I’m writing about my NedCamp presentation because I’m excited about my AI-generated slide deck. Ironically, the entire presentation is about using AI to explore, build, maintain, and secure Drupal, based on my previous blog posts. Yet this post is about using AI to generate the presentation's visual narrative. Before we go further, I should share some background information.
Background
My undergraduate degree is in fine arts, with a focus on painting and some sculpture. I don’t make much art these days, but I appreciate the history, craft, and process behind making art, which helped me teach myself programming. With art and programming, AI is changing how works of art or programs are created. The reality is that AI isn't creating new things. It is generating code and images based on prior work and knowledge. Artists and developers can nudge or feed AI ideas that could generate something creative and new. I am starting to go down the rabbit hole of thoughts on AI and how I’ve integrated AI into my Drupal development workflow, which is the topic of my presentation. This post is about my presentation’s slide deck.
Past presentations
I’ve been presenting at Drupal events and recording demos for over a decade on the Webform module and my other Drupal projects. I’ve become comfortable with public speaking and organizing my thoughts. My slide decks have been simple, with me speaking off the cuff, without a script but with extensive practice beforehand.
Several times, I felt my presentation had a theme or narrative I could see visually portrayed in the slides. Still, I didn't have the bandwidth or resources to take dozens of photographs, find illustrations, or pay someone to create the imagery.
If you've seen any of my Webform presentations, which use a free comic-based template called Jacimo, you won't be surprised to find that I love comics. Often in my slides and blog posts, I wanted to include a specific visual narrative image, but I had to settle for what I found online for free.
Along with exploring AI to generate code, I also decided to use AI to generate the main image for my blog posts. Occasionally, I created some really fun main images, and recently I generated several images to support the posts' entire narrative. This made me ask whether I could generate an entire comic-like narrative for my upcoming presentation.
Generating a comic
Ironically, I didn't need any special tools or harnesses to generate a comic using AI. My foundational understanding of AI and how comics are made helped me realize that I just needed to give AI the right context, assets, and prompt, and it would return a comic. The assets I put together included AI-generated character studies and backgrounds to maintain consistency across multiple slides and sessions, along with initial context and prompts describing the layout and each panel for each slide.
In my initial context, I decided not to mimic an illustrated comic and instead use claymation for the imagery. Instead of acting like I was using AI to generate a real comic, using claymation signals to the viewer that I know what I am doing is artificial. Another thing I figured out was not to have the AI generate or even place the captions on the images because it was unpredictable and I couldn’t adjust the text.
I am very proud of this deck, but the real value of this presentation is me getting up and conveying my experience and ideas around my use of AI. My craft is programming, and generating some nice comics for a presentation doesn’t mean I’m now a comic book artist.
Craftsmanship is important
While I spent my weekend generating 45 comic pages, I paused to consider what this means for someone studying to be a comic artist, specifically my daughter, who is studying comics in college. My initial question was what it means when someone with no real understanding of the craft uses AI to generate something based on the craft.
One thought was that I’m a programmer using AI to generate a comic; now my daughter can vibe-code her comics into a video game, website, and more. Another thought: having a core understanding of what you're building still matters, while recognizing how AI can augment your skills and help you explore what once felt impossible.
Talking about using AI
In the past, I’ve asked my daughter what her opinion of AI is and what her teachers say about AI. There is general disdain for AI-generated comics, which I appreciate and feel is appropriate. At the same time, future comic artists should explore how to use AI to augment their comic creation, publication, and marketing. Ideally, I could see a comic artist vibe-coding a website, managing basic marketing tools, and creating 3D character models.
I sat down with my daughter and showed her how I created my AI-generated comic. She was impressed by how far I could run with a simple concept using AI. I clearly told her that I don’t see AI replacing her craft and skill, but it is worth exploring how to use AI to augment her work and career. The funny thing, as a parent, is that when we talk to our kids, we've learned that it takes time and maturity for our messages to sink in.
I think society will need time to recognize that AI has changed what is possible, and this might be the biggest takeaway I want attendees to leave with from my presentation. My other takeaway is that we shouldn't lose sight of our craft and creativity when solving problems and expressing ourselves.
It seems appropriate to end by sharing one of my daughter's comics. I look forward to her mastering her craft. Meanwhile, I will keep nudging her to recognize how AI can support her career.
