Rise of the Phoenix

about 1 month ago

A mysterious fire flashes from its eye,
and a flaming aureole enriches its head. Its crest
shines with the sun's own light and shatters the
darkness with its calm brilliance. Its legs are of Tyrian
purple; swifter than those of the Zephyrs are its wings
of flower-like blue dappled with rich gold.
—Claudian, "Phoenix", ll. 17–22 —translated by Henry Maurice Platnauer, 1922, LCL: 136, pp. 224–225

The Greek legend of the Phoenix has been enduring in western culture. I like the simplicity of it. A bird that rises from the ashes of its demise and never dies but cycles through iterations. Death. Renewal. Resurrection. Eternal life.

I created the animations using AnimDiff in Stable Diffusion. I used a simple prompt requesting a phoenix along with variations of angles and styles. The results are a bit on the surreal side to put it mildly.

I wasn't sure what to do with the phoenix animations because I was just experimenting. I like that there is a visual consistency to the style, so I thought they would look good together in a video.

Rise of the Phoenix is the name of the song generated using the AI music generator Udio. I prompted it to create a song with Renaissance, rock, and electronic flavours. I asked it to use old English, and it did so to a certain extent in the auto-generated lyrics.

The fire dark bright
from ashes Phoenix born
In the dawn's new light
from the mist of morn
Oh, oh, oh
Feeling so high
Oh, oh, oh
Bird did not die

I put the video together in MS Clipchamp using stills, animations, and the audio. The process was fairly straightforward, and I hope you enjoyed the results. Rock on! 🤘