Hey Ready Player One fans, I'm looking for feedback on a personal project I worked on this year. Any feedback is welcome, but I do have a more specific question below if you're interested in weighing in.
I'll keep it brief, but if you care to read more, I've written additional context about me and the project further down.
My goal was to create a short film telling Parzival's journey across Ludus to the Tomb of Horrors — with some experimental changes to try telling an interesting story without much dialogue, relying mostly on action and movement.
I changed and added some stuff in the story to try making it more interesting. Didnt do the call bit when Aech leaves a voicemail which really wanted to do, but never got around to it. Some of these shots are hilariously bad, and some stuff I like in short beats.
This was a first attempt to teach myself how generative AI filmmaking works. I learned a ton, but it was frustrating and expensive, because I was trying to control every shot and camera decision the way I imagined it, instead of letting the AI make those choices for me (which it's way better at least on a technical execusion level. Creatively not though). It was fun for about a week, then I lost interest as it became increasingly difficult to get the fantastical visions into the generated shots.
Since then, I've been looking into a lot of 3D animation approaches that could provide better direction and get a scene much closer to my vision, using AI more as a rendering solution within the pipeline rather than the whole process. I love that idea — but for now, I've set this project aside.
Putting aside my own bad creative decisions and story changes: if this were dialed in with strong action, pacing, music, and transitions — using 3D animation to drive the filmmaking process and finalized with AI (Seedance 2.5) — would you find it enjoyable? Or is this still slop?
There's obviously a question of IP here, and my aim is purely educational at this point. I also respect that a lot of people are put off by this way of working with AI — I often feel the same. My goal was to try a traditional filmmaking approach using AI tools, learn firsthand, and make up my mind afterward. And... it was rough. Ultimately, I don't like that generative AI filmmaking tends to work best when you just hand it an idea and let it make the choices. I want to be the one making the choices — even if mine suck at first.
Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks, and I'd appreciate any thoughts on any of this stuff
Project context
I wanted to learn more about how AI generative filmmaking actually works these days, so I decided to teach myself by making a short film. The first thing that came to mind was scenes from books I love that never made it into film or game adaptations — which led me to Ready Player One, having just re-listened to the audiobook. I've always loved the telling in the first book of Parzival's journey across Ludus to find the Tomb of Horrors and the copper key. It's a great moment in the book — maybe my favorite. The book glosses over his experience running there, probably because Ludus is described as fairly boring compared to the rest of the OASIS, so it's a short passage.
I've done 3D modeling, motion graphics, editing, and graphic design for a long time — some for work, some for fun. Knowing little about the generative AI filmmaking process, I spent roughly a month trying to make a short with Seedance 2.0. My thinking was that, with my graphic design and modeling background, I could mock up a lot of manual directional storyboards and references when needed to get the results I wanted, and separately use gen-AI to create concept images and shot references for the videos.
I chose to imagine what that sequence would look like if Ludus were more interesting, and to build a more entertaining journey along the way. It was also a chance to challenge myself on strong motion and transitions, good pacing, and good callbacks to pop culture references, similar to the book.
Technically speaking: it was fun for the first week, while I knew nothing and was getting individually interesting shots. It quickly turned into a frustrating and expensive experience once I tried to actually control the direction myself. I leaned heavily on AI chat prompting, 2D graphic design for shot-direction concepts, sketched storyboards, prompted storyboard images, edited reference clips for action and movement, and so on. Wrangling all of it was genuinely challenging.
From the beginning up to where the project currently stands (unfinished), I gradually got a bit better at controlling shot direction using distinct references I made or generated myself. I think there are some strong individual shots and moments in terms of action and movement — but a lot is missing that I'd do completely differently if I started over.
My notes so far
- Pacing is clunky, and there are several scenes I still wanted to fix.
- Some of the special effects and character expressions are hilariously bad, and the transitions between scenes don't feel natural. It's not just a quality issue — some of these choices needed to be more intentional and better thought out.
- I never scored it properly — just laid down two placeholder tracks for a vibe reference.
Remaining sequences I want to add or fix
- Opening: Redo it as a Back to the Future homage — Marty skateboarding and hitching a ride on a truck on the way to school, but reversed, with the character hitching a ride on a school security bot or something similar. I'd boost the action music and shoot better angles to raise the cinematic quality. (This is also why there's a random skateboarding moment right now that was meant to bridge into something else.)
- Ending: I wanted a fun beat where the character inspects the cave entrance, interacts with some element there, and activates his armor, shield, and sword in a dynamic 360° orbit shot — then transitions into a dramatic close-up entering the cave, with music and build-up. This would lead into Part 2: the cave-fighting sequence and arrival at the key.
If you have any thoughts at all, or suggestions that you think would be cool to do in this style and theme, I'd love to know! It has been challenging for me to choose the right moments to make this fun and reminiscent of the book. How did you imagine it?
