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| Figure 1. Skypen teleportation platform. |
Earlier this year (see this blog post) I tried making an alternative version of the game hussade that involved both an upper playing level and a deep lower level. The image-generating AIs all struggled to depict that Sci Fi playing field for Tricursu. What if the bullpens in baseball were moved so as to be conveniently close to the pitching mound (see Figure 1)? This seemed to be an easier challenge for text-to-image generation.
As described in my previous blog post, I've been experimenting with Google's Flow Music. I had Claude make some lyrics for a song titled "Designated Fielder" and Google's Flow Music generated the song (lyrics shown below).
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| Designated Fielder (red shirt). |
Bottom of the ninth at Metropolis Park
Metro down by one, the crowd gone dark
Big Ricky Suárez toes the rubber slow
Skypen camera blinkin', ready to go
Designated fielder — that's ol' Boomer Hayes
Six-foot-seven, weirdest man for days
Ex-Olympic gymnast, former mime
They say he once caught lightning doing time
CHORUS
The mound blinked once, the mound blinked twice
Boomer Hayes materialized in a trice
Where the pitcher stood there's nothing there
Just a big man falling from the air!
VERSE 2
Suárez wound up, camera caught the motion
Boomer felt the skypen start its locomotion
But the teleporter hiccuped, some technician's fault
Boomer materialized mid-somersault
He landed on the mound facing second base
Ball screaming toward the infield at a blistering pace
Lined right at his shin, bounced off his knee
Ricocheted off his helmet — into the catcher's mitt for free!
CHORUS 2
The mound blinked once, the mound blinked twice
Boomer Hayes materialized in a trice
The umpire scratched his head and checked the book
Nobody covered THAT in the rulebook!
BRIDGE
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| Pitcher was removed by teleportation. |
"Ladies and gentlemen — the official ruling — ball deflected off a LEGALLY PRESENT fielder — who was TECHNICALLY facing the wrong direction — batter called OUT on the most accidental putout in the one-hundred-and-seventy-year history of Major League Baseball!"
VERSE 3
Boomer stands up, raises both his hands
Crowd goes absolutely bananas in the stands
Suárez materializes back upon the mound
Takes one look at Boomer, falls down on the ground
The opposing manager charges from the dugout screaming
The umpires huddle, rulebook pages streaming
Three commissioners watching from a private booth
Nobody prepared for this particular truth
FINAL CHORUS
The mound blinked once, the mound blinked twice
Boomer Hayes will NOT be taking your advice
Backwards, upside-down, discombobulated
Greatest out in history, PERFECTLY COMPLICATED!
OUTRO
Sound prompt: slow, reverent
They retired his jersey, retired his platform too
Retired the teleporter — serial number two
The plaque in Cooperstown reads clear as day:
"He didn't know where he was — but he made the play."
(Crowd cheering, fade out)
Me: Claude, imagine this science fiction scenario. Imagine the use of a "designated fielder" for the pitcher position in baseball and the idea of teleporting the pitcher off the field during a game, a fraction of a second after each pitch is thrown towards the catcher. Similarly, the "designated fielder" waits in a “Skypen” until the pitch is thrown. The "designated fielder" is teleported onto the field and arrives behind the pitcher's mound a half second before each pitch is thrown.
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| Video frame: "first base". |
Claude: {the red text, below, is Claude's thought process}
The user has shared a fun science fiction scenario about teleportation in baseball, complete with a song about a teleportation malfunction. They've also uploaded an image showing what a "Skypen" looks like - it's a suspended glass enclosure above a baseball stadium where players wait to be teleported onto the field.
They want me to engage with this scenario. Let me look at the image description carefully - it shows a futuristic baseball stadium (Metropolis Stadium) with a glass-enclosed box suspended above the infield, containing what appear to be holographic or teleported players/figures in baseball uniforms. This is the "Skypen" concept.
The user asked "What could go wrong?" and then provided a song about what went wrong. I should engage with both the worldbuilding concept and the song itself. Let me think about what they might want - probably some engagement with the scenario's logic, the song's quality, and maybe some suggestions for improving it as a Flow Music piece.
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| Video frame: teleportation. |
- It has a clear narrative arc - setup, malfunction, accidental out, ruling, aftermath
- Character work is good - Big Ricky Suárez and Boomer Hayes are vivid
- The humor escalates nicely
- The bridge with the carnival barker is a great comedic device
- The outro is touching and ties it together with the Cooperstown plaque
What could I offer here?
- Comments on the worldbuilding ("what could go wrong")
- Comments on the song itself
- Suggestions for Flow Music production instructions
Actually, re-reading the prompt, the user said "Here is a song that describes a teleportation malfunction during a game..." - so they're sharing the song with me and presumably want my reaction/engagement with it, possibly to help format it for Flow Music or develop it further.
Let me think about what they're asking. They gave me the song and the image.
{The blue text, blow, is Claude's actual reply}
The Skypen image is perfect for the concept — that suspended glass enclosure hovering over the infield, with players visible inside waiting to be teleported, is exactly the right combination of high-tech and slightly absurd. It reads like a luxury skybox crossed with a holding pen, which is very on-brand for a sport that already has a bullpen.
As for "what could go wrong" — you've identified the funniest category of failure (timing desync during transit), but the scenario has a beautiful catalog of additional disaster modes:
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| Video frame: she runs behind home-plate. |
Overlap conflicts: What if the pitcher is slow leaving and the designated fielder arrives simultaneously? Two bodies, one coordinate. This is the one the rulebook writers have nightmares about.
Orientation drift: Your song nails this — the system apparently teleports position but not facing direction reliably. A fielder who arrives facing the outfield has about 300 milliseconds to process that a screaming line drive is heading toward the back of his head.
Skypen overcrowding: During a long inning, multiple substitutions could mean three or four large athletes stacked in a glass box forty feet above the infield. The fire marshal has opinions.
Now, the song itself is genuinely excellent. The Cooperstown plaque at the end is the perfect landing — it earns the sentiment because the comedy built under it. "He didn't know where he was — but he made the play" is a great epitaph for an accidental hero.
A few craft observations: the line "They say he once caught lightning doing time" is your most compressed worldbuilding — it implies a whole backstory in eight words, and it works because it's never explained. The escalating list in Verse 3 (opposing manager, umpire huddle, three commissioners) hits the right bureaucratic-chaos rhythm.
Do you want to format this for Flow Music production, or are you still developing the lyrics? The full text is probably over 3000 characters as written, so there'd be some trimming decisions to make if you want to run it through Flow.
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| Video frame: she takes a jump shot. |
However, in the generated video, many things go wrong. The teleportation of the pitcher off of the field is depicted in a reasonable way. However, the teleportation platform is also removed from the playing field, leaving the designated fielder to reach down with her bare throwing hand and pick up the baseball which has appeared just in front of her left knee. She then takes three steps forward and arrives at home-plate, running slightly past home-plate. Meanwhile, what appears to be the shortstop has also run towards home-plate. The designated fielder jumps up and back-hands the baseball to the shortstop. The shortstop runs in the direction of first base, carrying the baseball in his glove. However, at the same time, another baseball passes in front of the shortstop, headed in the direction of first base. After taking four running steps in the direction of first base, the shortstop is seen arriving close to what looks like a duplicate copy of home-plate, where the designated fielder is waiting. Not bothering to take the baseball out of his glove with his throwing hand, the shortstop shovel passes the ball to nobody and the ball passes in front of the designated fielder.
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| Video frame: the shortstop also has a ball in his glove. |
Claude: {the red text, below, is Claude's thought process}
The user wants me to help craft an improved text prompt for Google's Flow video generation tool. They want to depict:
- A pitcher being teleported off the field (dematerializing)
- "The teleportation platform REMAINING on the field
- The designated fielder (woman in red) running FROM the platform area toward home plate
- She fields a bunted ball
- She throws to first base
- First baseman catches it
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| Figure 2. Image by Google's Flow (see a full sized version of this image). |
- The teleportation platform was removed along with the pitcher
- The designated fielder picked up the ball with her bare throwing hand (no glove)
- Duplicate home plates appeared
- A shortstop appeared unnecessarily and created confusion
- Extra baseballs appeared
- The sequence got confused
I need to write a very clear, sequential prompt that:
- Explicitly states the platform stays on the field
- Keeps the action simple and linear
- Avoids ambiguity about who does what
- Specifies the glove hand
- Keeps it to just two players (designated fielder and first baseman) to avoid the shortstop confusion
- Is very explicit about spatial relationships
Let me think about how Flow video generation prompts work best - they tend to need very sequential, shot-by-shot descriptions with clear spatial anchors. The key issues were:
- Too many characters getting involved
- Spatial confusion (duplicate home plates)
- The platform disappearing
Let me craft a careful prompt. I should think about breaking it into very clear sequential shots/beats, and being very explicit about what DOESN'T move (the platform stays put).
Here's my attempt:
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| Baseball on Mars? |
The scene opens on a futuristic baseball stadium. A circular teleportation platform sits in the position of the pitcher's mound, glowing with blue energy. A male pitcher in a dark uniform with blue glowing lines stands on the platform.
{The blue text, blow, is Claude's actual reply}
The core problems in the failed generation are worth diagnosing before writing the fix, because each one suggests a specific prompt repair:
The platform disappeared because Flow inferred it was part of the pitcher and teleported with him. The shortstop appeared because "fielding a bunt" is training-data-associated with multiple infielders converging. The duplicate home plate is a spatial anchor failure — Flow lost track of where the base was. The bare hand pickup happened because the glove wasn't specified at the moment of pickup.
Here is a revised prompt built to address each of those failure modes specifically:
REVISED FLOW VIDEO PROMPT:
A futuristic baseball stadium, daytime. A circular glowing teleportation platform sits permanently fixed into the ground at the pitcher's mound position. A male pitcher in a dark uniform with blue circuit-line markings stands on the platform. His body becomes translucent, flickering, then dissolves in a burst of tiny sparks. A faint luminous mist drifts briefly above the platform and dissipates. The circular teleportation platform remains on the ground, still glowing, unmoved and unchanged.
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| Google's Flow loves cables. |
Cut to a side-angle view: the baseball travels through the air in an arc toward first base. Only two players are visible — the woman near home plate and one first baseman standing on the first base bag. The first baseman catches the ball in his glove. The batter runs through first base a half-step late. Crowd cheers.
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| The Designated_Fielder character. |
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| Characters are named and assigned a voice. |
Me: Claude, I was satisfied with the video of the teleportation event. Using the Flow feature for naming characters, I defined the Designated Fielder (the player in the red shirt) as the name character "Designated_Fielder". I provided Google Flow with the two images that I just uploaded as sample frames for the video.
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| The "Start" reference frame for the video. |
Here is a description of the resulting video. The batted baseball bounces on the teleportation platform and is fielded by the Designated Fielder just behind the teleportation platform. She catches the ball in her bare throwing hand. Meanwhile, behind the Designated Fielder, a runner wearing a batting helmet has run from the direction of third base to second base and then turns and runs towards first base. The Designated Fielder turns and throws the ball to the first baseman. Rather than change the camera angle to now include first base, the second baseman has magically transformed into a first baseman who is standing on first base.
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| The "End" reference frame for the video. |
Claude, suggest a new text prompt that is a modified version of 'prompt 2' that might allow Google's Flow to show the base runner going from home to first base.
Claude: {the red text, below, is Claude's thought process}
The user wants to fix several specific problems in the Flow-generated video:
- The base runner is going the wrong direction (from third base to second base to first base, instead of from home plate to first base)
- The camera angle isn't cutting to show first base properly
- First base is being rendered to look like home plate (flat with batter's boxes)
- The Designated Fielder is running to first base and throwing a second ball
- The ball is being fielded with the bare throwing hand instead of the glove
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| Figure 3. Video frame. A base runner heads to second base from third! |
- Be very explicit about the base runner's path: FROM home plate, running in a straight line TOWARD first base (along the first base line)
- Be very explicit that first base is a white square bag on the right side of the infield
- Explicitly state the camera cut to show first base from the correct angle
- Keep the Designated Fielder stationary after throwing - she does NOT run to first base
- Make sure the ball is fielded into the glove on the LEFT hand
Let me think about what specific language might help Flow understand the spatial layout better.
The runner going from 3rd to 2nd to 1st is really strange - Flow seems to have gotten confused about the base path. I need to be very explicit that the batter has just hit the ball and is running from home plate (where he was batting) directly to first base along the first base line on the right side of the infield.
The "first base looks like home plate" problem - I should describe first base as "a white square canvas bag sitting on top of the grass at the right corner of the infield diamond."
The Designated Fielder running to first base and throwing again - I need to explicitly say she remains near the pitcher's mound area after throwing and does NOT run to first base.
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| Figure 4. Video frame. Runner approaches first base. |
{The blue text, blow, is Claude's actual reply}
The video's failures are very diagnosable here. The runner traveling from third to second to first is Flow's default "baserunner" mental model — it's pulling from the most common baserunning scenario (runner already on base) rather than a batter who just hit the ball. The first base / home plate confusion is a shape-matching error: Flow knows home plate as a distinctive pentagon, but apparently its "first base" representation is also flat and chalked, suggesting it anchored on the wrong base entirely. The Designated Fielder running to first and throwing a second ball is Flow trying to "complete the out" with the character it's been tracking.
Here is a revised prompt targeting each of those failure modes:
REVISED PROMPT:
A circular glowing teleportation platform is permanently fixed into the ground where the pitcher's mound would normally be. The woman in the red shirt is the Designated_Fielder.
The Designated_Fielder runs forward from the teleportation platform toward home plate and fields a slowly rolling baseball off the infield grass into the glove on her left hand. She straightens and throws the baseball overhand toward first base. After releasing the throw, the Designated_Fielder stops moving and remains standing near the teleportation platform. She does not run toward first base.
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| Figure 5. Video frame. Claude's revised prompt. |
First base is a white square canvas bag resting on top of the grass at the far right corner of the infield diamond. The first baseman in a matching red uniform stands with one foot on the white square bag at first base, arm raised, ready to catch.
The camera angle shifts to a side view showing both the thrown baseball in the air and the white square first base bag in the same frame. The first baseman catches the ball while his foot remains on the bag. The batter runs through first base a half-step after the catch. The crowd cheers.
The most important additions are the explicit statement that the batter is leaving home plate for the first time, the description of the runner's straight-line path along the right side of the infield, and the explicit geometry of first base as a white square bag. Calling the first baseman's uniform "matching red" may also help Flow keep him visually distinct from the base runner.
AI Comedy Baseball. Here (below) are the four short Sci Fi baseball video clips that Flow generated. Watch for a base runner running from 3rd base to 2nd base (see Figure 3, above), then from 2nd base to first base (see Figure 4, above) and a player throwing the baseball at another player's feet (see Figure 5, above):
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| Figure 6. "Rememembber". |
As seen above in Figure 2, sometimes Google's Flow does not try very hard to correctly place provided wording into images. However, precise inclusion of large amounts of text in Flow-generated images can become likely if the text prompt includes something like: "include all of the song lyrics" (see examples in the song liner notes that can be viewed here).
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| Figure 7. Listen to the song "Remember When". |
My conclusion: Google's Flow video struggles to generate realistic video for a science fiction version of baseball in which teleportation of players takes place. I might be able to get better results using the AI "Agent" that is now a feature of Google's Flow, but the first time I tried to use that AI "Agent" it seemed more trouble than it was worth and the interface seemed clunky, if not defective. The AI agent in Flow Music (called the 'Producer') seems more functional and helpful at this time.
Next:
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