I Asked Photoshop AI to Zoom Out Infinitely. Here’s What Happened.

If you haven’t used Photoshop lately, you’re missing a prime example of how AI is really going to change the world. With new features like Generative Fill and Generative Expand, they are showing that the AI revolution will not be a big event, but a creeping, steady inclusion into our daily lives. So I decided to put it to the ultimate test.

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Timestamps:

0:00 - 1:09 Intro
1:09 - 6:14 About Photoshop Generative AI
6:14 - 8:51 Creating the images
8:51 - 14:31 Editing the infinite expand
14:31 - 15:31 The Results
15:31 - 18:12 My thoughts and a simpler solution
18:12 - 19:27 Final thoughts
19:27 - 21:57 Imprint
21:57 - 22:36 Close

[ScienceClic]

Quick technique for the expansion to be perfectly smooth : use an expression on the scale property of the layers and type in "[100, 100]*Math.pow(3, -value)" where you replace "value" by a link to a slider control effect, varying from 0 to 100.

[wuxpoint]

I remember seeing this "infinite" zoom effect in Contact (Zemeckis, 1997, film's opening sequence) and in Limitless (2011). I think it was also used in other films, but hey, at those times and without the incredible tools we have now, it was already stunning!

[spookmineer]

I like the "stuttering" effect because it lets you keep track of how big each expansion is (or how many there are). It is very trippy though, I'm glad it wasn't much longer than it was.

[mrsquid_]

15:05 is an insane transition, it looks like the entire thing was a miniature world ontop of a few loose rocks

[Deqster]

"Is my face all swirly now?
👁️👄👁️"
🤣🤣🤣 Yes, yes it is.

[timogul]

The weird thing about this, and I've tried it, is that after _200_ expansions, you will end up outside a Chuck E Cheese in San Bernardino. Every time. The same Chuck E Cheese. And it's actually there, I found it on the map, at least, last time I checked.

[m.h.]

To be honest, the app "zoom out" looks like a pre-generated effect, with your photo placed in the middle. There is barely any overlap or continuation of the original photo - it immediately went cyberpunk for no reason at all.

[AgnatiPrime]

Dude. I see and understand the smoothness factor you weren't 100% happy with, but syncing it with that music beat made the world's best lemonaid out of the lemons you were given. Nicely done!

[Zappr]

The reason the “Wawawa” effect is happening is because you’re going from zooming out to the edges of an image to zooming out of an image zoomed directly in the center with a constant speed.

It’s a similar effect as how moving down a corridor looks slower if you focus on the middle and block out the walls close to you, so as you zoom out the edges of the image get unblocked and the zoom feels faster and faster until the cut to the next image where you’re zoomed in again.

The way to fix it would be to start the zoom fast for each image, and then ease it out into a slow zoom. I think that would make it feel more like a continuous motion, but I am gonna have to test it myself at some point to make sure.

Very cool experiment and I still love the end result!

[slazman]

Now we know where Joe's secret hideout is... In a cave, in a mountain, at the bottom of the sea, in the middle of the universe, in a rock, in a desert, in a road, in a pebble, in a bay on the side of a cliff, in a lagoon

[RichardCox]

I don’t need photoshop, I expand myself with McDonalds

[slembcke]

That's a common mistake in games/real-time graphics too. To make the zoom look smooth you don't want to use a linear or cubic curve like a lot of animation packages provide, you need an exponential curve. Zooming out by a factor of 3 like you are doing would mean 3^-x where x goes from 0 to 1 for each segment. Fun fact, 3^100 is about 5x10^47 which is... huge! Like the difference in size between subatomic stuff and the size of the observable universe huge. It's baffling how a smooth, understandable zoom like that compounds so quickly isn't it?

[rkroll]

I feel like it would’ve made sense to have the pictures be replaced rather than merged. As you zoom out you just remove the smaller picture at the exact moment it lines up with the larger picture.

[noThankyou-gc]

17:59 can u not even recognize that it also sucked? like who cares about how far it zoomed out, the first “stage” of zoom out immediately did not blend with your photo in any way. it just generated a weird cyberpunk style building and then put ur picture in the middle of it

[LEDewey_MD]

Towards the end, I was reminded of a Mandelbrot Fractal. Glad that you are doing something JUST FOR FUN!! ❤

[SiskaRobert]

14:30 What flat-earthers think will happen if you gave them the best Nikon camera.

[inviktus]

Are you telling me one man built this entire youtube channel from scraps in a CAVE?

[hanvyj]

It went for a cave because the first shot was clearly an interior space - but theres not many places you can be so far away from someone but still inside except a huge natural cave.

[StitchesLovesRats]

14:31 - woah, dude! That was genuinely beautiful. Great track pick too.

[ninehundreddollarluxuryyac]

Right after the zoom, just when he says "Is my face all swirly now", stare at something in the room other than the screen and it will swell up bigger and bigger. Joe has effected your brain.