A thing to geek out on
The spoooooky season is officially upon us! Rather than scrolling through Instagram for your basic Met Gala costume, take some inspiration from our magical technology team. No need to be scared of a little technology—we’ve got the sweet insights to make any season frightfully fun (without having to wear a cut out bodysuit or a baby blue cheerleading outfit).
– Mia Choi, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer
A thing to try
Abraca-rotoscope? Magic comes in all shapes and sizes, and today it’s editing video in your browser. RunwayML — the company that brought AI tools to artists — recently released a video editing tool, Sequel, that’s powered by machine learning. Sequel brings editing directly into your browser and has some pretty magical rotoscoping right out of the box. Rather than keying every frame, you can just make a couple clicks and Sequel's AI will create a mask for you(!!!). Though Sequel’s still in Beta, it looks like they’re expanding their editor with more capabilities and video filters. Tools like this open a wide range for creative opportunities — I’m excited to see how MAS can use this to bring events to life!
– Zoe Sandoval, Creative Director
A thing to watch
Crafting magical experiences is part of the cultural ethos at MAS. We’re always thinking about how to create playful and delightful activations for our clients, and an exciting toolkit that is likely to change how we approach this work is Unreal 5. From creating immersive landscapes with digital scans of the world to its shocking visual effects pipeline, this game development tool is going to change the way we think about authoring media. First announced this summer, developers and creators have gotten their hands on early access builds of UE5 and the early early highlights are looking very exciting. From previz pipelines to generating motion graphics for IRL and remote experiences alike, this is a game changer. How this toolkit changes the future of events and production is absolutely something to keep your eyes on. 👀
– Matthew Ragan, Principal Engineer
A thing that blew my mind
Sourcing the right stock photo can be nearly impossible at times. It can take hours to find the diamond in the rough that fits the exact needs for content — only to find that afterwards there are licensing issues or for the lighting to be off just enough for it to feel out of place. Generated.photoshas created a machine learning system that can generate stock photos of faces with different expressions, skin tones, accessories, and ages. These assets can be used in games, film and television, as well as in marketing campaigns. There are infinite possibilities for how this technology can be used to enhance creative workflows.
– Ian Shelanskey, Software Architect
Want to hear about more magic from Ian, Matt and Zoe? Check out our latest podcast episode here.