On the night of July 31 to August 1 in the social media of the project's authors a unique, 3-minute recording was published. Importantly, it was made available at exactly 11:57 p.m., just after the premiere ended, midnight struck.
“Warsaw Uprising AI”. The plan for the project had existed for a long time
In an interview with RMF FM photographer Mariusz Zając revealed that he had wanted to carry out a similar project for some time. However, its creation was to prove exceptionally difficult. – I had the idea for a film in which I would “run” static photos for a long time, after reading Google's blog about AI, in which I had been ago it was written that they were working on an algorithm that would enable animations. They had already presented an example of a playground and a generated shot that looked as if someone had filmed it by walking around the place. This fired up my imagination about creating a movie from photos – the author added.
The image was created using paid software artificial intelligence. Interestingly, the photographer added a special description to each of the used, colorized photos from the Warsaw Uprising. In the so-called prompt, he described what could have been happening at the time of taking individual photos. Then, AI generated several-second recordings based on them. Combined, they created a 3-minute film.
It wasn't without its difficulties. Photographer comments on working with artificial intelligence
– The problem is not in the animation itself, but in learning how to communicate with this mechanic. AI tends to the so-called hallucination effect, i.e. overinterpreting the image, which often produces strange, scary or funny effects. It should be remembered that each animation is unique and cannot be repeated – said Mariusz Zając. The photographer added that despite many efforts, there were a few errors in the film, but they should not be noticeable. – AI cannot yet cope with people's heads, especially when they are only a fragment of a larger scene. I don't know if this is not due to the fact that the source photos are of poor quality, have many imperfections – he summed up for RMF FM.
What is equally important, working with Mariusz Zając Historical Colors posted a statement on their Facebook page“This film should not and must not be treated as an archival record of events from 1944, because the scenes visible in the film certainly looked different, and the similarity to real events is close to zero. The author is aware of the imperfections of the animation, especially in the area of people's faces. Unfortunately, as of August 1, 2024, there are no better commercial AI tools for animating static images than those used” – it was emphasized in the entry.
It's been 80 years since the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.
The Warsaw Uprising began on August 1, 1944, and was the largest underground action in occupied Europe. The Germans in Warsaw were attacked by a well-trained, though poorly armed and supplied army of 25,000 Home Army soldiers, and crowds of civilians quickly became involved.
According to the order, the Warsaw Uprising was to begin at “W” hour on August 1 – at 5:00 p.m. Due to the change in the original time of the attack and problems with mobilization, in some districts the fighting began earlier.