Meet The Trophy Wife

Zoey is alive and drowning.

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Inspiration

This project is inspired by my original sci-fi novel 'The Elevator'. It was designed as a means to bring one of my characters to life through cinematic teasers. “Meet the Trophy Wife” introduces Zoey — a woman whose outward perfection hides deeper fractures. I wanted to capture that duality visually: polished, glamorous, but unraveling as the story unfolds.

What it does

It serves as a creative promo for my upcoming novel series and my Patreon site; as well as creative and dynamic content for my social media.

How I built it

Using LTX Studio’s storyboard and video generation tools, I crafted Zoey’s sequence shot by shot. I guided the AI with careful prompts, using Actors, layered references for consistency, and curated the results to keep her appearance closely aligned with the novel’s description. The workflow involved: • Storyboarding Zoey’s character arc visually. • Iterating on generated clips until the expressions and atmosphere felt true. • Editing sequences into a short cinematic teaser with external video editing and motion graphics software.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge was maintaining character consistency across shots — hair, outfit, and emotional tone often shifted between generations. I had to refine prompts and sometimes “fudge” backgrounds to keep focus on Zoey. I also had to manage creative energy and credits carefully, since experimenting can quickly burn through resources. It turned costly near the end and I even ran out of credits for the month before I was technically finished generating all of my shots. I had to make do with what I had, but I adjusted, organized the clips I'd compiled and created something that far exceeded my original plans.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As I stated—as a newbie on LTX—after getting through the learning curve and tripping up over burned credits and technological glitches (as well as blocked charges from my bank that flagged my subscription as a fraudulent charge), I was stunned by the beauty of the video's final result. I was able to capture the essence of my character in ways I didn't expect I could going in. I'm incredibly proud of the final result.

What I learned

I discovered how powerful AI video generation can be when blended with creative storytelling. Beyond just producing visuals, the process forced me to think like a director — considering camera angles, lighting, mood, and character presence. I learned to balance technical constraints (limited credits, model quirks) with narrative intention. As a writer, it served as an added challenge to think of various ways to prompt clearly in order to achieve the results needed for each scene. I learned that AI in all its limitless glory is still, in many ways limited, which called for developing strategic workflows and an exercise in true patience. And on the pure technical side of things, I learned more about AI—how it all works (models, prompting, layering, etc.)

What's next for Meet The Trophy Wife | The Elevator

I'm currently generating assets for a full trailer for my book with my other principal characters including Zoey. The goal this time around is to achieve more consistency with each character's appearance, especially now with the release of Gemini 2.5.

Built With

  • fcp
  • ltx
  • motion
  • photoleap
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