Veteran designer, illustrator, and visual artist Sebastian Onufszak takes the plunge into AI motion experiments with Dreams Between Sleeps, a compilation of eight personal short films he says “feel like fragments of daydreams”.

Sebastian Onufszak: “For each sequence, I set myself a strict time limit of no more than six hours. The process was very open and associative – I started with a visual mood board, created using Midjourney, letting the randomness of the AI guide the first visual ideas.
 

“But that’s what I find exciting about working with AI: the unexpected results often lead to new ideas, pushing me into unknown creative territory.”

 
“After that, I selected individual frames that could work as a sequence or a rough storyboard. I went through multiple iterations until I reached a composition and style that felt right for each shot. Next, I refined the selected images in Photoshop — making adjustments using Generative Fill and correcting colors.

“To bring the still images to life, I used several AI models inside Krea.ai, including Runway, Kling, Veo, and Hailuo. Each of them has its own strengths when it comes to motion, detail, or depth.

“Creating animations that matched my original vision was a challenge — it often took many attempts to get satisfying results. But that’s what I find exciting about working with AI: the unexpected results often lead to new ideas, pushing me into unknown creative territory and shaping new ways of storytelling and visual thinking.”
 
 

 
Director: Sebastian Onufszak
Music/sound design: Michael Fakesch

Toolkit: Midjourney, Krea, Kling, Veo, Hailuo, Runway, Photoshop, After Effects