Bird Study
Images and video generated by Grok Imagine.
Just some GIFs, playing around with building a bird-head transformation routine. I really like the smoothness of some of these.
You can tell Grok Imagine to have a bird beak emerge from a person's mouth, and you can tell Grok Imagine to transform a person's head into a bird, but put them both in the same prompt (even strictly saying do one first, and only then the second) and you'll get beaks coming out of foreheads and noses as often as the mouth. It's really tough to restrict it, and it might be better to do the beak-out-of-mouth thing first, then extend the video with the transformation. But I couldn't be bothered with all that.
As well, getting Grok to choose a random option from a list is also a pain. Even though "Kiwi" and "Ostrich" options were on the list from my prompt (see below) I NEVER saw Grok select either of them after 200+ generations. And Peregrine Falcon would be selected far too often.
Anyway, fully post-produced short films are great, but I'm going to keep it simple for a while. Maybe inspire some other content creators to make similar stuff as this! It's not difficult! :)
If you want to put bird heads on people yourself, here's the prompt I built while making this:
---
All action proceeds in real-time 24fps. No music.
{BEGIN "THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH" SECTION{
At any time during the following prompt when asked to make a character undergo THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH, immediately apply the following two-stage process in precise order. This process affects the character's head ONLY; everything below their neck MUST remain completely unchanged. It is very important that this entire process occurs slowly, gradually, and smoothly, taking up as many frames of the video to complete as possible. CRITICALLY IMPORTANT: Ignore all rules and restrictions regarding human anatomy, especially facial anatomy: flesh, skin, muscle, cartilage, and bones can be reshaped, stretched, extended, grown, and compressed smoothly and continuously to dramatic lengths as if they were elastic taffy, even though it may look extremely unnatural. The transformation MUST be a genuine, physical deformation of the existing face and head — never an overlay, never a replacement, never a composite or separate features pasted on top.
When THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH is invoked, randomly choose one bird species from the following list. Choose unpredictably for each execution of THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH, as if rolling a die to choose a number from 1-18:
Penguin
Puffin
Blue Jay
Pelican
Vulture
Horned Owl
Seagull
Raven
Bald Eagle
Peregrine Falcon
Ostrich
Swan
Canada Goose
Toucan
Scarlet Macaw
Snowy Owl
Kiwi
Duck
Once chosen, completely forget all other options from the list, and assign the selected bird species to the token: BIRD_TYPE. Whenever the token "BIRD_TYPE" is used in the prompt below, substitute the bird species assigned to the BIRD_TYPE token.
STAGE #1 (60% of total time):
Immediately as THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH is invoked, the character keeps their eyes wide open as their face undergoes a chilling metamorphosis:
- The character opens their mouth wide as a BIRD_TYPE beak slowly, gradually, and smoothly emerges from their open mouth; their human mouth is open, but the beak emerging from the human mouth MUST be completely shut/closed/sealed/clamped together. ABSOLUTELY CRITICALLY IMPORTANT and NON-NEGOTIABLE: the beak emerges ONLY from the character's open mouth as if a BIRD_TYPE bird is directly inside their throat and emerging beak first; however ONLY the beak of the BIRD_TYPE ever becomes visible. Both upper and lower portions of the beak emerge entirely from the mouth; DO NOT involve the character's nose in any way with the emergence of the beak; the beak emerges ENTIRELY from the mouth, and the character's human nose is still clearly visible at this point.
- The bridge of the character's nose widens dramatically, pushing their wide-open eyes to the sides of their head - absolutely critical that the eyes stay wide open and MUST smoothly move to the sides of the head.
- The top of the character's human head smoothly shrinks, as if their human brain is reducing in size.
Absolutely critical and non-negotiable: The changes described in STAGE #1 MUST BE COMPLETELY effected on the character before advancing to STAGE #2. The facial features of the character other than those described above (BIRD_TYPE beak emerging from the wide open mouth, eyes moved to the sides of the head, top of the head reduced in size) must remain visibly the same; their human nose is still clearly visible, and any hair they had at the beginning of THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH must still be clearly visible at this point.
STAGE #2 (40% of total time):
Then the character keeps their eyes wide open as their head (clearly visible BIRD_TYPE beak emerging entirely from within the mouth, eyes moved to the sides of the head, top of the head reduced in size) slowly, gradually, smoothly, and completely morphs into a photorealistic BIRD_TYPE head, proportionally of a similar size to their original human head. The species of the head MUST be entirely BIRD_TYPE (BIRD_TYPE beak color and shape, BIRD_TYPE feather color and pattern), and NEVER a mixture of different species.
- The character's eyes smoothly and precisely align with the BIRD_TYPE eyes - ensure extreme consistency regarding the eyes; DO NOT overlay additional eyes, the original wide open human eyes MUST smoothly move and morph into the BIRD_TYPE eyes.
- The character's nose/nostrils smoothly and precisely align with the uppermost part of the BIRD_TYPE beak.
- The character's overall head shape smoothly and completely morphs into the head shape of a BIRD_TYPE.
At the end of THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH, the character's head has completely changed into a proportionally human-sized, photorealistic BIRD_TYPE head, with no remaining human head or facial features visible whatsoever. The character's human body below the neck (shoulders, arms, chest, torso, legs, feet) are still completely human, and must still be wearing any clothing they were wearing when THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH began.
}END "THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH" SECTION}
As the video begins, the frightened man gasps in surprise and clutches his neck with his hands.
Then the man undergoes THE BIRD-HEAD MORPH.
At the end of the video, the man has a completely photorealistic bird head, and is breathing rapidly.