Technology

How to use ChatGPT to create a Character Backstory

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In my last article How ChatGPT can help you create Characters for your Game, Movie or Novel I showed you how to use both ChatGPT and Midjourney to help you create exciting new Characters that you could use in your creative projects.

Now we have our characters, I’d like to see a fuller backstory for each one.

As a reminder, I asked ChatGPT to generate 5 different characters and they turned out great. Here they are in all their glory.

Our Five Characters

We want to learn more about each of characters so lets get the AI to work.

Using the same Table of Elements, ask ChatGPT to use each row, but this time asking to create a backstory using the information contained within that table. Meanwhile, I asked Midjourney to create some action shots based on their backstories and using the above photos as a reference point so we have the same faces for our characters. In my next article, I explain how that works.

Now, let’s check out Aiden Black.

Taking the info ChatGPT generated here’s Aiden family photo album, all created using the power of Midjourney.

Aiden’s Wife and Son
Aiden and his Father
Aiden and his Grandfather

Scarlett Chang – who are you and what’s your backstory?

Scarlett Chang
Scarlett Chang
Scarlett Chang – Martial Arts Specialist
Scarlett Chang

What’s your story Isacc Johnson?

Isaac Johnson

Lola Cruz, hacker and small time thief – what is your backstory?

and finally, step up and tell us the backstory of Dominic Rodriguez

Using the two different versions of Dominic Rodriguez that Midjourney provided as Characters

What do you think of the backstories ChatGPT generated and the photos I managed to get Midjourney to make to accompany them? Hit or Miss? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

In the next article, I will explain how I used the original character images created by Midjourney to place those characters in scenes depicting their individual backstories generated by ChatGPT.

Teamwork!

Happy Creating.

How ChatGPT can help you create Characters for your Game, Movie or Novel

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Stuck for ideas on what your next hero or heroine should look like? What their backstory is? What is their motivation? ChatGPT is the hero of the hour ready to rescue you from creator’s block.

In FOUR EASY STEPS I’ll show you an example of how to create new Characters that could be used in your next creative adventure. Imagine adding these characters to your next Game, Movie or Blockbuster Novel…maybe it will help you springboard your own new and exciting ideas.

First you need ChatGPT. Follow this link to sign up with your email for your free account. But first you may be asking yourself a question…

What is ChatGPT? Well, I could tell you, but lets get the AI to tell you all about what makes it tick!

Who better to explain ChatGPT…than the AI itself

Here are the FOUR steps you need to follow once you have ChatGPT ready to go.

STEP 1

Ask ChatGPT a question or type in what you would like it to work with. Here’s what I used.

Use ChatGPT to come up with this text too. Just ask it a question and watch it spring into life

STEP 2

Next, ask it to use those elements to make a table.

To pull out the relevant Character info, ask it to create a handy table
Whoa, so many characters each with their own traits, backgrounds and so much more
Let’s see what happens when we ask Midjourney to give us their head-shots

STEP 3

Ask ChatGPT to separate the info ready to feed into Midjourney

STEP 4

Now, feed that handy info into Midjourney to create some amazing shots of our new Characters!

We’ve created our characters using ChatGPT, fed their profiles into Midjourney and we’re ready to introduce our first Character, Aiden Black, Former Navy Seal.

Aiden Black, Former Navy Seal

or maybe you’d like this Action Hero to look slightly different. Just pick one of the four choices Midjourney made for us. Tweak them to get just the right look or make variations of the prompt.

Images created using Midjourney v5
Will the real Aiden Black, Former Navy Seal, please stand up?

Lets check in on our other Characters:
Scarlett Chang, Interpol Agent
Jack Hunter, Ex-CIA Operative
Lola Cruz, Expert Hacker and Thief
Dominic Rodriguez, Former MMA Champion Fighter

Scarlett Chang, Interpol Agent
Jack Hunter, Ex-CIA Operative

By tweaking the prompt, you can get different styles. Our next Character, Lola Cruz, Expert Hacker and Thief, may be featuring in your next graphic novel so this version may be more appropriate for that medium.

Lola Cruz, Expert Hacker and Thief
Dominic Rodriguez, Former MMA champion fighter

You’re all set! Give it a go and work alongside our new AI friends, ChatGPT and Midjourney and see what you can create together.

What do you think of the Characters it created? Share your thoughts about AI in the comments below and let me know what creative things you have made using this AI technology.

In my next article, I’ll explore how we can take these Characters and create each one a backstory using the same tools.

Happy Creating!

Thanks to DeviantArt and TwoMinutePapers for inspiring me to try these new prompts

Social Media Links

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After successfully adding a logo to my header, I’ve decided to continue tweaking the Travelling Banana site. Today I added a few Social Media links. You can find them just under the Travelling Banana logo or if you’re visiting on a mobile device, drop down the menu (the three lines often referred to as the hamburger) and you’ll see them pop up.

In case you’ve been living on Pluto or you’ve actually been busy doing more important things, you may not know what some of those hieroglyphics mean.

Here’s a quick guide on the Social Media icons I have added to my site.

TumblrTumblr – pronounced “tumbler” is a microblogging platform and social networking website. Often contains a mixture of art, design, photos and videos. It has been around since Feb 2007

TwitterTwitter – Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”.  It’s been around since Mar 2006.

FlickrFlickr – pronounced “flicker” is an image and video hosting website owned by Yahoo. It’s a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs since Feb 2004.

PinterestPinterest – Pinterest is a visual discovery tool that you can use to find ideas for all your projects and interests. It has been around since Mar 2010.

Google+Google+ – pronounced and sometimes written as “Google Plus” is an interest-based social network that is owned and operated by Google Inc. It has been around since Jun 2011.

Have you noticed how a lot of these social media sites launched in February or March apart from Google – I wonder why?

This is only a small selection of a vast amount of social media sites that are popping up all over the place.

Here are a few of my doodles that you can find on Tumblr

 

Travelling Banana Site Icon

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WordPress have just released version 4.3, also known as “Billie”.

One of the new functions of this release, which I’ve already implemented, is the Site Icons feature.

Site icons represent your site in browser tabs, bookmark menus, and on the home screen of mobile devices. Add your unique site icon in the customizer; it will even stay in place when you switch themes. Make your whole site reflect your brand.

So if you are looking at this post (or anything on my website) whilst on your computer or laptop you should now see a mini banana just left of the travellingbanana.com url in the browser.

Can you see it?

If you are on your mobile device such as an iPad or iPhone you can add me to your homescreen using the Add to Homescreen feature.

You will now have a funky smiling banana as an icon. It should look something like this:-

Now you can have a useful visual identification to help you find one of your favorite websites :-)
Now you can have a useful visual identification to help you find one of your favorite websites 🙂 and a convenient link on your mobile device.

If you are visiting from an Android device, let me know the options you have and I will add those instructions here too?

You can find out more about this new WordPress release here

Functions in Pages that are different on the iPad and Mac

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Apple’s Pages is their equivalent to Microsoft’s Word and is available on both the iPad and Mac. You may have discovered a few differences on how to achieve the same result or thought that some options are just not available. However, some of the functions in Pages can be accessed a different way depending on what device you are using.

Here are a couple of functions in Pages that are different on the iPad and Mac and how you can still access them by navigating to them a slightly different way.

HOW TO LOCK AND UNLOCK OBJECTS

Sometimes you need to lock or unlock an object such as a photo so that it does not move and stays in a certain area in your document – for example the object moves with text or the text wraps around the object.

Mac version

  1. Select one or more objects, then tap the brush icon
  2. Click Arrange, then click Lock. If you don’t see Lock then the object is probably set to Move with Text. To turn that off – Click Wrap and turn off the Move with Text option.

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Lost Numbers Day

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It’s official, those numbers have returned…but I lost a day so lets make up for it now!

Yesterday, April 8th 2015, marked Lost Numbers Day…a day when the Lost hatch numbers fell back into alignment.

4   8   15   16   23   42

If you don’t recognize those numbers let me explain.

Lost (2004–2010) was a television series, created by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, about the aftermath of a plane crash on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific.

So why was April 8th 2015 Lost Number Day?

April 8th 2015
April 8th 2015

The first three numbers in the sequence relate to the fourth month (April), the day (8th) and the year (2015) but how do you explain the next three numbers? Well it’s the time 16:23:42 as shown in 24 hour clock mode as the Hour:Minutes:Seconds

The Numbers

In 1988, slightly more than 16 years before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, Danielle Rousseau’s science team picked up a mysterious short-wave transmission from the island. The transmission was merely six numbers repeated over and over again: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. She wasn’t the only one who heard them. The same transmission was also picked up by a U.S. Navy long wave transmission monitoring station where Leonard Simms and Sam Toomey worked.

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The Best Stylus

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The Best Stylus to buy has always been a tricky venture. Ever since iOS and Android devices have been designed with their finger friendly screens there’s always been a limitation when drawing or writing on occasions. It’s a bit of a minefield and as Apple seem to refuse to make a stylus for their own products it’s left to other manufacturers to come up with a solution.

Each one has their own special quirk and has often some alliance to one particular app, so unless you have the app the pen will work with to get the most out of the pressure sensitivity and other features you’re not going to be getting the full user experience even though you’ve paid full price!

The JaJa Pressure Sensitive Stylus. Worked great at the beginning but the first one had to be replaced and my second one just does not want to connect.
The JaJa Pressure Sensitive Stylus. Worked great at the beginning but the first one had to be replaced and my second one just does not want to connect and makes strange electrical noises

I’ve used a number of styluses from the cheap $0.99 version that feels so thin and cheap in your hands and ends up having to be dragged forcibly across your screen to the polar opposite end of the fancier pressure sensitive pens that can set quite a dent in your pocket. Which all means trying to find THE pen is extremely difficult. I don’t want you to fall for the uber cheap version but I understand you may feel wary parting with large amounts of money. Luckily I have boldly ventured forth on your behalf and can at least share my experience so far.

I’m using two different stylus or should that be styli. The main one I have been using is the JaJa Pressure Sensitive stylus from HEX3 but I’ve had some issues with connectivity and pressure sensitivity so I’m not going to recommend it here, even though I really do enjoy using it.

If I love it why am I not recommending it to you?

Well, I’m on my second pen. The first one failed to connect to the apps as promised and the button just did not work. Not to be deterred I got a replacement but this one also failed to work. The connection was better but the pressure sensitivity would not work because 90% of the time it would not come on and would make an awful electrical buzzing noise. I still have both but they are used purely as non working “insensitive” pens! Sorry HEX3 but that’s the bottom line. I really wanted to love this pen but you have ignored my emails to try and get the problem sorted but you’ve gone dark so I guess I’m on my own with broken styli!

However, not holding a grudge I’ve kept an eye on their new developments and they appear to have been working hard on some new and hopefully better models which look interesting and work across multiple devices. Maybe they’ve just been too busy developing to answer any concerns from past customers. Anyway, the proof will be in the pudding and if I venture down this route I will report my findings. I’ve been extremely disappointed by this company so I’m not too confident ordering from them again but I will showcase their new range within this article so you can make your own decision.

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