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Introduction

I had 30 free minutes this morning, which is a rarity. When Google Gemini prompted me to test a new feature, I couldn’t resist. The new feature allows you to upload a picture and it will use that picture to create a video in 1-2 minutes. You are given a limit of three trials in a day, and this used version 2.5 Flash.

In the tangled web of my brain, the first picture I could think of using for this test was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Being a geologically astute person, I remember standing near the tower a few months ago wondering what would happen if an earthquake struck at that time.

I have also been a long-time fan of my friend KC Prendiville, who is a master working with digital media to create scenes that look perfectly real but are created by computer and his talented brain! KC has been doing this type of work long before AI arrived on the scene to give us mere mortals the ability to play in his playground.

This question about the fate of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in an earthquake seemed like a perfect test for Google Gemini! After all, I only had about 10 minutes to run the test and then 20 minutes to write this article.

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The Pictures I Used To Create the Movies

This is the first picture I used to make the first two videos. This is a pano photo shows the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right hand side and the other beautiful buildings that accompany it.

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The second picture I used to make the third video was an isolated picture of the Tower, to give Gemini a better chance to more accurately simulate the collapse of the tower.

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The Resulting Videos

As promised by Google, the videos were created in 1-2 min.

Trial 1 – Here is the simple prompt I used:

Create an earthquake that causes the leaning tower of Pisa to collapse!

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Trial 2 – Here is the simple prompt I used:

The leaning tower of Pisa is the tower on the right side of this image. Generate an earthquake with enough intensity that it causes the tower to fully collapse!

Version 2 – An earthquake impact on the Leaning Tower of Pisa Courtyard

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Trial 3 – Here is the simple prompt I used:

This is the leaning tower of Pisa, in Pisa, Italy. Add ground movement due to an earthquake that causes the tower to collapse in the direction that it currently is leaning! Make this as realistic as possible, without explosions, but rather with a slow tilting followed by a collapse.

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Results

This was a short but fun experiment. I wanted to document this so that I can do it again to see how the technology progresses in the future.

One of the most interesting results for me happened in the third video, where people are shown moving around the Tower as it collapsed. I didn’t ask Gemini to add that feature to the video.

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