VP Land
Posts
Runway's Hand Drawn Animation Project

Runway's Hand Drawn Animation Project

Netflix Adds AI and Vertical Clips, NVIDIA and Blender

May 09, 2025

In partnership with

Runway just announced their Gen:48 AI short film winners. The outputs are interesting to see, but the process is what I always want to know more about.

For a look at that, we’ll be documenting AI on the Lot’s 48 hour filmmaking competition again (like we did in last year’s doc), happening in a few weeks. Going to be wild how far the tech has advanced in just 12 months.

Speaking of Runway and animation - got some stories on how they’re being used in professional animation pipelines and how Netflix is adding more AI and vertical shorts.

Let’s get into it!

Joey

Runway's ‘Mars & Siv’ Blends Traditional Animation with AI Innovation

Runway Studios has launched Mars & Siv: No Vacancy, a six-minute animated pilot that showcases a groundbreaking blend of traditional animation techniques and AI tools.

Watch on Vimeo

Created by Jeremy Higgins and Britton Korbel, this noir-inspired space detective series represents a significant advancement in how AI can support creative storytelling while preserving artistic control.

Creative foundation remains human-driven: The team started with traditional techniques, with artists designing characters and environments before introducing Runway's AI tools. "We ourselves are very traditional animators, so we did everything from a base level by hand, and then we kind of used Runway and their tools to assist with all of the steps in the process," explained Higgins.
Innovative hybrid workflow: The production involved creating physical miniature sets from foam and cardboard, filming them, then using Runway's Image to Image generation to transform them into realistic space environments. The team then applied additional artistic enhancements before using Runway again for parallax effects.
AI as animation assistant: Runway's Gen-4 model provided base animations that the team then "reverse-animated" by taking specific frames and creating new 2D stop-motion animations, resulting in a unique puppet-style animation reminiscent of shows like "Courage the Cowardly Dog."
Part of broader studio initiatives: The project emerged from Runway Studios' Hundred Film Fund initiative, which aims to support projects "that otherwise wouldn't get made" due to time, budget, or resource constraints. Creators retain IP rights while Runway provides financing, production support, and marketing assistance.
Future distribution plans: Higgins and Korbel are now shopping the series to animation studios and streamers, with plans for episodes in the 11-20 minute range that follow the detective duo as they uncover corruption in Galaxy City.

SPONSOR MESSAGE

Run IRL ads as easily as PPC

AdQuick unlocks the benefits of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising in a way no one else has. Approaching the problem with eyes to performance, created for marketers with the engineering excellence you’ve come to expect for the internet.

Marketers agree OOH is one of the best ways for building brand awareness, reaching new customers, and reinforcing your brand message. It’s just been difficult to scale. But with AdQuick, you can plan, deploy and measure campaigns as easily as digital ads, making them a no-brainer to add to your team’s toolbox.

You can learn more at AdQuick.com

AI Powers Netflix's New Look

Netflix is giving its app a major upgrade, introducing AI-powered search and a TikTok-style vertical video feed as part of a broader redesign aimed at making content discovery faster and more intuitive.

AI Search Beta: Netflix is testing a generative AI search feature, starting with an opt-in beta on iOS. Users can type natural, conversational phrases like “I want something funny and upbeat” to get personalized recommendations, making it easier to find shows and movies that match their mood or interests.
Vertical Video Feed: Inspired by TikTok and similar platforms, Netflix will soon offer a mobile-only vertical feed of short clips from its shows and movies. You can scroll through these clips, tap to watch the full title, add it to their list, or share with friends-streamlining discovery and catering to changing viewing habits.
Homepage Redesign: The TV app’s homepage is getting a cleaner, more modern look with shortcuts like Search and My List moved to the top for easier access. Real-time recommendations will be more responsive to individual moods and interests, and content tags will help users quickly assess what’s worth watching.

NVIDIA’s 3D-to-AI Image Blueprint Launches

NVIDIA has unveiled a new AI Blueprint that turns 3D Blender scenes into AI-generated images, giving creators more precise control over composition and layouts compared to text prompts alone.

The system addresses a key limitation of text-to-image AI by using 3D scenes as spatial references, reducing the guesswork in generating properly composed images
The Blueprint integrates Black Forest Labs' FLUX.1-dev technology with ComfyUI and Blender in a workflow specifically optimized for NVIDIA RTX AI systems
You can create simple 3D mock-ups in Blender (like basic buildings or vehicles), adjust camera angles and composition visually, then have the AI generate detailed 2D images following that structure
The tool is currently designed for non-commercial use and comes with step-by-step instructions for implementation
Performance is accelerated using NVIDIA NIM microservices, TensorRT, and FP4 precision to maximize efficiency on RTX hardware

At SXSW 2025, Filmmakers Kent Kurzy and Paul Trillo shared insights on how custom AI models are reshaping film production while emphasizing that human creativity, intention, and ethical considerations remain essential for meaningful artistic output.

Key Takeaways

Custom model training is crucial for maintaining artistic control and preventing aesthetic homogenization. By training models on specific artistic styles, creators can "teach the AI" rather than having "AI teach them," resulting in more intentional and personalized output.
Human intention and creative direction remain essential in AI-assisted production. As Trillo noted, "Without intention, the AI is making all the decisions for you," emphasizing that projects should begin with specific creative goals rather than being driven by what the technology can do.
Ethical considerations are increasingly important for industry adoption. Clean data training (using properly licensed or original content) and fair compensation for artists whose work trains models will help establish standards as these tools become mainstream.
The future of AI tools likely involves spatial navigation and real-time generation that gives directors precise control over camera placement, aesthetics, and world-building while reducing technical bottlenecks.
Open-source accessibility helps democratize these tools, though compute costs remain a barrier that needs addressing for truly global creative access.

Stories, projects, and links that caught our attention from around the web:

🥽 Apple is developing AI-powered smart glasses, aiming to compete with Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses by integrating cameras, microphones, and AI capabilities.

🔁 Moments Lab and LucidLink are expanding their AI-powered workflow integration, which will be showcased during the 78th Cannes Film Festival, offering enhanced video production capabilities for media professionals.

🇨🇦 Known for a while but now it's official - Pixomondo is opening their new Vancouver VP stage on May 26

💰 Stripe has introduced an AI foundation model for payments, trained on tens of billions of transactions to enhance fraud detection across its payments suite.

🏆 Starting in 2026, the Golden Globes will include a Best Podcast category.

In this episode of Denoised, we break down Trump’s proposed tariffs on foreign films, ILM’s first public demo of AI generated clips, and Anthropic’s new Claude Integrations feature.

Read the show notes or watch the full episode.

Watch/Listen & Subscribe

Spotify | Apple Podcast | YouTube