Adobe plans to add generative AI capabilities to its Premiere Pro editing platform and is exploring the update with third-party AI technologies including OpenAI’s Sora, as well as models from Runway and Pika Labs, making it easier “to draw on the strengths of different models” within everyday workflows, according to Adobe. Editors will gain the ability to generate and add objects into scenes or shots, remove unwanted elements with a click, and even extend frames and footage length. The company is also developing a video model for its own Firefly AI for video and audio work in Premiere Pro. Continue reading Adobe Considers Sora, Pika and Runway AI for Premiere Pro

Unity has officially released its Muse AI platform for general use in early access. Muse is a suite of AI-powered tools that streamline game development. The Muse package includes Muse Chat to source answers and generate code, Muse Sprite for 2D sprites generation, and Muse Texture, providing 2D and 3D ready textures. Originally announced in July, Muse is now offered at a $30 per month subscription. Also announced at the firm’s annual Unite conference was the next major software update, Unity 6, for 2024, and the deployment of Unity Cloud to connect development tools across projects and pipelines. Continue reading Unity Opens Beta for Muse AI, Sets General Release for 2024

Gable.ai is emerging out of stealth mode this week with $7 million in seed funding and a plan to bridge the gap between data gathering and the artificial intelligence applications that rely on that data to function. The startup’s approach is based on the premise that “data modeling is often an afterthought” at the AI stage, where software developers are stuck working with whatever the data crew has handed them. Gable.ai aims to create a more structured workflow between the two, where end-uses are taken into account at the front end resulting in clean data optimized for AI use. Continue reading Gable.ai Aims to Reinvent How Data Engineers and AI Interact

IBM and Adobe are expanding their partnership to help enterprise clients accelerate their content supply chains using artificial intelligence including Adobe Sensei GenAI, released in March, and Adobe Firefly, now in beta, as well as Adobe’s generative AI models. IBM says it will create a portfolio of Adobe-specific consulting services. Leveraging Adobe’s AI solutions and IBM Consulting services, the companies aim to “help clients build an integrated content supply chain ecosystem that drives collaboration, optimizes creativity, increases speed, automates tasks and enhances stakeholders’ visibility across design and creative projects.” Continue reading IBM and Adobe Advance AI Content Workflow for Enterprise

Vimeo is leveraging artificial intelligence to automate video editing, and says its new AI suite of tools enables the creation of “a fully produced video in minutes by generating scripts from text prompts, recording videos in one take, and editing content as easily as a Word doc,” the company claims. Features include recording using a built-in screen teleprompter and the ability to quickly delete unwanted filler words (“ums” and “uhs”) and long pauses. The video hosting and sharing platform is rolling out the AI tools in July as part of the $20 per month standard subscription. Continue reading Vimeo Says Its AI Makes Video as Easy to Edit as Word Docs

Epic Games is releasing MetaHuman Animator, which lets developers create nuanced facial animation by capturing an actor’s performance using an iPhone or stereo head-mounted camera system and a PC. The system eliminates the need for manual touch-ups, according to Epic, capturing “every subtle expression, look, and emotion” and replicating it onto a digital character for a faster performance capture workflow that allows more creative control. The new feature set uses a 4D solver to combine video and depth data with a MetaHuman representation of the performer. The animation is produced locally using GPU hardware, providing final results in “minutes.” Continue reading New Tool from Epic Simplifies High-Fidelity Facial Animation

Google-backed AI startup Runway has released Gen-2, an early entry among commercially available text-to-video models. Previously waitlisted in limited release, the commercial availability is impactful, since text-to-video is predicted as the next big bump in artificial intelligence, following the explosion of AI use generating text and images. While Runway’s solution may not be ready to serve as a professional video tool, this is the next step in development of tech expected to impact media and entertainment. Filmmaker Joe Russo recently predicted that within the next two years, AI may have the ability to create feature films. Continue reading Runway Makes Next Advance in Consumer Text-to-Video AI

On the heels of its success debuting the new Bing AI search engine, Microsoft has revamped Teams, promising twice the performance using half the memory resources and allowing users to appear as 3D avatars in video meetings. Teams now features AI and the interface has been redesigned. For now, the new Teams is available only to those who opt-in to a public preview for Windows users, though Microsoft plans to make it more widely available (including on Apple devices) later this  year. In January, Microsoft reported Teams had 280 million monthly active users, up from 250 million in July 2021. Continue reading Microsoft Upgrades Teams with Avatars, AI, Improved Speed

Adobe is plunging into the world of generative AI with Adobe Sensei GenAI, designed to leverage multiple large language models across the Adobe Experience Cloud and the real-time data management framework known as the Adobe Experience Platform. Adobe Firefly is the company’s new suite of creative generative AI models for the cloud. Its first two products are a text-to-image generator and an effects generator for typeface. Adobe is touting its image-creator as “designed to generate content safe for commercial use” in that the AI model was trained only on licensed or out-of-copyright work and shouldn’t expose users to liability. Continue reading Adobe Sensei GenAI Offers Firefly Image-Generator, Text FX

Apple has announced new 14- and 16-inch iterations of its MacBook Pro laptops, featuring Apple’s next-generation silicon. The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips turn the MacBook Pro into a portable workstation, able to tackle demanding tasks like effects rendering and color grading. Apple is promising up to 22 hours of battery life, the most ever in a Mac. The smaller model starts at $1,999, while entry level for the 16-inch is $2,499. Pre-orders began last week and delivery starts tomorrow. Apple is also releasing an updated Mac mini with M2 ($599) or M2 Pro ($1,299) chips. Continue reading Apple Debuts MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips

For those interested in the latest in digital storage for media and entertainment, the 2018 Creative Storage Conference is scheduled for June 7th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Culver City, California. Coughlin Associates is conducting a survey of digital storage requirements and practices for M&E professionals with results to be presented at the event. M&E professionals who complete the online survey and indicate their contact information at the end of the survey will receive a free full pass to the Creative Storage Conference. Coughlin Associates is also offering a $100 discount off full conference registration. Continue reading Creative Storage Conference Comes to Culver City Next Month

At a conference track on machine learning during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Amazon Web Services M&E worldwide technical leader Usman Shakeel described his company’s toolsets. Shakeel addressed up front the question of whether machine learning can replace human creativity. “Can content ever create itself?” he asked. He emphasized that, in today’s world, machine-learning (ML) tools are being used to create efficient workflows, and curate and extract massive amounts of metadata. Continue reading NAB 2018: AWS Machine-Learning Tools for Content Creation

With a team of 30 to 35 people, Netflix is creating apps to streamline parts of the production process, such as crew management, scheduling and budgeting. One app, dubbed Move, has been in beta with a few Netflix productions since November. Move, which was built as a progressive web app, replaces all the paperwork related to scheduling shoot days and distributing the script, sending email and SMS to notify the crew of any schedule changes. It was first tested on the second season of “Glow,” and since used on 10 different shoots. Continue reading Netflix Creates Apps for Production, Doubles Down on Mobile

At Sony’s Cine Gear Expo press conference, marketing and production manager Peter Crithary outlined available details of the company’s upcoming addition to its CineAlta line of digital cinema cameras. Key to this CineAlta is that the entire camera is being built new, from the ground up, and that it will feature a large full frame sensor, the first of its kind aimed at professional movie makers. The full sensor, at 36x24mm compares to the more commonly used Super 35mm sensor, at 24x18mm. The camera will be available in early 2018. Continue reading Sony Reveals Details of its Full Frame Digital Cinema Camera

The Cinema Content Creation Cloud, or C4, an open-source framework for media production using globally distributed resources, is detailed in a new white paper published today by the Entertainment Technology Center@USC. C4 enables interoperability between humans, organizations, databases, software applications, and networks, and is essential to the globally distributed workflows of media production. The framework, written by Joshua Kolden, is a product of ETC’s Project Cloud, a collaboration between studios and technology companies to address key issues as the entertainment industry migrates production into The Cloud. Continue reading ETC Publishes White Paper on C4 Cloud Production Framework