Apple vs. Epic Games

newslounge.co · March 08, 2024

Good Morning. 

This is newslounge, think of us as your VFX-AI news barista. We know your order, and we won't butcher your name.

If any of you amazing people have experience in building a Discord community and would like to help us create one, please reply to this email.

🤿Without further ado, lets dive in today’s dose of madness!!

on Today’s menu:

  • Underwater World - Case Study

  • Apple’s New Ad Campaign

  • An Inspiring Short Film By Ash Thorp

  • AI Video Generation Update and more…

-Ardy

was this email forwarded to you? you can sign up here.

🚨Just a quick note: You can share this newsletter with your friends using the unique referral link at the bottom of this email. By doing so, you'll earn points that can be exchanged for some cool prizes. Let's spread the word! 😎

CASE STUDY

SUBAQUATIC WORLD - HOUDINI & COMFYUI

Big Picture:
It's crucial to create a space where computer graphics and AI workflows support, rather than substitute, traditional artistic methods. This approach will help new artists discover their distinct styles. Combining technology with classic techniques opens up exciting possibilities for artists, making their search for meaning more significant and influential.

💡Here’s a brief overview:
In the video, I guide you through the entire workflow. Together, we test each step, analyze the results, and identify solutions for various challenges, including discussing how prompts can be enhanced by incorporating LoRAs. Additionally, I briefly touch on upscaling and share my future plans for these projects.

🚨AI, as the name may imply, isn't a simple one-click tool; it requires continuous data evaluations and creative assessments. The extent to which you utilize it depends entirely on your discretion.

New Challenges:
One of the main challenges I faced was accurately depicting the shape of a specific fish species. The problem occurs when the text prompt provides a detailed description of a particular type of fish, but the provided line art remains unchanged, forcing the AI to adapt this detailed description into a generic fish outline. This often leads to artifacts around the mouth and fails to capture the distinct nuances unique to different species. A potential solution could be to employ a soft depth map along with precise, species-specific line art. This approach might give the AI enough context to accurately generate the type of fish described, while also ensuring a stable animation. This is an aspect I need to further experiment with and find a viable solution for.

🙋‍♂️DON’T MISS THIS…

🚀 Youtube Tutorial: here
🎬 Youtube Promo: here
👩‍💻 Project Breakdown here
🎁 Download the Workflow here

✨In case you didn't see this, I made a quick video to showcase the effect of different checkpoint models in ComfyUI.

-AA

SPOTLIGHT

APPLE MADE A LIVE-ACTION VERSION OF A MANGA CLASSIC FOR ‘SHOT ON IPHONE’ IN JAPAN

Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign

Apple's "Shot on iPhone" campaign presents a new short film, adapting the 1980s manga "Midnight" by Osamu Tezuka into a live-action piece directed by Takashi Miike and produced by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Tokyo.
The story revolves around a taxi driver working night shifts as penance, aiming to save money for a girl's medical treatment.
This adaptation combines various "Midnight" stories, showcasing the iPhone 15 Pro's camera features, especially its low-light capabilities and action shot stabilization. Additionally, the iPhone’s LiDAR scanner was used to create a CGI model of the taxi and its unique fifth wheel for the film, blending traditional storytelling with cutting-edge technology.

-NL

WATCH THIS INSPIRING SHORT FILM BY ASH THORP

Ash Thorp

Ash Thorpe and his team have created a new piece of motion art inspired by cars, named "Tri-Sect." This 75-second short film combines a rich mix of mood and design, making it intriguing and complex.

Tri-Sect is an immersive audio-visual experience that emerges from a profound passion for automotive design, cinematography, scientific inquiry, and the whimsical interplay of creativity.

Ash Thorp

-NL

We are seeking:
full-stack software engineer
web developer

SNIPPETS

📺Method Studios and FX Networks set a detailed and dangerous stage for “Shogun”

👾Fun Fact: You know when a character says the name of the movie in the movie? That’s called a “title drop,” and a new analysis of the phenomenon shows how common they are: 36.5% of films released from 1940 to 2023 contained at least one.

🍎Apple terminates Epic Games developer account calling it a ‘threat’ to the iOS ecosystem.

🕹Microsoft hosted an Xbox Partner Preview yesterday, to showcase 12+ new game trailers from studios including EA and Capcom.

🤿'Disney Adult' industrial complex, Was it intentional?

Cognito, a new headset aims to treat Alzheimer’s with light and sound.

🚀NASA’s The Lost Universe is a new tabletop RPG about a group of lost researchers and a missing Hubble Space Telescope.

AROUND THE WORLD OF AI

EXCITING LAUNCH IN AI VIDEO

Haiper.ai

👩‍💻AI video generation is gaining momentum, especially since OpenAI introduced the Sora model last month. This development has inspired many, including DeepMind alumni Yishu Miao and Ziyu Wang, to launch their own video generation tool named Haiper.

🧠The Brains Behind Haiper
Miao, with a background at TikTok's Global Trust & Safety team, and Wang, a former research scientist at DeepMind and Google, initiated Haiper in 2021 and officially established the company in 2022. Their combined expertise has propelled Haiper into the spotlight.
The startup has successfully raised $13.8 million in a seed round led by Octopus Ventures, with 5Y Capital also contributing. Prior to this, Haiper secured $5.4 million in a pre-seed round with support from notable figures like Phil Blunsom and Nando de Freitas.

💡Looking Ahead
While Haiper and its competitors each bring something to the table, the AI video generation market is rapidly evolving. With technologies like Stable Diffusion 3 and efforts from MidJourney to enhance video generation capabilities, the future of AI-powered video content looks bright and increasingly sophisticated.

🚀The release of Stable Diffusion 3
Stability AI reveals that SD 3 outperforms leading text-to-image models across the board, including heavy hitters like MJ V6 and DALL-E. This assertion is backed by benchmark tests showing its superior ability to understand and generate images that closely match the input prompts, providing more accurate and visually appealing results.

stability.ai

-NL

MONEY

Nvidia surpassed a $2 trillion valuation last week, positioning it as the third most valuable company globally, behind Microsoft and Apple. This milestone underscores Nvidia's remarkable growth, having escalated from a valuation of less than $100 billion just five years ago, achieving more than a twentyfold increase in that timeframe.

Why it matters?
Some analysts predict that Nvidia’s annual revenue could grow to $400B by 2027. With AI set to be the most important economic and technological trend in the coming years, Nvidia could be the world’s most important company over the next decade.

CONVERSATIONS AROUND AI

I stumbled upon a video that I highly recommend watching. It features a dialogue between Claire Hentschker and Golan Levin, where they explore the multifaceted space of AI in art and discuss the importance of moving beyond simply using tools in their default state.
Regardless of our mindset and the current state of visual effects and AI in general, conversations like these are paramount.

🚀That’s it for today, I’ll leave you with this!!

-newslounge

What'd you think of today's edition?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

BUT, WAIT! THAT’S NOT ALL! ⬇

🎁You can get free stuff for referring your friends!!

Earn free gifts 🎁

5 referrals - “Water Bottle Stickers” 🔺15 referrals - “Mystery Box”
25 referrals - “Water Bottle” 🔺 40 referrals - “Nuphy Desk Mat”
60 referrals - “Logitech Mouse”