EP 013 · 48 MIN VIDEO AI IS A SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE
Midjourney After Dark: AI Video Wars, Style Code Exploration, Artistic Attributes +, More
The short version
Episode 13 is an unscripted 'Midjourney After Dark' catch-up in which Rory and Drew compare Runway, Luma and Kling for video generation, dig into Midjourney SREF style codes and the community curation page, and revisit old prompts across versions 4 through 6.1. Rory calls arguing Midjourney versus DALL-E 3 on photorealism 'a losing battle,' and the two trace how posting educational Midjourney content on LinkedIn reshaped both of their careers.
Key takeaways
- 01
Runway wins for pure text-to-video, per Rory: dynamic 10-second motion with no image reference needed; Luma is better when you need first-and-last keyframes.
- 02
Skip the free tier before judging a video model: Rory's free Kling generation ran six hours and never finished, so he defaulted back to Runway.
- 03
Build a style-code litmus test: Drew runs any new SREF through the same handful of prompts (Dribbble character, movie poster, album cover, Nike ad) first.
- 04
Aspect ratio can change a style code's whole look, not just its crop: Rory and Drew saw different color palettes and detail levels across 4:5, 2:1 and 1:3.
- 05
Arguing DALL-E 3 beats Midjourney on photorealism is 'a losing battle,' says Rory -- aesthetic preference is fine, but the photorealism claim doesn't hold up.
- 06
Posting 'how I did this' Midjourney breakdowns, not just finished images, is what got Rory and Drew hired for AI training and client work off LinkedIn.
- 07
Don't gatekeep prompts: Rory open-sources his because 'it's gonna be outdated in a month' anyway, and pushes his audience to a newsletter he actually owns.
Receipts · said on the record
“My whole point is artists are gonna be artists. There's like a whole spectrum of how you could do this with video, just like there is with images … but like it's still cool. It still tells a story.”
“That period of time in 2023 … it wasn't hard to get 100,000 impressions on a post that was a carousel … it was just like shooting fish in a barrel, because there weren't a lot of people posting about it.”
“If I'm hiring, which I've hired off LinkedIn a bunch, if I saw someone that was creating and I actually watched their thought process … that's the best way to show people exactly what you can do.”
“People ask me why I give away so much free information on stage on stuff like this. I'm like, because it's going to be outdated in a month, and I'm going to have to rework all of my information.”
“Sometimes you have to say like things that don't make sense … it's like shirt caught on a branch. It's like, you know, clothes caught in a thorn brush or like thorn bush or something like that.”
Chapters
Questions this episode answers
How do Rory and Drew compare Runway, Luma and Kling for AI video in this episode?
Rory says Runway is best for pure text-to-video with strong 10-second motion, while Luma is better when he needs first-and-last keyframes, though he's frustrated Luma caps generations at 5 seconds with no one-click reroll; Kling's free tier took him six hours to generate nothing usable.
What does Fast Hours say about Midjourney versus DALL-E 3?
Rory argues people can prefer DALL-E 3's aesthetic, but claiming it beats Midjourney on photorealism specifically is 'a losing battle' -- he says Midjourney has simply been ahead on that front for several version cycles.
How did posting about Midjourney on LinkedIn change Rory and Drew's careers?
Both say sharing 'how I did it' Midjourney breakdowns, not just finished images, during what Drew calls the platform's 2023 golden age led directly to AI training work, clients and hires; Drew says he hired his best-ever employee after building a rapport through LinkedIn engagement.
What is the Midjourney SREF 'litmus test' Drew describes?
Drew runs any new SREF style code through a fixed rotation of test prompts -- a Dribbble-style character, a movie poster, an album cover, a Nike ad -- to quickly see a code's range before deciding whether to dig deeper.
Does aspect ratio affect a Midjourney style code's look?
Rory and Drew noticed that switching one SREF code between 4:5, 2:1 and 1:3 aspect ratios changed more than the crop, producing different color palettes and detail density, though neither was certain why.
Show notes
In the return of Midjourney After Dark, Drew Brucker and Rory Flynn discuss their experiences with Midjourney and other AI tools, sharing personal anecdotes and insights into the evolving landscape of AI video generation.
They explore the importance of artistic style, the role of content creation in career development, and the value of sharing knowledge openly.
The discussion also touches on navigating LinkedIn for professional growth and the future of AI in creative fields.
