Heavy Metal Polka

Inspiration

This project started as a personal time capsule — a quirky recording I made over 15 years ago called Heavy Metal Polka. I always wondered what it would look like as an over-the-top 80s MTV-style promo, and modern AI tools finally made that possible. The idea of blending glam-metal aesthetics with Midwestern polka culture felt so wrong that it became the perfect challenge.

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What it does

Heavy Metal Polka reimagines an old audio recording as a fully stylized AI-driven music promo. It fuses 80s glam-metal visuals, traditional polka energy, dynamic character animation, and retro commercial vibes into a short, humorous, high-impact video. It’s part nostalgia, part parody, and part technical experiment in modern generative media.

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How I built it

This project was built using a broad toolkit: • ComfyUI for image generation pipelines and LoRA work • Flux, Qwen, and various pose-transfer and SRPO methods • Veo for video sequences • ElevenLabs for supplemental audio • Photoshop & After Effects for compositing, cleanup, and finishing • Black Forest Labs and Firefly for style and refinement

I iterated through character creation, pose transfer, stage environments, and compositing. Every week, new tools emerged that influenced the storyboard, so the workflow evolved as the project evolved.

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Challenges I ran into

The biggest hurdles were character consistency and multi-angle performance shots. Maintaining the same face and outfit across different models (Flux LoRA, Qwen Image Edit 2509, SRPO, etc.) was a constant battle. Switching tools often meant losing consistency or having to redo large portions of the workflow. Storyboarding was also a challenge — every new model breakthrough tempted me to rethink the project direction.

Getting convincing lip sync, performance energy, and multi-character staging required more iteration than expected.

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Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I’m proud that I was able to take a 15-year-old idea and transform it into a fully stylized modern piece using tools I had never worked with before. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, learned new pipelines, created consistent characters, choreographed scenes, and blended humor with technical experimentation. Most importantly, the final result feels fun, nostalgic, and uniquely “me.”

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What I learned

I learned how to navigate an ever-changing set of AI tools, how to maintain continuity across models, and how to build a flexible workflow that survives rapid iteration. I gained a deeper understanding of generative pipelines, pose transfer, LoRA training, and multi-pass compositing. Ultimately, this project taught me how to adapt creatively in an environment where the tools evolve faster than the storyboard.

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What’s next for Heavy Metal Polka

This is it.