From Toy Rabbits to Patterns: Creative AI Remixing with Sora

In Between Chaos and Order

It’s been a little while! As both an artist and designer, I often find myself wishing for more clarity and cohesion across my work. And I imagine this newsletter would come together more fluidly if that order were in place. Still, I was startled to realize it’s been nearly a month since my last update—so today, even if briefly, I wanted to share something with you.

Not long ago, tasks like image compositing were the exclusive realm of Photoshop. But now, many of those same processes can be accomplished with surprising ease using AI. If you're one of the many already subscribed to ChatGPT, you may have noticed Sora. While it's known primarily for its video generation capabilities, Sora is also quite useful for generating and remixing images.

You can access it through the sidebar in ChatGPT or directly at sora.chatgpt.com. For example, I generated two toy rabbits—one blue, one pink—using the same prompt except for color. Then, I combined them using Remix, which allows you to blend two images in a variety of creative ways. The prompt I used was:
Left: a toy rabbit, half blue and half pink. Right: a toy rabbit, with a blue head and feet, wearing a pink coat.

Similarly, I remixed a kettle and flower pattern—this time using images originally generated in MidJourney. The compositing process is essentially the same:
Prompt: a kettle covered with a flower pattern

In my experience so far, MidJourney images sometimes lose their subtle beauty when remixed in Sora—the nuanced tones and textures may not carry over perfectly. But if that nuance isn’t essential, Sora’s Remix tool works remarkably well for how simple it is.

Creative Possibilities with Style and Presets

For practical or e-commerce use—like the toy rabbit example—it’s often easiest to generate both source images directly in Sora. Especially helpful are the presets, which allow you to create images in specific styles with minimal effort.

The potential of image remixing is vast. One obvious application is changing a model’s outfit, but it could just as easily mean swapping out the model entirely. In the next issue, I plan to share more examples of this kind of remixing, and I’m also developing a few custom Sora presets of my own. Once they’re ready, I’d love to make them available for you to try.

Until then, I hope this brief letter offers a bit of inspiration—and a gentle reminder that sometimes, even small steps forward are enough.