance, it still takes a lot of effort to achieve the desired result and appearance.
“Research aside, it took me three days to make this video from a pool of 1,000 generated photos and text-based videos. It’s not quite as simple as advertised. My issue is that regardless of how much I describe the needed scenes, I don’t know what I’m looking for until I actually see it!” explains Aleksandar.
In addition, there are the anomalies of the software itself. AI tools, although undeniably helpful, are far from perfect and there is a lot of room for improvement.
“You can notice many anomalies in the video. Roughly speaking, 40% of the generated material is exactly how I requested it from the software, while 30% was accepted as a passable option. The rest are anomalies that are simply not worth the additional effort, at least, not without looking for alternatives,” emphasizes Aleksandar, adding that a music video with live actors and human energy remains irreplaceable.
