Creative Work in the Age of AI

Access to Runway and ElevenLabs will be provided for session exercises. Participants will also use ChatGPT (free account) or the Stanford AI Playground for text-based activities.

What if your creative instincts had a faster, more flexible way to take shape? This workshop explores how tools like ChatGPT, Runway, and ElevenLabs can expand, not replace, the creative thinking you already bring to your work.

Participants examine how AI reshapes originality, authorship, and human judgment in modern creative production, and develop a clearer sense of where their creative voice fits in an AI-assisted process.

Through guided demonstrations and structured hands-on exercises, participants practice foundational prompting skills and apply them across text, image, video, and audio platforms. The session moves through the full creative pipeline: preproduction planning, style development, character creation, scene framing, animation, and sound design, so participants can experience how a complete project comes together using generative tools.

The format blends short instruction blocks, hands-on practice, and an interactive film-building activity designed to connect concepts to real output in the moment. The session will address emerging creative norms and the ethical considerations shaping the use of AI in creative fields today.

The emphasis throughout is on practical application. Participants work with real tools and produce real output, and have the opportunity to leave with a repeatable workflow they can explore and adapt across their own creative projects.

Learners will have the opportunity to:

• Explain how generative AI systems generate outputs and influence creative workflows
• Apply core prompting principles across text, image, video, and audio platforms
• Develop structured preproduction plans using AI-assisted ideation
• Create stylistically consistent characters, props, and scenes using generative tools
• Integrate AI-generated assets into a cohesive creative campaign

• AI mentality: probability engine vs. thinking machine
• Prompting fundamentals: context, specificity, iteration
• Preproduction planning: concept, characters, settings, props
• Style locking and visual consistency
• Character and prop generation
• Scene framing and sequencing
• Animation workflows
• Sound design and voice integration
• Campaign assembly and creative synthesis

Recommended background: Basic familiarity with generative AI tools and prompting concepts.