It all started with two of those stupid little AI challenges you see floating around on social media.
The first was to turn yourself into a Tim Burton character. The second was to ask ChatGPT, based on everything it knows about you, to create a mythical character. If you know me, you know I couldn’t resist…
I got bored of the mythical character pretty quickly.
The Tim Burton one, though? That caught my eye.
I liked the outcome enough to keep experimenting. I had ChatGPT help me craft a prompt for Firefly, then used a photo inside Firefly itself—a photo I ironically no longer have.
Later, during a movie night at the school with The Kid, she asked me to make one of her. I chose a photo I’d snapped while she was goofing around with Scotch tape.
We crafted a suitable prompt using the same style, and Firefly produced a very cute picture of her.
But what really caught my eye was the cat.
That got me thinking. I have four cats, each with their own personality, and it would be cool to incorporate them into this.
So I started experimenting.
Of course, there was one little problem.
I’d originally taken my photo directly inside the Firefly app, and I no longer had the reference image. Lesson learned: keep your original photos when you’re experimenting with AI.
Because when I asked Firefly to incorporate my four cats, it did a pretty decent job with them.
Me, on the other hand?
What the fuck happened to me?
Somehow, I’d gone from a bald, bearded gothic character to a deranged-looking mad scientist with wild hair and a pointy moustache.
The cats looked great, though.
So it was back to the drawing board. Another prompt, another iteration, and eventually I managed to get something closer to the character I’d started with.
Through a few iterations, the idea gradually took shape. The characters changed, the details shifted, and the cats became more than background decoration. They started to feel like part of the story.
Eventually, I ended up with what I’d call the Papa Sandemano Rabbit Hole.
Was any of this planned? Absolutely not.
The funny thing is, none of this existed the day before. One stupid challenge, a couple of photographs, a few prompts, and suddenly I’ve got an entire imaginary world to play with.
But that’s the fun of experimenting. Sometimes you start with one challenge, abandon another halfway through, and end up somewhere completely unexpected.
Did I have other things I probably should have been doing? Absolutely.
And sometimes that somewhere involves a Tim Burton-inspired version of yourself, a daughter covered in Scotch tape, and four cats with personalities of their own.
I wonder where this rabbit hole goes next.
Welcome to my world.
Want to Try It Yourself?
If you want to take a crack at creating your own weird little universe, here’s the prompt I used to get things started.
I used ChatGPT to help develop the prompts and Adobe Firefly to generate the images.
Just remember to save your original reference photos. Trust me on that one.
Transform the person in the reference photo into a whimsical, gothic stop-motion animated character inspired by Tim Burton’s distinctive visual aesthetic.Preserve the person’s recognizable facial features, bald head, facial hair, and mischievous expression.Exaggerate the facial proportions with large, expressive eyes, angular cheekbones, a slightly elongated face, and a crooked, knowing smile.Dress the character in a slightly disheveled Victorian black suit with a high collar, pinstriped waistcoat, and eccentric gothic details.Use a pale, desaturated complexion, dramatic shadows, exaggerated silhouettes, and beautifully imperfect handcrafted clay-puppet textures.Place the character in a crooked, atmospheric gothic village with twisted trees, leaning buildings, swirling fog, and a large glowing moon.Color palette: charcoal black, muted purple, dusty blue, bone white, and subtle amber highlights.Cinematic lighting, dark whimsical humour, intricate stop-motion craftsmanship, expressive character design, highly detailed, portrait composition.The result should feel delightfully macabre, eccentric, and charming rather than frightening or grotesque.
Feel free to experiment with it, change things around, and see what happens.
And if you end up looking like a deranged Victorian mad scientist, don’t say I didn’t warn you.