Creating an "Inifinite Zoom" from AI-Outpainted images

The Python command line script published here can turn a series of AI-generated images into a zoom animation. For more details have a look at my web page were I explain the inner workings in detail:

• In German: https://beltoforion.de/de/infinite_zoom
• In English: https://beltoforion.de/en/infinite_zoom

Here is an example video created by the script:

zoom.mp4

What is AI Outpainting?

Outpainting is a technique where zoom out of an image by a certain factor while letting a generative AI fill in the newly created empty edge. By giving the AI new prompts, you can control the evolution of the scene as you zoom out.

AI outpainting requires the use of a generative AI for images and can be done with Midjourney, Dall-E or Photoshop (generative AI currently only in beta). I have only tested this command line script on Midjourney images as they are the easiest to create. In principle, this program will work with any outpainted image set.

Preparing the images

Before you start you need a set of outpainted ai images. Copy this set in a separate folder in the "input" folder. It is best to order the images in the folder by giving them sequential names (i.e. "frame_01.png", "frame_02.png", ..., "frame_10.png").

Alternatively you can use the "-as" option to let the script find out the image order for you but this will take some time as each image is matched against all other images to figure out their relations automatically.

• Create a set of outpainted images with the generative AI of your choice.
  • The first image is the innermost image of the series.
  • The Image series must be zoomed with respect to the center
  • The entire image series must use the same zoom factor (i.e. 2x)
• Rename and order the image sequence by giving them sequential names. (i.e. "frame_01.png", "frame_02.png")

Usage

You need python to execute this script. Put your input images into a folder and then run the script on the content of this folder.

python ./infinite_zoom.py -zf 2 -zs 100 -zc 0.8 -i ./samples_ps -o video.mp4

or an example to dump the frames without creating a video file:

python3 ./infinite_zoom.py -as -i ./sample_fairytale -o myframes/

Command Line Options

-zf
Zoom factor used for creating the outpinted image sequence. For image sequences created by Midjourney use either "2" or "1.333". (Midjourney incorrectly states that it low zoom level is 1.5 but it is actually just 1.333) For an image series created with Lexica use 1.5. If you are unsure compute the zoom factor yourself by using two successive images of the series and matching them manually in the image processing software of your choice. If the zoom factor is incorrect this script cannot work properly!

-zs
Number of zoom steps for each image

-zc
Crop zoomed images by this factor. Midjourney takes some liberties in modyfing the edge regions between zoom steps. They may not match perfectly.

-i
Path to folder with input images.

-o
Name of the output folder or file. Must either be a valid file name with an mp4 extension or a folder name. If no extension is given it is assumed to be a folder name and the output will consist of the frame dump instead of a single video file.

-as
Automatically sort input images. If you use this option you can name the images arbitrarily. The script will figure out the right order.

-dbg
Show debug overlays and display debug output for each auto sort step.

-rev
Reverse the video. This will create a zoom out effect.

-fps
Set the target framerate of the output video.