Wonder Dynamics on Wednesday unveiled a beta version of its new visual effects offering: Wonder Animation, a tool that turns live action scenes into 3D animations.
The company, based in West Hollywood, has long been entrenched in the world of visual effects and computer-generated imagery. Wonder Dynamics was founded in 2016 by actor Tye Sheridan and visual effects artist Nikola Todorovic to bring down the cost of complex, sophisticated animations using what was then a nascent technology: generative artificial intelligence.
“Both Tye and I, we enjoy production a lot. It lets you experiment a bit more in the real world before you go into a digital world,” Todorovic, the chief executive, said. “You’re framing your shots and you’re setting up your cameras as you would do in your living room. It lets you edit and experiment with your shot before you turn it into a digital 3D version of it.”
Using Wonder Animation, a director may be able to shoot an innocuous scene – a woman walking her dog down a busy street – and in post-production turn that woman into a robot, the dog into a flesh-eating Venus flytrap and the busy street into a desolate, post-apocalyptic ghost town. Just a suggestion.
‘Black box technology’
Wonder Dynamics is growing at a contentious time in Hollywood. Unions like the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are largely apprehensive of generative AI and its potential to strip away creative jobs.
“What does it mean to live in a world where some algorithm creates affordances, and what’s the role of human creativity going forward?” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of SAG-AFTRA, previously told the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Indeed, creativity is imbued in every part of the film and entertainment industry, and it’s difficult to divorce that creativity from more technical parts of filmmaking. Color grading different scenes can make those shots moody, or poignant, or leery. Slight changes in camera angles can make characters seem intimidating, or delicate. Small adjustments go back and forth between editors, visual effects artists, directors and studio heads.
Todorovic said that Wonder Animation is different from other black box animation tools that have a set number of outputs to choose from. Once a scene is compiled in the program, users can further exercise control over the scene by adjusting details. The program allows filmmakers, especially those with smaller budgets, to turn independent projects into lavish films without the need for professional visual effects, computer generated imagery, or, frankly, a set larger than a dining room.
“In film or animation, there are so many iterations, so many changes. Sometimes the director is finding a shot. They will change their mind and say, ‘no, actually can you move the camera this way? Can you have that eyebrow go up a little bit in frame number ten? Can you have the light come from behind the head instead of in front of the head?’” Todorovic said. “There’s a lot of these small changes and that’s really that creative process that’s happening. And that’s something that, in generative AI, is still not there.”
