Tech and A.I.

This is in no specific order ....

Editing Video
The editing of most of my videos have been on my iPad using iMovie

Text to Speech
This has been one of my main tools ...  converting text to audio ... for this I've been using in a browser on my iPad and Windows laptop elevenLabs.   (browser & Apps)
I also cloned my own voice there ... needed to make a recording of myself reading something (60 minutes) and then upload it.
There is a free option but I've subscribed (temporarily) at US$22 / month
They also offer a translation service.

Editing Audio
Some audio and speech I needed to audio it, e.g. I wanted to put some music where I have the stories of each animal being read. For that I used the amazing free Audacity on my windows laptop.

Hosting Audio
Have a look at the 'Audio Books' page on this website.

,,, but lot more to come here ......

Hosting Video   : YouTube

1. Hosting
   xxxx

2. Short or Long?
   xxxxx

3. Playlists
   xxxxxxx

4. Auto Dubbing
   xxxxxxx

PDF Reading and Editing
This has been invaluable

Presentation Videos
I have made several video presentations where you choose an avatar and a voice. and give it a video text script and it then generates a presentation of a person reading  ... A.I. Video Avatars.  It can also generate translations.

The company I have used for this is ......

Image to Video?
Mainly used PixVerse a basis free option but I'm subscribing (temporarily) at $20 / month. Can do 5 or 8 seconds .. very easy to use ... upload your still image, press 5 or 8, enter a prompt to say what you want them to do with your image. My prompt is often simply "Animate"

Converting Images to line drawings for coloring Books

Which A.I. Platforms?

TikTok

Which Platform to Host Video?

Editing Images
I'm old fashioned .... I use Adobe Fireworks on my Windows Laptop ... but no longer being supported by Adobe.
I suspect if Fireworks disappeared then on my windows laptop I would use the free GIMP.

Building this Website
You have probably guessed ... FREE Google sites

Writing, Creating and Editing The Books
Authoring Platform ... Atticus .... one off lifetime payment US$147 ... I've been using this for several years, highly impressed and recommended.
Although it should be noted that when I'm sending the final manuscript to Amazon as a pdf I usually check it with PDFgear.

Creating LINE Drawings for Coloring Books
I discovered ColorBliss only half way through the project, initially I thought this was brilliant but now that I look back on the quality then they were just not good enough. The company is using AI but when I asked them about improving the end result then they never replied. So disappointed especially as the subscription is $35 / month ... I cancelled my subscription before the month was up.
BUT I was very fortunate that in March 2025 ChatGPT upgraded their image generation model which is BRILLIANT ... use on iPad but mainly in a App on my windows laptop.and the AI worked well to get the exact prompts ... and also has a memory so knows what you were doing with it earlier. There are frustrations but you just need to be patient.  THANK YOU Open AI!
I've now subscribed to ChatGPT at $20/month ... the best $20 I've ever spent :-)

AMAZON

Online Shop
There is a page on this website that already highlights the online SHOP and especially for selling the Coloring Posters.
I'm using a company/platform called Fourthwall... I'm using them not only because of functionality and range of items ... including "PoD Print on Demand" ... but also they are FREE .. no monthly charges and no credit card asked for.
One unknown functionality to me was ... the shop can be linked to my YouTube account so items are actually seen for sale on my YouTube pages.

Creating the Series Official Song

I wanted to create an official song ... first tried Suno ... ran out of free credits .... moved to Udio because had a pile of free credits
Originally I asked ChatCPT to write the song lyrics  3 verses but both Suno and Udio did not like the length so then I asked ChatGPT to write a prompt for the song and just threw that into Udio several times until I found a version I liked.

SUNO https://suno.com/
Create stunning original music in seconds using AI. Make your own masterpieces, share with friends, and discover music from artists worldwide. 

UDIO https://suno.com/
Discover, create, and share music with the world. Use the latest technology to create AI music in seconds. 

Programming a GAME

26 April 2025 : I decided to add another page to this website with the goal to build an online game that would be relevant to young children and also to involve the animal characters from the books.

I decided to program this myself as my html skills used to be good ... but I thought I'd completely use AI ... to see if the 'hype' was true about non-programmers being able to programe. So I used ChatGPT App on my Windows HP Laptop.
My initial prompt started at "Create a game that will run in a single page on a Google Sites website, the game should be like a casino slot machine and on each of the reels will be 18 animals.  With a button to start the Reels spinning and a win being three of a kind"
This  session lasted 3 hours and kept coming up against problems mainly because Google sites  had a lot of restrictions  about running code in its pages. But as each problem came up the A.I. offered solutions but in the end I said STOP as I just ran out of patience. 

On a positive side I did learn about two Specific useful tools

1. Postimage   https://postimages.org/  (Completely FREE do not even have to sign in)
   Postimage was founded in 2004 to provide message boards with an easy way to upload images for free. Postimage is a very simple, fast and reliable free image service. It's perfect for linking to auctions, message boards, blogs and other websites. Postimage guarantees maximum uptime and performance so that your image will be here whenever you need it. There is no registration or login; all you have to do is submit your picture. With continuous upgrades and dedicated staff Postimage is the #1 solution for Free Image Hosting. 

2. Netlify  https://www.netlify.com/   (used the FREE option)
   Netlify is a remote-first cloud computing company that offers a development platform that includes build, deploy, and serverless backend services for web applications and dynamic websites. 

27 April 2025 : another evening attempt ... prompted ChatGPT to forget everything from the night before .... just go out and find a game and give me the code to put into the Google Sites page.

I GAVE UP :-(

I'm looking forward to sharing some of the experiences  I've learnt during this project about Prompts. Prompt engineering is certainly a skill that is going to become a lifelong skill. I look forward to sharing some examples here.

But if there is one tip I can share it would be to ask the A.I. to let me know how it feels about any prompt I use and ask it for feedback.