Cross-Product Creative Challenge #12: Action Movie Poster

I kicked things off in Firefly, where I generated the base image and got the overall vibe just right. Once I had something solid, I jumped over to Photoshop—because let’s be honest, that’s where the real magic (and chaos) happens.

In Photoshop, I added all the text and copy, tweaking fonts and placement until it actually looked like a legit movie poster instead of something I made at 2 a.m. (which… might still be true). I also brought in the original image and upscaled it to the correct dimensions—27 x 40—so it would hold up as a proper poster and not look like a pixelated relic from the early internet.

Honestly, I had way too much fun with this. I grew up loving the Ninja Turtles, so naturally I decided to create my own version of mutant ninjas—because why not reinvent greatness? Then I thought, “Let’s make this even better,” and cast the crew from Stranger Things as the stars of my imaginary blockbuster. It just felt right.

And of course, there was only one logical choice for director: Michael Bay. Because if you’re going to have mutant ninjas and a bunch of kids fighting chaos, you might as well add explosions, slow-motion walks, and at least three things blowing up in the background for no reason.

All in all, this project turned into a perfect mix of nostalgia, chaos, and creativity—and I’d absolutely do it again.

Prompt:

Firefly_Flux_A shiny metal robot making a fist with its right hand while facing a crowd of people in horror Flux2[pro]

Generative extent, text, and stroke were added in Photoshop.

The idea was based on my own original sci-fi short story.

The process:

1. Image generation. I began by creating the core visual assets: characters in suits (both close‑up and full‑body), a background of an underwater glacier ravine, the silhouette of a falling man in a deep‑sea diving suit, and a robotic claw.

2. First poster draft. Next, I assembled the initial composition - placing all generated elements together and determining the positioning of the title and credits.

3. Image refinement. I extended, upscaled, and edited all assets needed for the final layout. Since the poster format was 3000×4500 px, I prepared high‑quality source materials to maintain clarity and detail.

4. Main image creation. I built the final key visual for the poster. Color grading in Camera Raw and adding film grain were the finishing touches that unified the entire image.

5. Layout and typography. I placed the main image into an InDesign document and added the essential copy: title, tagline, credits, and release date. I refined the artwork once more in Photoshop to improve balance and remove distractions (such as unwanted green particles).

6. Title effects. The final step was designing the title treatment. I explored several creative directions, but I knew I wanted chromatic aberration, subtle blur, and glitch elements to reinforce the sci‑fi aesthetic.

Tools used: Adobe Firefly (image generation), Firefly Boards and Nano Banana (character consistency and suit design), Photoshop (image editing and final composition), InDesign (layout design), Illustrator and Adobe Fonts (typographic exploration).

Did let some daydreaming slip into my work….

What a fun challenge. I wrote in Firefly “Create a movie poster for an original apocalyptic action-adventure film called “Dumb Asses” about 2 teenage boys in Manhattan during the summer. They are surrounded by sewer people. Use photographic imagery.” Whenever I wrote zombie into firefly it never does the prompt. lol

Thnx as always Alan. This film is an ​@AlanGilbertson production in case you didn’t know 🙂

Image in FF. Then asjustments in Ps, copy in Ai and final placement and export from Id with elemetns from FF.

poster with firefly

So here are some images that Firefly generated with my prompt. 
I wish I had more room for my prompts. I can get very detailed when I used ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
But I ran out of room when using Firefly.