Welcome to VP Land - your daily update for all things virtual production & AI in video.

In this issue:

🎥 Runway ML turns images into videos. And they’re creepily good.
👓 AR glasses for your smartphone
🏀 Is this new LED basketball court cool or headache inducing?

And more! Let’s dive in.

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Runway’s New Image to Video is Really, Really Good

Runway released Mode 03, Image to Video, as part of their Gen-2 update.

And it’s good. Like, really good.

It basically takes the photo you upload and treats it as frame 1 of a short video clip, generating the rest of the video.

The results have blown just about every other video generator out of the water.

Check out these roundups of clips:

What’s been impressive?

Unlike the talking portraits that made the rounds a few months ago, where you can make an image talk but aside from the mouth everything looks like a lifeless corpse, Runway’s outputs feel more natural.

• Subtle camera movements

• Hair and shoulders move

• Lighting and shadows react

As Dr. Ford would call it: reveries.

How to use it?

Just upload an image in the prompt box, then click generate.

Currently, there’s no way to add direction to what the output does (presumably coming in the future).

There’s still the option to add text to the prompt, but if you do that it weighs the text prompt with heavier influence and just uses the image for stylistic reference, so your output will look a lot different than your original image.

What about archival/historical photos?

Another use we’ve seen is running archival photos as the prompt and bringing historical photos to life.

Fun to do, but then we were wondering where the line is for authenticity if you’re using this as b-roll in a documentary.

Animating photos in documentaries is nothing new - I wrote an article all the way back in 2012 highlighting the different ways you could animate photos, such as 2.5D flythroughs and parallax effects.

Does gen AI fall into the same bucket, or will we need disclaimers?

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SECOND UNIT

Is the INMO Air2 a Viable AR Device?

Are these AR glasses a less expensive middle ground than the Vision Pro?

In this thorough write-up, the INMO Air2 glasses are unboxed and reviewed.

• What's Inside: The package includes AR glasses, charging cables, a navigational ring, custom lenses for myopia, clip-on sunglasses effect, setup manual, and lens cleaner.

• Specs: INMO Air2 claims to be the first fully wireless AR glasses, featuring a ZiGuang ZhanRui AI chip, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a battery life of about 5.5 hours.

• Viewing Experience: The glasses boast dual full-color micro OLED displays, which emulate the effect of a 50-inch TV three to four meters away.

What can it do?

• Screen Mirroring: Cast or share the screen of your mobile device onto the glasses.

• Personal Cinema: The glasses can essentially function as a personal cinema, allowing you to watch movies, videos, or play games with the equivalent experience of watching a 50-inch TV from a few meters away. You can also mirror your phone screen onto the glasses, making it a portable viewing device.

• Real-time Translation: The INMO Air2 has a built-in translation feature, which can translate conversations in real time, making it very useful for communication in foreign languages.

• Voice-Controlled AI: The glasses come equipped with the INMO GPT app and OpenAI's GPT model. You can ask it a variety of questions and get responses, all controlled by your voice.

• Navigational Aid: The glasses offer a user-friendly navigation system, with touch panels and a navigational ring that allows you to smoothly move through the interface.

• Interaction with Apps: The glasses come with a selection of pre-loaded apps, allowing you to engage with familiar platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

You can pre-order them for $599 on their Kickstarter page.

VIDEO VILLAGE

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rolled out a new interactive LED basketball court in Madrid.

I'm all for new designs and doing a fun take on the traditional wooden court - but the graphics displayed in this video are...😵‍💫

What do you think?

AKS

🌐 Around the Web

• Seamlessly combine images and text in your conversations with Bard's integration of Google Lens

• AI-generated content in ads is producing mixed results in Latin America

• Schedule posts and track your social media with Metricool*

• CoPilotXR relies on Brompton's TrueLight technology for their virtual production stage builds and sets

• Qualcomm and Meta have joined forces to enhance LLaMA 2 large language models, which would provide users with private, reliable, and personalized extended reality (XR) experiences directly on-device, without the cloud.

• Dune and Oppenheimer VFX firm, DNEG, faces layoffs in London amidst global economic challenges

* Sponsored Link

CALL SHEET

📆 Upcoming Events

July 26-27: ROE Visual is gearing up to hold an XR roadshow at AVI-SPL in Dubai

July 26: The State of Virtual Production

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ABBY SINGER

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