Re:Building Together EP 331 — Let's Build A Scene

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) · with co-host ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) · Tue, Sep 22 · 1:02:23 · 3 voices on mic (plus 2 times — @2times_eth — heckling helpfully from the reactions and DMs)

TL;DR

• Instead of the usual Tuesday build talk, CEELOS ran a live "build a scene" exercise: the room collectively chose characters, setting, art style and aspect ratio, and he prompted it into existence on air [8:13].
• The result: a rubber-hose-style Louvre scene starring CEELOS, Valerie and Baked's PFPs, generated twice (Gemini and Copilot) for comparison [31:09] [36:00 area].
• He then animated it in Grok twice — once with zero instruction, once with a directed prompt where Baked's invisible man knocks the Mona Lisa off the wall and everyone else bolts [44:00].
• The real content was the methodology: ChatGPT to build the prompt, saved wardrobe/character descriptions in Notes, a second model to generate, then tweak, then animate — and being honest about daily generation limits and AI watermarks [52:54].
• Closing news drop: Ultra Kingdoms (featuring Quirkies IP) is live on Xbox and PlayStation — billed as the first web3 product on all consoles [59:18].
• Recurring hazard of the format: hosting a Space while generating video on the same phone means rugging yourself out of your own room, repeatedly [38:16].

Highlights

[8:13] The premise. CEELOS opens episode 331 from the warehouse — day two working it solo — and pitches the format: rather than talk about building, they'd build a scene in real time so people could see "the way that my brain thinks" when he makes his edits.

[12:04] Casting. Valerie votes for all three of them, including Baked, who hadn't arrived yet. CEELOS notes Baked's invisible-man PFP is tricky but he's cracked it: "I have to give it the description more than anything because it kind of does its own thing."

[13:15] The Louvre, or "the lube." The setting lands on the Louvre and immediately becomes a spelling crisis, with 2 times thumbs-downing the first attempt from the audience. Once they get to L-O-U-V-R-E, CEELOS is stuck on the silent R, and the glass pyramid out front gets identified largely via the Da Vinci Code and Transformers [23:02]. As he put it: "but guys, we're NFT people, what do we know."

[15:21] Rubber hose, and a Junkyard tangent. Baked picks rubber hose as the art style and credits CEELOS and CK for getting him on the kick, which spins into the previous day's Whatnot stream with Junkyard of Creepy Club. CEELOS says Junkyard was stoked someone he knew won the Chucky piece — and that he himself bid on exactly one thing and was "almost immediately priced out" [17:01].

[20:17] The PFP screenshot archaeology. CEELOS confesses he's re-saved Valerie's PFP to his camera roll ten to fifteen times and needs a dedicated album. Baked one-ups him: he's got everyone's saved as "screenshotted and then screenshotted on screenshots, so the quality just keeps going down." This leads to Baked's Advent Calendar Challenge returning for round two [21:04], with CEELOS suggesting they recruit total beginners — the best part last time was watching people's prompting visibly level up week over week.

[27:02] Wardrobe department. The most granular stretch of the show: khaki cargos and black-and-white Vans for Baked ("my wardrobe is 90% black"), a purple teddy-bear hoodie with X eyes and a black nose, heart-shaped pink sunglasses, baggy blue denim and black tennis shoes for Valerie. CEELOS pastes his own description in from Notes, a habit he recommends — then immediately realizes he forgot to describe Valerie's hair [31:09].

[32:46] Mickey Mouse hands. Valerie's first reaction to the finished image: "why do I look like Mickey Mouse with white gloves?" Answer: that's rubber hose, that's the lore. CEELOS then runs the same prompt through Copilot for a head-to-head, which insists on picking one environment, then declares it can't be reached — "I am on Wi-Fi, sir. How dare you" [34:19] — before quietly producing an image anyway, watermarked, which he crops.

[38:16] Animate it and find out. He uploads the Mona Lisa version to Grok with the single instruction "animate this image," warns he may get rugged mid-generation, and does. Valerie holds the room. The result is a lot: "That was not what I was expecting it to do" [39:36].

[44:00] The directed version. Second pass with an actual scene: invisible man walks up to the Mona Lisa, knocks it off the wall, turns to the other two — who run — leaving him with an angry security guard who isn't even in the image. The AI invents the guard. It also invents a spare arm, which CEELOS flags as exactly the kind of thing he'd normally go back and fix [47:21], alongside a short riff on the magic of cutting away before the dialogue timing exposes you.

[51:11] Money, actually. Valerie mentions Bourbon wanting more animation work, and CEELOS admits Bourbon offered to pay him for a minute-plus Breaking Bad edit using his Claynosaurz — a ball he confesses he dropped. The point stands: people will pay for this. The dream version is a small web3 studio with him, 2 times and Baked as the go-to content team.

[59:18] Ultra Kingdoms. He closes with a find from scrolling X: an open-world multi-game title with Quirkies IP inside, now live on Xbox and PlayStation and claiming first-web3-product-on-all-consoles status. The selling detail is his son lighting up in the living room — "dad, it's a quirky" — recognizing the IP instantly.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "But wait, guys, we're NFT people. What do we know." — CEELOS, on failing to spell Louvre [13:15]
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• "I've got yours, Val's… everyone's just like screenshotted and then screenshotted on screenshots, so the quality just keeps going down." — Baked [20:17]
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• "Dang straight, it's all I wear anyways. My wardrobe is 90% black." — Baked, on the Vans [27:42]
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• "No, never show my legs or my toes." — ValerieKates, declining sandals [29:34]
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• "Why do I look like Mickey Mouse with white gloves?" — ValerieKates [32:46]
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• "All I ask of you is to occasionally walk up to the campfire and throw an extra log in there so that that flame keeps burning and the rest of us that are sitting around it, we continue telling our campfire stories." — CEELOS, closing [1:01:22]
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Who said what

• CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) — host, sole operator, and narrator of his own workflow: prompt construction in ChatGPT, saved character descriptions, Gemini vs. Copilot, Grok for animation, and a standing grudge against "made with AI" watermarks. Also the one repeatedly ejecting himself from his own Space to render video.
• ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) — co-host, calling in from the road after lunch with her surrogate dad Tom, fighting Vegas cell service. Chose the 16:9 movie ratio, specced her own character's outfit, held the room whenever CEELOS vanished, and surfaced Bourbon's interest in more animation work.
• Baked (@Bakedmetax) — arrived mid-build and picked rubber hose, which set the whole aesthetic. Brought the Advent Calendar Challenge news and the screenshot-of-a-screenshot PFP archive. Ended the episode as the invisible man left alone with a museum security guard.
• 2 times (@2times_eth) — not on mic, but present in spirit: thumbs-downed the Louvre misspelling in real time and DM'd Valerie the pyramid facts.

Worth a full listen

• [22:02]–[31:09] — The actual prompt being typed and spoken aloud, wardrobe question by wardrobe question. This is the part a summary can't replicate: you hear how loose and conversational the input is and how much of the result comes from small specific details.
• [38:16]–[48:30] — The two animation attempts back to back, including the host disappearing mid-sentence, Valerie narrating the gap, and the unprompted version turning out nothing like anyone expected before the directed Mona Lisa heist lands.
• [48:30]–[56:00] — CEELOS's unbroken riff on iteration, tool-stacking to dodge daily credit limits, voicing your own edits badly, and Mexican telenovela shot composition. Mostly one long monologue, and the most useful stretch in the episode if you're trying to actually make something.