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AI and the Law – Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal sue Chinese AI firm MiniMax
On Tuesday, the three media companies filed a lawsuit against MiniMax, a Chinese AI company that is reportedly valued at $4 billion, alleging “willful and brazen” copyright infringement
MiniMax operates Hailuo AI
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Mariko Mori – Kamitate Stone at Sean Kelly Gallery
Mariko Mori, the internationally celebrated artist who blends technology, spirituality, and nature, debuts Kamitate Stone I this October at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. The work continues her exploration of luminous form, energy, and transcendence.
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Vimeo Enters into Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Bending Spoons for $1.38 Billion
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ByteDance Seedream 4.0 – Super‑fast, 4K, multi image support
https://seed.bytedance.com/en/seedream4_0
➤ Super‑fast, high‑resolution results : resolutions up to 4K, producing a 2K image in less than 1.8 seconds, all while maintining sharpness and realism.
➤ At 4K, cost as low as 0.03 $ per generation.
➤ Natural‑language editing – You can instruct the model to “remove the people in the background,” “add a helmet” or “replace this with that,” and it executes without needing complicated prompts.
➤ Multi‑image input and output – It can combine multiple images, transfer styles and produce storyboards or series with consistent characters and themes. -
OpenAI Backs Critterz, an AI-Made Animated Feature Film
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-backs-ai-made-animated-feature-film-389f70b0
Film, called ‘Critterz,’ aims to debut at Cannes Film Festival and will leverage startup’s AI tools and resources.
“Critterz,” about forest creatures who go on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, is the brainchild of Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI. Nelson started sketching out the characters three years ago while trying to make a short film with what was then OpenAI’s new DALL-E image-generation tool.
FEATURED POSTS
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Mohsen Tabasi – Stable Diffusion for Houdini through DreamStudio
https://github.com/proceduralit/StableDiffusion_Houdini
https://github.com/proceduralit/StableDiffusion_Houdini/wiki/
This is a Houdini HDA that submits the render output as the init_image and with getting help from PDG, enables artists to easily define variations on the Stable Diffusion parameters like Sampling Method, Steps, Prompt Strength, and Noise Strength.
Right now DreamStudio is the only public server that the HDA is supporting. So you need to have an account there and connect the HDA to your account.
DreamStudio: https://beta.dreamstudio.ai/membership
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SourceTree vs Github Desktop – Which one to use
Sourcetree and GitHub Desktop are both free, GUI-based Git clients aimed at simplifying version control for developers. While they share the same core purpose—making Git more accessible—they differ in features, UI design, integration options, and target audiences.
Installation & Setup
- Sourcetree
- Download: https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/
- Supported OS: Windows 10+, macOS 10.13+
- Prerequisites: Comes bundled with its own Git, or can be pointed to a system Git install.
- Initial Setup: Wizard guides SSH key generation, authentication with Bitbucket/GitHub/GitLab.
- GitHub Desktop
- Download: https://desktop.github.com/
- Supported OS: Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+
- Prerequisites: Bundled Git; seamless login with GitHub.com or GitHub Enterprise.
- Initial Setup: One-click sign-in with GitHub; auto-syncs repositories from your GitHub account.
Feature Comparison
(more…)Feature Sourcetree GitHub Desktop Branch Visualization Detailed graph view with drag-and-drop for rebasing/merging Linear graph, simpler but less configurable Staging & Commit File-by-file staging, inline diff view All-or-nothing staging, side-by-side diff Interactive Rebase Full support via UI Basic support via command line only Conflict Resolution Built-in merge tool integration (DiffMerge, Beyond Compare) Contextual conflict editor with choice panels Submodule Management Native submodule support Limited; requires CLI Custom Actions / Hooks Define custom actions (e.g., launch scripts) No UI for custom Git hooks Git Flow / Hg Flow Built-in support None Performance Can lag on very large repos Generally snappier on medium-sized repos Memory Footprint Higher RAM usage Lightweight Platform Integration Atlassian Bitbucket, Jira Deep GitHub.com / Enterprise integration Learning Curve Steeper for beginners Beginner-friendly - Sourcetree
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Methods for creating motion blur in Stop motion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_motion
Petroleum jelly
This crude but reasonably effective technique involves smearing petroleum jelly (“Vaseline”) on a plate of glass in front of the camera lens, also known as vaselensing, then cleaning and reapplying it after each shot — a time-consuming process, but one which creates a blur around the model. This technique was used for the endoskeleton in The Terminator. This process was also employed by Jim Danforth to blur the pterodactyl’s wings in Hammer Films’ When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and by Randal William Cook on the terror dogs sequence in Ghostbusters.[citation needed]Bumping the puppet
Gently bumping or flicking the puppet before taking the frame will produce a slight blur; however, care must be taken when doing this that the puppet does not move too much or that one does not bump or move props or set pieces.Moving the table
Moving the table on which the model is standing while the film is being exposed creates a slight, realistic blur. This technique was developed by Ladislas Starevich: when the characters ran, he moved the set in the opposite direction. This is seen in The Little Parade when the ballerina is chased by the devil. Starevich also used this technique on his films The Eyes of the Dragon, The Magical Clock and The Mascot. Aardman Animations used this for the train chase in The Wrong Trousers and again during the lorry chase in A Close Shave. In both cases the cameras were moved physically during a 1-2 second exposure. The technique was revived for the full-length Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.Go motion
The most sophisticated technique was originally developed for the film The Empire Strikes Back and used for some shots of the tauntauns and was later used on films like Dragonslayer and is quite different from traditional stop motion. The model is essentially a rod puppet. The rods are attached to motors which are linked to a computer that can record the movements as the model is traditionally animated. When enough movements have been made, the model is reset to its original position, the camera rolls and the model is moved across the table. Because the model is moving during shots, motion blur is created.A variation of go motion was used in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to partially animate the children on their bicycles.