The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra “AI won’t replace human art” - but let’s unpack what Demis Hassabis actually means On the latest episode of NYT’s Hard Fork, Google DeepMind CEO’s speaks to the limits of AI in art/storytelling/film, and I think we need nuance in how we interpret this: Breaking Down the "Soul" Statement When Hassabis says “a novel written by a robot might not feel like it has a soul,” some will hear: “any AI content will always lack soul.” But that’s not what he’s getting at....
18 days ago • 1 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra Why you should be running internal AI tests Public broadcasters now ask every producer one extra question: can you prove your AI tools didn’t infringe on someone else’s IP? That alone is making a lot of indie studios pause before starting to test any workflows with scraped-data models. And fair enough - nobody wants to get into problems with their clients. Clean models are here and more are coming Two recent datapoints worth tracking: 👉 F-lite — launched this...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra Why Skills Versatility Matters in the AI Era A really interesting observation is that with generative AI tools, the animation production process is taking on features of live-action filmmaking. Creators end up with footage based on the AI model's capabilities, then make it work in the edit - similar to film days when "fix it in post" wasn't always an option. You had what you had – or as we say in Finnish, "näillä mennään mitkä on". Chad Nelson's "SWITCH":...
2 months ago • 1 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra When AI handles 80% of production, what is the 20% that retains value? The coming AI tsunami is going to affect the animation industry in profound ways. AI tools are making it easier than ever to produce animated content, which means we’re about to witness an unprecedented flood of AI-assisted animation hitting screens of all sizes. Sounds scary, right? But in any change, we can usually always find opportunities: Even in this deluge of AI-generated content,...
3 months ago • 2 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra 5 Myths About AI and Animation In my conversations with animation studios over the past few months, I’ve noticed the same misconceptions about AI coming up repeatedly. I want to address these head-on, because they might be preventing you from achieving significant efficiency gains in your production pipeline. Myth 1: AI Can’t Produce Consistent Quality Many studios tell me they’ve experimented with generative AI tools and were disappointed with the...
3 months ago • 3 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra FAQ: How much time can AI tools save me? We’ve now been helping companies figure out how to use AI in their animation workflows since October last year, and I thought I’d do a few posts on the Frequently Asked Questions we get. This week’s FAQ: How much time can these tools actually save us? The short answer, of course, is “it depends.” Just as you can’t easily answer “how much does animation cost?” without factoring in style, complexity, and intended viewing...
5 months ago • 1 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra The Legal Considerations Around Using Generative AI Tools in Your Projects I get asked a lot about the legal aspects of AI animation tools. So here’s a quick breakdown of the key considerations, and how they may impact your choice of tools or impose limits on your project. DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, and this article does not constitute legal advice. This article is intended to highlight issues you should research and/or discuss with your professional legal...
5 months ago • 3 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra The State of AI in Animation:Reflecting on 2024, Looking Forward to 2025 As many do around this time of year, I thought it would be interesting to collect some notes on the past year and look a bit into the future. This time I'm focusing on AI tools in animation, so in 12 months I can either laugh at how wrong I was or congratulate myself on a lucky guess! The past year has seen astonishing advances in AI tools for animation, making possible things that felt...
6 months ago • 3 min read
The 1+1 newsletter by Nick Dorra Why we need to see past the AI hype and discover what already works If someone told you that online payments are useless, because crypto is over-hyped and there are environmental issues with its energy usage, would you go back to bank transfers? Probably not. You’d know that there are different kinds of tools to get the job done, and you’d choose the one(s) you a) trust and b) think will work for your usage context. When it comes to AI tools in animation and...
8 months ago • 1 min read