WordPress Playground has been around for a while, and chances are you’ve already heard of it. Most people see it as a tool where one can experiment with plugins, themes, and other WordPress features- and that is correct. But it can also be a good feature to embed in your website or blog posts. Here are some potential scenarios where you might want to embed WordPress Playground:
If you’re writing articles or tutorials related to WordPress and you want to display the latest features of a plugin or of WordPress in general, why not embed a live instance of WordPress? This allows your readers to interact with and explore the feature hands-on.
If you’re teaching WordPress and have a blog or web displaying training, instead of guiding people to install WordPress themselves, why not embed WordPress Playground in your content? This simplifies the learning process and makes your material more engaging.
If you’re using WordPress as an intranet tool for your Business or organization, you probably need to provide onboarding training. Why not consider tutorials that include WordPress playground to provide hands-on training and assess employees’ knowledge?
These are only three scenarios of how embedding WordPress Playground can be beneficial, but there are more out there.
Embedding is simple and I’m here to explain it as easily as possible:
Embedding WordPress Playground with Code
Using iframes is one of the easiest ways to do it. Check this code:
Let’s try it out: 1. In the block editor, search for the HTML block. 2. Type the iframe code above
This is the result:
3. To view the result, you have to click Preview in the HTML block. The first time, it will take some time to load as it installs the WordPress instance.
Notice that this is a very simple code. At the beginning of the iframe, there are some width and height specifications, you can of course change these numbers.
Now if you try the following code, it will install a slightly different WordPress instance, one that has the theme “Pendant” installed.
You can also specify plugins. That way, the person who interacts with your website or blog will have access to an instance of WordPress already set up with the plugins and themes you’ve chosen.
In the following example, the WordPress Playground instance will download the Yoast plugin and theme Kubio. Note that “wordpress-seo” is the WordPress.org directory name/slug used for Yoast. If you don’t know the right name for a plugin or theme, search for them in the wordpress.org plugin directory or theme directory.
To add several plugins, you can separate them with ampersand &. Notice that the more complex your WordPress playground is, it will take longer to load.
Embedding WordPress Playground with a plugin
There is a new plugin called WordPress Playground Block that will let you embed WordPress Playground in your website.
Once you install this free plugin, you only need to search for this block in the block editor, as seen here:
You can see the result here:
You will find many useful options inside this plugin such as the ability to see the code editor, define a landing page to redirect to, create new pages and posts, and some debug options.
Conclusion
The key advantage of using code is the ability to bring up a WordPress instance with specific plugins and themes. However, not all people may feel comfortable working with iframe codes, and in such cases, using a plugin can be a more user-friendly alternative.
Both methods are useful for many scenarios. Embedding WordPress Playground instances will help you, not only illustrate what you have on your website, tutorial, or training material but also make the experience more interactive and engaging for the reader.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has invaded our world and it’s no longer necessary to search for specialized software or tools to implement AI features. Existing tools, such as the ones we use in design, like Adobe Photoshop, have adapted to integrate AI into their own tools.
Adobe Photoshop, along with other Adobe products, has been at the forefront of AI integration. If you haven’t used Photoshop for a while, you would be surprised at how much time its AI features can save.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through two of the most used AI features in Adobe Photoshop. If you’re a beginner with Photoshop, you will find these tools remarkably easy to learn.
Let’s say, you really want to get rid of this banana and you prefer that the woman holds a cucumber. How do you achieve this in less than a minute in Photoshop?
Click Generative Fill and type the description of your new character. In this case, I typed “an old man”.
Once the image is generated, you will notice some options to choose from on the right-side panel. Pick the one that you prefer the most.
Photoshop’s Generative expand
There might be times when you need to resize an image while preserving its look and avoiding any distortion. In such cases, you might prefer to add more background to match the size of your image.
For example, I have the cropped image below and I would like to fill the green space on the right side to create a 16:9 ratio image.
You will see a contextual menu with the option Generative Expand.
Type what you would like to fill in the missing background. In this case, I typed “interior of the bus” which is what I expected in this image. Then click Generate.
Here is the result:
Conclusion
There are many AI features to explore in Adobe Photoshop, but I wanted to start highlighting two of the most impactful ones. Trust me, these tools will be invaluable in your design endeavors.
In a future article, I’ll delve into even more of Photoshop AI features.
We’ve all experimented with using AI tools to create images. When we want inspiration, we get excellent ideas and results from tools like Midjourney to Dall-e,Stable Diffusion, and others. All AI tools are capable of generating beautiful imagery, sometimes beyond what we expected. But what happens if we have a clear idea in mind and we want the same character in different scenes and scenarios? In this article, I’ll show you how to get consistant AI images in Midjourney.
Hands on tutorial
To better illustrated this, let’s start with an example. Let’s say you need “a woman eating a banana in a brown sweater inside a bus, looking upset and unfriendly while staring at the window”. When you input the same exact prompt in Midjourney, you might get a similar result to this image:
Midjourney AI generated image
Then you might want the same woman standing on the street, at the bus stop. How do you achieve that?
Using –cref
Now, that you have your chracter, you could try describing her as best as possible to get the same character in a different scenario:
Prompt: imagine a woman with dark hair, shoulder lenght, caucasian, thick eyebrows, wearing a brown sweater, standing at a bus stop.
No matter how much you dive into the specifics of describing our selected character, you might get something else:
Midjourney AI generated image
This is a completely different woman. So how do you generate the same character in a different scenario?
You might have actually been aiming for something like the following image -almost the same woman:
This option allows you reference a character. Here are the summarized steps to use it:
Generate your character on Midjourney. Right-click on this image and get the option Copy Link.
Write your prompt describing the new scene or situation. You don’t need to describe the woman anymore.
Add to your prompt the –cref <LINK> using the link you copied form the image.
You will get a prompt similar to this one:
The --s50 which refers to the stylization is automatically added by my Midjourney settings. You don’t need to add that.
Voilá! you’ll get images that are similar to your initial character:
Using –sref
Now, let’s say that this isn’t exactly what you wanted. You wanted the woman at the bus stop, but in a half-turned pose, looking back, and in a bus stop that has a more of a nighttime ambiance. Something inspired by this Pixabay stock image:
But no matter how much you try to describe that the woman should be portrayed with her body turned back and looking toward the camera, you don’t get exactly what you envisioned. You could lose hours using Midjourney credits by trying to generate a scene that is similar to the one you want. So, how do you achieve the following image?
AI generated image
To generate the same character in the scene you want, use the advantage of the Pixabay image that already features the pose and ambiance that you want. While it won’t be 100% accurate, it will resemble more closely than you expected it.
Upload the image from Pixabay by clicking + and selecting Upload a File. Check the following article for more information on how to upload images to the Discord server.
Grab the link from this uploaded image in the same way you grabbed the link from your character.
Write your prompt using --sref <LINK> and replace with the Pixabay link retrieved from previous step.
Include again in your prompt the --cref with a link to your character. You can always scroll up to find your character’s image link.
Conclusion
These are a couple of tips that should make your journey easier with Midjourney (pun intended). I hope they can help you achieve your goals and get consistent images for the story that you’re trying to tell.
If you’re creating images with the purpose to animate them and apply them into a short film or book trailer, and you prefer someone else to battle with all the quirks from AI generation, don’t forget that I offer this book trailer service in Fiverr.
So you’re an author on a budget and have heard of the advantages of having a book trailer. However, you’re on a budget and would prefer to do it yourself. After all, how hard can it be? Nowadays, there are many book trailer makers and tools available that make it easy to assemble a book trailer. You heard many other self-published writers doing it. You’ve read a few blog posts about it. You believe you can also do it yourself.
In this article, we will talk about software that is available for making book trailers. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to do a book, this ultimate guide on how to create an effective book trailer has all the relevant information and tips you need.
But let’s remember, why do you need a book trailer again?
Why you need a Book Trailer
A book trailer or book teaser is a promotional video designed to entice your potential audience to read your book.
Unlike the written blurb from your book, a book trailer brings visual appeal and, depending on how well it’s done, can build an emotional connection between the book’s story and the potential audience. Since it’s visual, it’s easy to promote it on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, enhancing discoverability. It’s also a valuable addition to an author’s website. As book tours and book review websites grow, a book trailer can be a powerful visual tool to leverage reviews and book tours.
Types of Book Trailers
I’ve personally noticed there are two main types of book trailers out there:
PowerPoint-style Book Trailers
These trailers are created in a similar style to a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation. Effects are added to images, with background music and titles/captions introducing the book. Usually, the visual assets are gathered from stock libraries.
Cinematic Book Trailers
These book trailers feel more like short films. They are usually produced by authors with a larger budget who can afford to hire a production company, actors, and other professionals. The scenes reenact the book’s characters, settings, and story. They can feel like a movie teaser. For example, the following is one of my favorites:
Software Options for DIY Book Trailers
So what is the best software to make a book trailer? Where do you make a book trailer? For those on budget, we have software that can help create the first type of trailer. I’ve taken a look at a few of these tools: Animaker, Biteable, Flexclip, Veed, and Invideo
General observations
These tools and booktrailer apps are built for creating videos and graphics, from promotional videos to training videos, explainer videos to book trailers. In other words, they are not specifically made for book trailers. They often have a landing page targeting book trailers, but their workflows and templates are not specific for writers.
Examples of landing pages
As mentioned above, these tools are not specific for book trailers but most of them have created landing pages targeting people who want to create book trailers. Here are some sites to create a book trailer:
Some offer free versions with limitations in video length, downloads, uploads, and access to assets and music. For some authors with a single book trailer to produce and very few demands, the free version might work.
All offer priced plans. As a person who works with video and AI tools, in my opinion, these are not cheap tools. These plans are often justified when you are a video editor, marketer, or frequent user who will use this tool in a company, agency, or maybe as a freelancer building videos for others. All of them have this tricky thing where you see prices per month, but they are actually billed yearly. So when you switch to monthly payments, the prices are higher. Monthly plans start at around $20, but usually, the plan that allows you to have commercial rights, no limitations on assets, etc, is a higher plan. Authors who are looking to make only one video will probably need a monthly plan. A yearly payment is probably not the best option for writers. Depending on the needs of the book trailer, the lower plan might work, but sometimes to access all the features, a higher plan might be needed, and a reminder to cancel the monthly payment after the book trailer is done, unless they want to work on more videos.
A person looking at a computer screen, generated by AI
Onboarding and User Interface
With most of these tools, the onboarding experience can be different from what a writer expects, with a selection of roles, backgrounds, and templates that are not related to book genres but can still work. In none of them, for example, I was given options to select my book genre and get template suggestions according to that.
If you’ve used Canva, I would say that many of these tools are very similar; even the user interface is not very different. They are very easy to use as well, mostly with a drag-and-drop interface. And yes, you can make a book trailer on Canva too.
Features
Almost all of them have integrated with stock libraries for images, videos, and music. You might be able to find images or short video clips related to your story. If you write fantasy or science fiction, maybe not so much.
They all allow you to upload your own images and videos as well. You probably want to upload your book cover, and you might have some other interesting material to work with.
Some of them, like Animaker, are more focused on cartoon-style animations and have interesting options for animated characters. This might be very interesting for children’s books, but not so much for the other genres.
All of them include options to add your own voice or a recorded voice.
Use of AI
Some of them include AI features that help you generate images and voiceovers, or they use AI entirely to generate the content for you. With Biteable or Invideo, for example, you don’t have to think of a script or create a storyboard; the AI will generate some material for you based on your description. Biteable’s outcome is very similar to the others, where you can edit the text, images, etc. Invideo’s outcome is a video where you can modify the script and assets.
Additional Tools
Here are some other additional tools I found online but haven’t tested yet:
Person taking notes in front of a computer screen, generated by AI
Creating Cinematic-Style Book Trailers on a Budget
So what happens if you prefer a cinematic-style book trailer but lack the budget to hire actors and a production company? Are AI and stock assets enough?
It depends. You might struggle to find assets, especially video clips of fantastic, surreal creatures flying or characters that are not common. Your story setting might be quite uncommon, depending on your genre. Your genre could be fantasy, science fiction, or a historical drama that is so specific that you can’t find useful stock assets that match your story.
As an alternative, I create book trailers with the help of AI, generating characters and settings tailored to your description, and animating them in the way you imagined. This is my service, and you can see some examples here:
Book Trailer for “The Last Families” by Carla Doria
Book Trailer for “Little Women” by Louisa M. Alcott
Book trailer for “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
As you can see, they not only adapt to fantasy but also to historical drama and mystery, as well as any genre.
My Service vs Generic Tools
So what is the difference between my service and the tools above that use AI? The tools above will use a description of your book to generate related generic stock material. The AI will try to find assets that match your story, but it will not make sure they are specifically relevant to your story.
The idea of a cinematic book trailer goes beyond a PowerPoint-style book trailer, and there’s nothing wrong with these book trailers, but sometimes as writers, we really want to provide a more compelling and enticing experience for readers.
Conclusion
Social media is flooded with visuals, and people don’t always have time to engage with presentation-style videos with generic animations that don’t make much sense. You need to tell them the story of your book, add a cliffhanger, and entice them with your characters. While I love the book trailer for Amish above, not everyone has the budget for a high-end trailer like that, but you can still create something impactful. Contact me if you need more information on my book trailer services.
