Creative Workflow Roundup: Autodesk’s Wonder Animation AI, Recraft V3 Image Model Tops Midjourney and Flux, Apple’s New M4 Macs, Runway and DreamCut Updates, and UMG’s Ethical AI Music
In This Week’s Roundup: Wonder Animation redefines 3D scene creation with Autodesk, and Recraft V3 takes the lead in AI image generation. Runway offers fresh video-gen capabilities, while Apple’s new M4 Macs pack power for creatives. Universal Music Group dives into ethical AI, while tools like ReelFarm automate content for social media at scale. And that’s not even all that we covered—what a week!
Wonder Animation: Autodesk’s New AI Tool for Animated Films
The News: Wonder Dynamics, recently acquired by Autodesk, has rolled out the beta for Wonder Animation, a pioneering AI-driven feature in its Wonder Studio toolset. This release leverages Video to 3D Scene technology to transform live-action video into fully animated, editable 3D scenes. By supporting various camera angles and shot types, this technology allows producers to capture any scene with a typical camera and enable AI to reconstruct it into 3D animation, complete with editable assets such as characters, lighting, and camera angles. Wonder Animation places a strong emphasis on maintaining the artist's creative control over each element, from character animation to environment design. The tool currently supports popular software integrations like Maya, Blender, and Unreal, marking a significant step in accessible, AI-enhanced production for animation professionals.
Lab Notes: With a growing array of tools for animated media, producers now have more options than ever. For those focused on 3D scene creation, Wonder Animation’s Video to 3D Scene technology stands out. This tool is ideal for animators who want to experiment with AI but still need final control over entire scenes, from camera angles to lighting. Recent advancements like Runway’s Act-One continue to push boundaries in 2D animation, offering more detailed control over facial expressions. It’s wild how many powerful creative tools are popping up, especially for producers on a budget who want to dive into animation.
Recraft V3 Takes Top Spot in Hugging Face’s Text-to-Image Benchmark
The News: Recraft’s new V3 model has risen to the top of Hugging Face’s Text-to-Image Benchmark, surpassing models from Midjourney, OpenAI, and other major image generation platforms. Known for its high text generation quality and strong anatomical accuracy, Recraft V3 also excels in understanding complex prompts and delivering images with a “refined aesthetic”. This new model uniquely supports long-text image generation, precise text positioning, and the layering of text with other images, making it a versatile tool for complex graphic designs. Recraft V3 also introduces a vector image generation capability, from simple icons to intricate vector art, and provides a set of AI image editing tools for end-to-end design. It’s available through desktop and mobile apps, as well as an API.
