What started as a fun project with my kids turned into a glimpse of how AI can change the way we communicate technical ideas.
It all starts with a single prompt. I asked ChatGPT to help me create a simple storyline, broken into 10 scenes, each with its own visual and a short voiceover to carry the message. The full script and structure came together in one go.
Prompt:
“I want to create a short animated story consisting of 10 scenes, each represented by a static image. These images will later be turned into a video using Grok.
The purpose is to explain the importance of the oil and gas industry to children in a fun, engaging, and accessible way. The tone should be cute and Pixar-style, with a strong sense of wonder about geology and how oil and gas provide the energy we use every day.
Please craft:
A compelling story that flows smoothly across the 10 scenes.
For each scene:
A prompt for generating the static image.
A 5-second voiceover narration to be recorded later.
Each scene should capture the imagination of children while educating them about the role of geology, how oil and gas are formed, extracted, and used, and their importance in powering our daily lives.”
Output:
ChatGPT gives me the prompt for each image and the voiceover script:
Each scene was brought to life as a static image using Grok’s image generation tools. Here’s the first prompt in Grok, as suggested by ChatGPTin the previous step:
I used Grok Imagine to turn those static images into short animated clips. This is pure magic; I just bring the image generated in the previous step, and do absolutely nothing else. Grok generates a 6 sec clip in a few secs:
Back to ChatGPT to refine a voiceover script for each scene. Then into ElevenLabs to generate the voice clips with a selected voice.
I brought the animated clips and voiceovers into Canva, synced them, added background music, and exported the whole thing as an MP4.
A light, engaging animated story that took minutes to create, not hours. Here’s the final clip:
Don’t just see the end product. See the potential.
Whether you’re teaching a class, pitching an idea, or just looking to explain something in a more accessible way… the tools are right here, and they’re getting better every day. Have a go… it’s heaps of fun!
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Alan Mourgues is a Petroleum Reservoir Engineering Consultant with 25 years of international experience. He is the founder of CrowdField — the go-to hub for Oil & Gas subsurface professionals to upskill, freelance, and monetize their expertise. CrowdField brings together a global community through: i) Freelance marketplace for niche talent and task-based solutions; ii) Digital Store & Vault of engineering tools, workflows, and resources; iii) AI Hub showcasing startups, workflows, and use cases; iv) Learning resources including webinars, blogs, and curated datasets. Alan’s mission is to empower professionals to turn knowledge into income and future-proof their careers as the energy transition unfolds.
