newslounge.co · Dec 14, 2023

Good Morning. Welcome back,

Today’s menu:

• End of an era: an E3 Saga

• Award winning AI short film

• Bring your ideas to life using AI

• Epic Games lawsuit

• The race for AI dominance

-Ardy

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HEADLINE

End of an Era: E3 Concludes Its Two-Decade Run as the Video Game Industry's Premier Event

It’s official: E3 has been shut down as the video game industry’s biggest convention and media platform for good.

After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories,” the Entertainment Software Association, the video game trade association, said on its X account Tuesday.

What happened?

E3 experienced its first cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a virtual event in 2021 and a planned physical comeback in 2022, which was ultimately called off for both formats. Historically attracting up to 65,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors, E3 was a major industry event.

However, E3's relevance was challenged as gaming companies began hosting their own virtual events for announcements and new product launches. Direct-to-consumer livestreams, such as Nintendo's Directs, Sony's State of Play, and even presentations by smaller studios like Yacht Club Games, raised questions about the necessity of E3's physical gatherings.

The last E3, held in June 2019, was the first to allow the general public to attend – and drew more than 66,000 people.

CASE STUDY

How To Use AI To Make an AWARD WINNING Short Film

Ever thought about making a short film that's so good it bags an award? Well, guess what? AI's not just for tech geeks anymore – it's the new secret sauce in filmmaking.

Let’s dive into the main steps on how AI can bring your idea to life.

1-Storytelling and Scriptwriting:

• ChatGPT: Used to brainstorm story ideas based on the contest requirements and generate 15 different story combinations.

• Personal Input: He wasn't satisfied with any of the AI-generated ideas, so he came up with his own story idea based on the elements provided (creature from space, grocery store, exit door).

• ChatGPT (again): Used to help structure the filmmaker's story idea.

2-Visuals and Design:

• Midjourney: Used to generate hundreds of still images based on cinematic prompts for the grocery store and the creature design.

• Personal Input: The filmmaker adjusted the prompts and used specific reference images to refine the look and feel of the grocery store and the jellyfish blob creatures.

3-Image to Video Generation:

• Runway Gen 2: Used to generate video footage based on the still images from Midjourney. The filmmaker tweaked the settings, regenerated shots, and kept at it to get the desired results.

4-Video Editing and Polishing:

• Topaz AI: Used to upscale the video files to 4K resolution and add film grain to reduce the AI-generated smoothness.

• Adobe Premiere Pro: Used for the final editing, including adding additional grain filters, film scratches, and a fast blur effect to create a bloom.

5-Voiceover and Audio:

• Actor Performance: The filmmaker wrote the voiceover based on the story outline and recorded it on their phone.

• Altered AI: Used to morph the filmmaker's voice to sound more like a professional voiceover actor.

• Adobe Text-to-Speech AI: Used to generate subtitles from the voiceover recording.

Overall, the filmmaker used a combination of AI tools and his own creativity to create a short film in under 16 hours. The AI tools were primarily used for generating ideas, creating visuals, and editing, while the filmmaker provided the overall direction and human touch to the project.

SPOTLIGHT

AI Meets Art: PJ Richardson's Groundbreaking Short Film at Barcelona's Digital Art Exhibition

"GAIA: A Short Film" is a project where PJ Richardson, co-founder of Laundry ECD, delves into the realm of AI-generated art and animation. Inspired by collaborations with artists and experiences at various art festivals, Richardson employs tools like Krea AI and Runway AI to craft a visually striking short film.

The project, showcased at a digital art exhibition in Barcelona, navigates the challenges and surprises of AI art creation, focusing on themes of contemporary societal issues. It represents a blend of technical experimentation and creative expression, highlighting the evolving intersection of art and artificial intelligence.

“What surprised me was, that while complex prompts and weighting do have their benefits, often, the simpler the better would produce nice results.”

Director/Animator: PJ Richardson

Music: Stefan Kostaras @ Pelican Sound

INTERESTING

Generative AI boom fuels appetite for Nvidia's product

Demand for Nvidia's latest AI-focused H100 GPU is soaring, leading to significant profits for the company. This AI chip is attracting immense attention from researchers and technology companies eager to develop groundbreaking generative AI models.

A comparative look at training speeds 📊

OpenAI's GPT-4, believed to have been trained over approximately 90 days with 25,000 NVIDIA A100 GPUs, set a new standard.

However, with Microsoft and Meta each acquiring 150,000 H100 GPUs this year, they're now positioned to train a model comparable to GPT-4 in a mere 7 days from the ground up. 😲 

The NVIDIA H100 is a high-performance Tensor Core GPU and is equipped with higher clock speeds, 50MB of Level 2 cache, and 80GB of HBM3 memory with twice the bandwidth of its predecessor.

-AA

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