I came up with a new character on October 9: A.L.T.A., short for Ancient Lake Tahoe Automaton. She's a robot mermaid built to help protect our waters and teach us about them. She's made of weathered copper and aged bronze, green with patina, with small geometric etchings on her face and plates. All of her images are AI-generated, made in Flow and Gemini.
Built out of the lake
I wanted her built out of the lake itself. Her crown is woven from tule reeds, willow, pinecones and old filigree. Her hair is coiled copper wire with Jeffrey pine needles worked through it. Her eyes carry the colors of Tahoe's water from the shallows down: amber and gold at the center, then emerald, then deep sapphire at the rim. At her neck and spine there are soft cyan vacuum tubes, and below the waist her tail is patinated scales and sea-glass windows with small gears and glowing fluid inside.
And the best details came from the place: reeds, pine needles and granite say Tahoe better than any amount of glow.
A job to do
She isn't just decoration. I gave her a job: an ancient lake guardian who is also an outspoken nature advocate and water-safety teacher for kids. When she teaches, she rises up and leans in. She counts the rules on her webbed fingers: the buddy system, walking on pool decks, watching for deep drop-offs. Her eyes do the punctuation. They go a steady amber when someone litters or horses around near the water, and bloom cyan-green when a kid makes a good call. She's firm, but it comes from affection. The kids are her junior stewards.
A production character
To keep her the same from one image to the next, I built her like a production character. There's a full written description, a clean front, side and back turnaround, and a mouth sheet with the shapes she needs to talk: neutral, smile, ah, oo, ee, oh, mm and a laugh. Then one still at the glass: her leaning on the ledge of a tank at a small microphone, with trout swimming below.
For motion, my notes say to ask for slow, weightless movement with no jitter, small things like her irises dilating and a pulse running up the tubes at her neck, and for her to brush the lakebed or the granite without stirring up the water. Then she started to move. The clips open with a fish in a bowl. Then she's shy for the camera, shows her lights in the deep water, boops a trout, and enjoys the warm sunshine. The last one is her swimming off into the deep water.
Sketch to final
- Write her down
Before any picture, Christian wrote her out: weathered copper and aged bronze with a turquoise-green patina, small geometric etchings, a crown of tule reeds, willow and pinecones, copper-wire hair with Jeffrey pine needles, cyan tubes at her neck and spine, and a tail of scales and sea-glass windows.
- Give her the lake's eyes
Her eyes are rings of color taken from Tahoe's water, amber and gold at the center, then emerald, then deep sapphire at the rim. It's the detail the whole design hangs on.
- Draw the turnaround
A clean front, side and back view. This sheet becomes her identity reference, used at a weight around 0.75 to 0.85 so her tail proportions and scale layout don't drift.
- Make the mouth sheet
Eight shapes for talking: neutral, smile, ah, oo, ee, oh, mm and a laugh.
- Fix the eyes up close
When the eyes go flat in wide shots, isolate just the head and re-run it with the gradient spelled out, amber-gold center to emerald and sapphire rim.
- Set the scene
One still at the glass: A.L.T.A. leaning on the ledge of a tank at a small microphone, trout swimming below.
- Let her move
Slow, weightless motion with no jitter, her irises dilating, a pulse running up the tubes at her neck, and a hand brushing the granite without stirring up the water. Then the clips: shy for the camera, lights on in the deep water, a boop for a trout, warm sunshine, and finally swimming off into the deep.
Where she's going
Where she's going: A.L.T.A. has been released into our world, virtually, to help us learn about our water. She's a potential new narrator for Field Notes, like GlazyArray, but her beat is the water. And she's going to help local pools teach water safety and respect for nature and our waters.
What I learned: a character holds together because of the reference sheets, not the prompt. The turnaround goes in as the main identity reference, at a weight around 0.75 to 0.85, so the tail and scale layout don't drift. When the eyes go flat in wide shots, I isolate just the head and re-run it with the gradient spelled out, amber-gold center to emerald and sapphire rim. And the best details came from the place: reeds, pine needles and granite say Tahoe better than any amount of glow.