The Legend of the Whortnic began in the late 1990s as a story I originally envisioned as a children’s book. Set deep in the Ozarks, the tale follows Larry, a rugged old mountain man whose life is forever changed after witnessing a creature unlike anything he has ever seen before. Stubby and pudgy in appearance,
yet strangely frightening, the creature bears teeth like a lion’s and leaves Larry haunted by the encounter. What begins as curiosity soon becomes obsession, as Larry spends years of his life tracking and hunting the creature, always just out of reach. In time, he gives the mysterious being its name—The Whortnic.
Although the idea stayed alive in my imagination for decades, I never had the tools to fully realize it. At the time, bringing the creature and its world to life would have required access to expensive CGI production and resources that were simply not available to an independent creator. Today, that has changed. With the help of modern AI-driven tools—Flux 2, Gemini Flash/Pro, OpenAI,
Veo 3, Suno—alongside Photoshop 2026 and Adobe Premiere Pro, I was finally able to tell this story in ways I never dreamed possible. Even with these powerful technologies, the process was far from effortless. Achieving the exact look and mood for each scene required extensive trial and refinement, and stitching all of the visuals together in Adobe Premiere Pro proved to be a demanding task.
In total, I spent over 40 hours creating a three-minute video. Throughout the process, I stayed true to the original vision by incorporating my hand-drawn character sketches from the 1990s,
using modern tools to breathe new life into them while preserving their original spirit. After years of wondering what this could be, I’m incredibly proud and happy to finally bring The Legend of the Whortnic to life. ~Shad