THE LAST YEAR GREAT SUCCESS
So, uh... apparently I'm not the only one having a mild panic about AI and the future of creative work.
Last week I posted a video that was basically me rambling about whether we're all about to be replaced by robots. Today it's at 40k+ views and my LinkedIn is having a meltdown.
The Comment That Started Everything
A director mate said: "Feels like this might be the last year we're actually making stuff." That thought wouldn't leave my brain. So I made a video about beautiful bottlenecks, drug-dealing couriers, and doors in walls.
Then you all showed up.
The Comments That Hit Different
Joey Korenman (School of Motion legend) just wrote: "This is outstanding!!!!" Which made me do a little dance, not gonna lie.
Nicole Pappas nailed our biggest fear:
"Clients will start 'prompting' us, expecting fast turnarounds and a million revisions... they can't even communicate to us what they want currently 😂"
And Brian Sykes hit me with philosophy:
"Limitations are still there - just different. We need to FOCUS and find PURPOSE behind unlimited possibilities. Time & attention - these are our limitations."
Even got Joel Pilger one-upping my render times: "A long render in 1994 took 33 days. I went on vacation!"
The Script That Started It All
For those who missed it:
"The Last Year"
Right, hands up if you feel like everything should just slow down a bit?
My director mate dropped this bomb: "Feels like this might be the last year we're actually making stuff. Before AI takes over."
And I'm sat here delivering five variations of an animation - 4K, usable quality - before lunch. What used to take me a week (and some mental breakdowns).
Because in a way, my wildest dreams came true. What I always knew was coming - molding images with our minds, dreaming up worlds and stepping inside them. But if everyone can do it, what are we even for anymore? Living the dream, right?
Have idea, skip struggle, get result. Here's what's doing my head in - Huxley wrote about how most people's lives are either painful or so bloody monotonous that the urge to escape becomes "one of the principal appetites of the soul." Art, religion, festivals, dancing... he called these "Doors in the Wall." Ways out of the everyday.
That's what we do. We build doors.
The AI prompter can generate a thousand doorways, but they all lead nowhere. Like my art school portfolio. Like that Breaking Bad scene where Walt's under the floorboards - fifteen years later, still haunts me. Some human held that shot thirteen seconds too long. That's a door that leads somewhere.
My advertising photographer father-in-law told me something brilliant - back in his day, photos went to the lab at 4pm. Done. No more fiddling. Just dinner with clients.
We had these beautiful bottlenecks. Runners cycling hard drives across town. Like drug dealers but with After Effects projects. Render times that forced you to go for a walk. Or to the pub. Usually the pub. Timelines that said "deliver in 8 weeks."
Those limitations were our friends. They built thinking time into the process.
Now I can iterate forever. Version 97 at 3am. The client can have unlimited revisions because technically, everything's possible.
But here's the thing - we're not making content. We're making doors that actually work. That connect humans. That connect us to nature. To reality.
The machines can generate endless hallways of nothing. But they can't build a door worth walking through.
So maybe it's not the last year. Maybe it's the year we remember why we started building doors in the first place. Maybe we need to build our limitations back in.
Though I must admit, I don't miss three-day renders. I'm nostalgic, not insane.
What's Next?
Making more videos, obviously. You've convinced me we need to keep talking about this stuff. Ideas brewing:
"The Crazyfrogification of Culture" (inspired by my 5-year-old's music taste)
"The Terror of John Titor" (And how we need to be nice to 15-year-old doomscrollers)
"What you don’t know" (about making visible the unknown as artists)
The Real Talk
Tim van der Wiel said: "We overestimate capabilities short term but underestimate them long term."
He's right. This isn't about AI being good or bad. It's about remembering why we do this. As Martin Nebelong put it: "The struggle IS an important part of the creative journey."
To Sjoerd Olislagers who said "Let's educate our clients" - mate, let's start by educating ourselves. We're all figuring this out together.
And to Marko Prpić who said "I'll just continue living in the last year" - honestly? Mood.
Thanks, You Beautiful Weirdos
To everyone who watched, commented, shared, or DMed me their own panic - you've turned my existential crisis into something meaningful.
#beautifulbottlenecks
P.S. - My daughter's still listening to Crazy Frog on repeat. Send help.
