Legal Questions Loom as OpenAI Widens Access to DALL-E

OpenAI is expanding its beta outreach for DALL-E 2 by inviting an additional one million waitlisted people to join the AI imaging platform over the coming weeks. DALL-E users will receive 50 credits during their first month of use and 15 credits every subsequent month, with each credit redeemable for an original DALL-E-prompted generation (returning four images) or an edit or variation prompt (which returns three images). Additional credits may be purchased in 115-generation increments for $15. Starting this month, users get rights to commercialize their DALL-E images. However, the move highlights the legal implications of AI and possible copyright infringement. Continue reading Legal Questions Loom as OpenAI Widens Access to DALL-E

iMovie 3.0 Automates Social Video Editing on iPhones, iPads

Apple’s iMovie 3.0 includes new features that make it easier for social users to create edited videos on the iPhone and iPad. Magic Movie will instantly generate videos from user-selected clips and photos, automatically adding transitions, effects and music, while Storyboards offer pre-made templates on which to build. The tools are designed to help “aspiring content creators and moviemakers learn to edit and improve their video storytelling skills,” Apple says, explaining that makers of DIY videos, tutorials, product reviews and the like are the targeted audience. Continue reading iMovie 3.0 Automates Social Video Editing on iPhones, iPads

Disney, Rutgers Scientists Use AI to Generate Storyboards

Disney Research and Rutgers University scientists just created an end-to-end model using artificial intelligence to produce a storyboard and video featuring text from movie screenplays. This kind of text-to-animation model is not new, but this research advances the state-of-the-art by producing animations without annotated data or pre-training. The researchers wrote that the system is “capable of handling complex sentences” and is intended to make creatives’ work “more efficient and less tedious.” Continue reading Disney, Rutgers Scientists Use AI to Generate Storyboards

Pixar Makes Its First Foray into Virtual Reality With ‘Coco VR’

On November 22, Disney-Pixar will release the animated feature “Coco,” which takes place during Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday honoring the dead. Pixar has also debuted its first VR experience, “Coco VR,” created in partnership with Oculus. “Coco VR” is available on Rift headsets, with a Gear VR version out next week. Pixar dubs the experience a “social adventure” where participants embody skeletal characters and explore the Land of the Dead and the holiday, to learn about the film, the festival and the traditions. Continue reading Pixar Makes Its First Foray into Virtual Reality With ‘Coco VR’

NAB 2017: Oculus Details Journey to VR Film ‘Dear Angelica’

Oculus Story Studio founder/technical director Max Planck was invited to the ETC conference on AR/VR at NAB to discuss his company’s creation of “Dear Angelica,” a 13-minute dreamlike VR tale of how we remember our loved ones. The film, which played to great acclaim at the last Sundance Film Festival, is notable for the fact that it was entirely hand-painted inside VR space, by illustrator/art director Wesley Allsbrook, and written and directed by Saschka Unseld. Planck described how the inspiration for the film came out of graphic novels. Continue reading NAB 2017: Oculus Details Journey to VR Film ‘Dear Angelica’

New App Brings the Magic of Disney Animation to the iPad

Disney has launched a $13.99 iOS app for the iPad that explores the animation and history of all 53 animated Disney films. “Disney Animated” features interactive images, multi-layer animated clips, interviews with animators — and allows users to animate authentic Disney 3D character models and control a Disney visual effects simulation. The comprehensive app is a collaboration between Disney Interactive, Walt Disney Animation Studios and London-based app studio Touch Press. Continue reading New App Brings the Magic of Disney Animation to the iPad