W\u0113t\u0101 FX and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have unveiled a new agreement to jointly develop artificial intelligence tools they say will increase the efficiency, control, and creative flexibility of visual effects artists.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s press release lays out a multi-pronged plan to research AI systems built specifically for high-end VFX production rather than broad, general-purpose use.<\/p>\n
Kimball Thurston, CTO at W\u0113t\u0101 FX, framed the collaboration as an opportunity to rethink how major film and streaming projects are crafted:<\/p>\n
AI represents an opportunity to shift how high-end entertainment is crafted, with custom agents to assist with mechanical tasks. We are collaborating with AWS to build tools that provide a new interface for artists, not with chatbots or text prompts, but providing artists the ability to orchestrate intelligent systems with a natural interface and manage a complexity and sophistication not yet possible. With the artist in full control, they are then enabled to collaborate with the rest of the team, crafting the next-generation of premier storytelling to entertain the world.<\/p>\n
We asked Thurston to clarify if all of the models used by W\u0113t\u0101 will be trained exclusively on the company\u2019s own assets, and he told us:<\/p>\n
Yes, our fundamental policy is that we believe in the beauty and provenance of our clients\u2019 data, and that of artists around the world. Any training we do for generic tools will be using our own data, rights-managed external datasets, and synthetic data we are generating, hence why we are investigating using AWS compute to generate data in concert with training models.<\/p>\n
The companies say their partnership centers on exploring how AI might handle time-consuming technical steps that underpin modern VFX work. Artists today often spend weeks on a single shot, juggling performance capture, creature animation, environment creation, and various layers of simulation and refinement. W\u0113t\u0101 and AWS say they want to investigate AI-enabled workflows that preserve artistic control while reducing repetitive labor, including models capable of generalizing physics and motion for both human and non-human characters.<\/p>\n
A major part of the initiative involves developing purpose-built AI models specifically tuned to VFX work, rather than relying on broad public datasets that lack the detail and complexity required for Hollywood-scale productions.<\/p>\n
W\u0113t\u0101\u2019s proprietary tools and production data will be used to generate large volumes of synthetic training material. With AI integration into the industry seemingly inevitable, the company\u2019s decision to use only its own assets addresses a main complaint many uneasy artists have about new AI models, which are trained indiscriminately on stolen or scraped data.<\/p>\n
Weta and AWS say they plan to explore how to make AI-driven VFX workflows more accessible and sustainable, too. By leveraging AWS\u2019s \u201celastic compute\u201d infrastructure, W\u0113t\u0101 hopes to research smaller, more efficient models that reduce resource consumption while accelerating creative iteration cycles from days to hours.<\/p>\n
Daniel Seah, CEO of W\u0113t\u0101 FX, explained:<\/p>\n
World-class filmmakers turn to W\u0113t\u0101 FX to deliver iconic, awe-inspiring visual effects, from the battlefields of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings to the bioluminescent forests of Pandora in Avatar. We\u2019ve done this for three decades by ensuring our artists have the most innovative tools as they craft the best path forward for every creative challenge. Together with AWS, we\u2019re approaching AI with the goal of enhancing our artists\u2019 work, enabling them to be more creative. We strongly believe AI technology should amplify human creativity and intent, and together with AWS we are committed to exploring and developing this.<\/p>\n
Nina Walsh, global leader, industry business development for media, entertainment, games and sport at AWS, added:<\/p>\n
AWS has been powering media and entertainment innovation for nearly two decades, and this agreement represents an exciting milestone to explore and develop AI workflows and services that will transform the visual effects industry. W\u0113t\u0101 FX\u2019s vision is about enabling exceptional artists to be more exceptional by creating purpose-built AI to fit their creative workflow. That\u2019s exactly the kind of innovation we want to enable with AWS infrastructure and our AI services.<\/p>\n
The collaboration continues W\u0113t\u0101\u2019s long history of technical innovation. This time, there will certainly be more pushback regarding that innovation, but only time will tell how the new tools may impact workflows, employment, and sustainability at the studio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"W\u0113t\u0101 FX and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have unveiled a new agreement to jointly develop artificial intelligence tools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-317413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}