Brief Overview

Faster version:

A faster version

Slower version:

A slower version

Prompts and Images

Context

All images are outpaintings and edits of ten horse-in-motion photos (from one (now public domain) cabinet card) by Eadweard Muybridge. Please see for history and original cabinet card images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_in_Motion. For most generations, most of the image was penciled out save for the horses legs bordered with a small amount of grey from the original. In some cases, part of the neck and head were kept in to encourage the horse to face the right way. In at least three cases (car emblem, pegasus, racehorse), the image had to be fed in reflected horizontally in order to (after reversing the reflection) end up with a rightward facing horse. In some cases, the best generations were edited once again to clean up glaring issues or uninteresting swaths of image. To sum up, these comments are general, and the specific workflow to arrive at these twelve images mainly involved outpainting, but was not standardized or constrained. In one case, (carousel) human editing after outpainting was done (adding a grey rectangle to extend the background color), and human discretion to make some generations greyscale (car logo, racehorse, cigarette carton) was exercised to improve the continuity of the animated gif.

vintage photograph of a Ford mustang grille emblem on the front of a red muscle car

car logo —

carousel —

a product photograph of a pack of “Swashbuckle” cigarettes, with a horse and cowboy depicted on the front, red lettering, 1962

cigarettes —

a cabinet card of a unicorn, in the style of Scottish Heraldry

heraldry —

dramatic, triumphant oil painting of a horse in the style of Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David

oil —

a nostalgic vintage photograph of a child’s wooden rocking horse in a playroom, technicolor

rocking —

fantasy —

illustration of zebra galloping through a savannah by john james audubon, in the style of Birds of America

zebra —

an old book illustration of the headless horseman riding a horse by F.O.C. Darley

headless —

award-winning, high quality technicolor photograph of Chestnut Stallion, a legendary racehorse crossing the finish line at the Kentucky Derby, 1973

racehorse —