At Pathway Productions, we’re always looking for ways to push creative boundaries. When AI started making waves in the industry, we saw an opportunity—but also had questions.
Could AI streamline our workflow? Spark fresh ideas? Automate the repetitive tasks that slow down creativity?
We didn’t have all the answers, but we were ready to explore.
To make the most of AI’s potential, we brought in a student intern with a background in Python programming. We trained him internally, aligning his technical skills with our creative vision and production needs. This approach helped us customize AI tools rather than just adapting to off-the-shelf solutions.
Our journey started where every innovative creator begins: open-source AI models.
Exploring Hugging Face & GitHub
Our first step was setting up accounts on Hugging Face and GitHub, two essential platforms for AI development and collaboration.
Hugging Face provided access to a vast collection of pre-trained AI models—covering everything from text-to-speech and image generation to animation assistance. It became our go-to resource for testing AI capabilities and fine-tuning models for video production.
GitHub served as our central hub for managing AI-related code, customizing workflows, and collaborating with the open-source community. It gave us the structure to build a solid AI foundation for our projects.
Integrating ComfyUI – Our Visual AI Playground
Next, we installed ComfyUI, a powerful node-based interface for Stable Diffusion and other AI models. This was a game-changer.
With ComfyUI, we could:
✔️ Visually map out and test AI-driven workflows
✔️ Generate high-quality images, textures, and concept art
✔️ Refine outputs in real-time without diving into complex code
This tool allowed our creative team to stay hands-on while experimenting freely, without getting bogged down in backend development.
Developing Custom AI Nodes
As we gained confidence, we started building our own custom AI nodes and uploading them to GitHub.
This step allowed us to:
🔧 Automate repetitive production tasks
🔧 Design AI functions tailored specifically to our video pipeline
🔧 Fine-tune outputs to match our brand’s unique style
By customizing AI at this level, we bridged the gap between generic AI models and the specialized needs of professional video production.
Fine-Tuning Models with Hugging Face AutoTrain
To take our AI integration further, we used AutoTrain on Hugging Face—a no-code tool for fine-tuning AI models with our own data.
This helped us create:
🎨 More refined, high-quality outputs that aligned with our creative vision
🎨 AI-generated assets that felt uniquely ours, rather than generic templates
🎨 A smarter, data-driven approach to content creation
Instead of relying on standard AI models, we could now train models to fit our artistic and production style.
Enhancing AI Prompting with Ollama
AI performance depends heavily on the quality of prompts—so we integrated Ollama, a local LLM that improved our prompt generation inside ComfyUI.
With Ollama, we could:
💡 Generate smarter, context-aware prompts automatically
💡 Refine instructions for image and video creation
💡 Iterate faster with better accuracy
By improving how we guided AI, we made our workflows faster, more efficient, and more precise.
How AI Transformed Our Production Workflow
Every tool we integrated played a key role in our AI-driven transformation:
- Hugging Face → Gave us access to world-class AI models for fine-tuning
- GitHub → Allowed us to store, modify, and collaborate on AI development
- ComfyUI → Empowered us with a hands-on, visual AI workflow
- AutoTrain → Let us tailor AI models with our own data, without coding
- Ollama → Improved AI outputs by generating smarter prompts
Today, our workflow is faster, more intelligent, and more creative than ever. AI helps us prototype quickly, experiment at scale, and maintain full artistic control—all while saving time on manual tasks.
Final Thoughts
AI isn’t a replacement for creativity—it’s a creative amplifier.
At Pathway Productions, we’ve embraced AI to build a production environment where technology serves imagination, not the other way around.
For video professionals wondering when to take the leap—the time is now.
The sooner you adapt, the sooner you’ll lead.
