Creating 3D animation is not an easy task. Keyframing is time-consuming, as is transferring motion-captured data onto humanoid characters. However, AI is changing that. Wonder Dynamics, which recently became an Autodesk company, is ahead of the pack when it comes to applying video motion onto a 3D character. And it takes it a few steps further, automatically lighting and compositing a CG character into a live-action scene, even when there is an obstructed view of the actor. Now, with its Wonder Studio, powered by Video to 3D Scene technology, it can transform a video sequence into a 3D animated scene—backgrounds and all.
Wonder Dynamics became an Autodesk company a few months ago, and with that acquisition, Autodesk inherited Motion Dynamics’ AI tool called Wonder Studio, a cloud-based 3D animation and VFX solution that automatically animates, lights, and composes a CG character into a live-action scene. At Autodesk University, Autodesk announced it was expanding Wonder Studio’s capabilities with Motion Prediction, which anticipates character poses even when the view of an actor is obstructed by an object and produces poses that are more natural, with less shaking and noise.
And that’s not the only Wonder-ful animation technology being released by Wonder Dynamics. The company, which now flies the Autodesk flag, has announced the beta launch of Wonder Animation, yet another AI solution, this one for animated films. Wonder Animation, which is launched through the Wonder Studio, is powered by Video to 3D Scene technology to accelerate animated film production by automatically transforming a video sequence into a 3D animated scene.
With Wonder Animation’s Video to 3D Scene tech, artists can shoot a scene with any type of camera and transform the scene into an animated one—a 3D CGI environment complete with computer-generated characters. According to the company, the most innovative aspect of the tool’s Video to 3D Scene technologyis its ability to film and edit sequences with multiple cuts and various shots (wide, medium, close-ups). The technology then uses AI to reconstruct the scene in a 3D space and matches the position and movement of each camera’s relationship to the characters and environment.
This essentially creates a virtual representation of an artist’s live-action scene containing all camera setups and character body and face animation in one 3D scene, with fully editable elements (animation, character, environment, lighting, and camera tracking) in their preferred software, including Autodesk’s Maya, Blender, or Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.
Unlike most other generative AI tools, which produce automated outputs, artists have full control over the animation, enabling them to make changes and edits.
Wonder Animation (beta) is available to all Wonder Studio users.