Why AI?

(If you see anyone wondering why, feel free to share this post with them as my reasoning.)

With understanding that there are concerns with using AI for things, here’s my reasoning for using it for the music/anime series happening.

One of the main reasons: I want this series to remain free, and free for individual to split off and make on their own if they wanted, and never behind a paywall.

Many of you have expressed that this series is your comfort series. It’s reread and enjoyed in hard times. I get that a lot. I had at times been stressed that I wasn’t doing enough and helping people enough, especially after hard times like during Covid and in the last year, too. Writing fiction like this often feels like it’s not really helping people and I should be doing something else ‘more productive’.

But then you all come in and say you’re rereading when times are hard. And it makes me remember everyone needs that escape sometimes when things aren’t going well.

So I do want to make this into an anime. And I want to make it free and widely available. And I can’t ask artists and animators to work for free. I couldn’t afford the team. A company will want the profits, will likely cut corners, characters and scenes, etc. We’d get lucky to get a first season, maybe two or three. Probably unlikely to expect to get the whole series done. And then we’d be locked in and not allowed to do any more for a while. We’d get what we were given.

However, things have changed, and the gates have been broken open.

We do not have to wait for Hollywood shareholders to grant us permission anymore.

Doing an anime with AI allows me to make it free forever on YouTube, lets you all download and repost wherever you’d like, make your own versions if you don’t like my version, etc. It also allows me to make scenes how I envision and without sacrificing for saving money or for anyone else’s profit margins. You see the actual locations. You see what I see. There’s no one else.

It is the same with the music. With the AI, I am absolutely free to allow you all to use the music how you like, the lyrics, etc. I can even share their voices for you to use on your own songs. I couldn’t do it on my own. A company would want their royalties and shares. They would want money from you. I want to bypass that as much as possible.

It will never be Ghibli Studio quality. I will accept this. It’s the Ikea factory of anime making and me doing the best I can with customizations. I understand the William Morris sort of ethical art and craft 19th century philosophical debate on it, and I’m willing to talk about it but to make this story as accessible as possible, we do what we can with what we have where we are.

I won’t ask for direct funding, I’m willing to put what I earn toward credits to make it happen. I may in the future make ‘fancy editions’ of the book series with fancy covers and sprayed edges as a fundraiser for more credits. If the YouTube channel ever gets enough to earn money, I’ll just put it back into credits. (It’s not even monetized now, I never did enough with it before to get the status.) If there’s enough earned, I can get a better graphics card to make all the images and video in house without using big companies if that is an issue. As of now, I’m limited.

But unless some anime team comes along and can offer something special that works with this (and I doubt it because they’ll want a profit and this show wouldn’t be the same), I’ll keep tinkering to make the comfort series come to life, as best as I can. Because of what I am using though, I will never ask you to pay for it. If this is a fair trade, I’m happy to put in the work myself and never ask a dime. And for those interested, I’ll even show you how to do it yourself to make your own versions come to life.

And it just fits with me. I wrote the books, made my own covers and images for ads, made other videos in the past. I occasionally worked with other artists (some past covers, some videos, the coloring book), but I’ve built a lot on my own and understand the work. I just have a feeling unless I do this alone, it’ll never get done. So I’m making the choice and this is the only way while I still continue to write the books, too.

For the first time (ever?) an author can make a series based on their own ideas in their heads. I’m just working on mine and even if it’s just the same 20 people looking at it, I’ll still tinker with it because it is a lot of fun to put together.

And I’m so excited about it. There is so much to show you all. Every little corner I could never express on the page.

Thanks for your understanding.