Latest news with #Unity
Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Runway's generative AI tools will soon let you create video games with a few prompts
Meta-backed AI startup Runway, valued at around USD 3 billion and best known for its generative AI video tools used in film and content creation, is now setting its sights on a new industry: video games. The company has announced a generative AI platform aimed specifically at AI developers, marking its most significant expansion beyond film and video production to date. The new toolset will allow game developers to generate visual assets like characters, environments, and objects using text prompts. Developers will also be able to edit, remix and fine-tune these assets. According to Runway, the goal is to bring the same speed and creative flexibility it offered filmmakers to game studios. CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela believes the efficiencies seen in film production, where AI significantly shortened timelines for editing and visual effects, can now be replicated in gaming. 'If we can help a studio make a movie 40 per cent faster, then we're probably gonna be able to help developers of games make games faster,' Valenzuela told The Verge. However, gaming presents unique challenges compared to films. Unlike linear video, games are interactive and require tightly integrated logic, physics, and performance optimisation. Runway's move into this space suggests confidence in their ability to bridge the gap between artistic experimentation and the technical demands of game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine. The timing also reflects a broader trend of AI sweeping creative industries. For instance, Activision Blizzard, developer of the mega popular game franchise Call of Duty, disclosed their usage of AI to create visuals for the latest instalment in the franchise, Black Ops 6. As AI-generated content becomes more sophisticated, gaming studios – particularly indie developers – are increasingly exploring AI tools to cut costs and increase the speed of testing phases without sacrificing creativity or quality. Runway's early access program for developers hints at a long-term play to become a foundational creative partner for game developer studios. While Runway hasn't yet revealed how its tools will integrate with popular game engines or software, the company says it is already working with select partners in the gaming industry. Developers can sign up now to try the tools in beta. (This article has been curated by Arfan Jeelany, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Canada Day drumming events across country aim to celebrate diversity
About 30 communities will participate in the annual Canada Day Drumming Celebration (CDDC), to mark 158 years of the country's existence on July 1. Richard Wong, the event's founder, and CDDC vice chair Alfred Woo, a retired Crown attorney and a military veteran, say the drumming expresses their love for Canada and the importance of staying united.
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
UOB unveils world's tallest, brightest and longest projection canvas
[SINGAPORE] UOB lit up the 280 m-tall facade of its Plaza 1 building at Raffles Place on Friday (Jun 27) with a series of images to mark the bank's 90th anniversary this year and Singapore's 60th year of independence (SG60). The projections showcase UOB's past and future, as well as its Painting of the Year winning artworks and various SG60-themed visuals. The light show – which covers about 250 million pixels and produces 5.85 million lumens – bagged a total of three Guinness World Records titles, for the world's tallest, brightest and longest projection mapping canvas. The three records are: the largest light output in a projected image; the longest architectural projection-mapped display (temporary); and the highest projection image on a building. The six-minute show, called Unity, runs nightly until National Day on Aug 9, except for Sundays. It is presented in collaboration with multimedia integrator Hexogon Solution. Led by creative director Benjamin Tan, the show has three acts – time, transformation and tomorrow – that celebrate the 'spirit of innovation and change at UOB that has shaped the bank's past and present as it looks towards the future', said UOB in a news release. UOB organised an event at the Asian Civilisations Museum on Friday to celebrate the launch of the show. Deputy chairman and chief executive officer Wee Ee Cheong was in attendance, as well as members of the senior management team. Janet Young, the head of group channels and digitalisation, strategic communications and brand, said: 'This year marks a significant milestone as UOB turns 90 and Singapore celebrates its 60th birthday. Our growth story is closely tied with Singapore's growth story, and we are deeply grateful for the continuous support from our community, who have grown and journeyed with us across generations and regions.' The Unity show will be held twice nightly from Mondays to Thursdays at 9 pm and 9.40 pm, and thrice on Fridays and Saturdays at 9 pm, 9.40 pm and 10.20 pm.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bradford African Festival of Arts looking for young performers
A call-out has been issued for young performers to take part in a summer festival in Bradford which celebrates the arts and culture of the city's African second BAFA (Bradford African Festival of Arts) will be held in August, centred on the theme of "owantu" - a Zulu word meaning "of the people" or "unity".Organiser Judith Dlamini said the idea was "to bring Africa here" but to also encourage people to work together to support those from all communities who may need help."This is a place where we can just express ourselves and invite lots of people so that they can come and belong," she said. The festival, to be held at several city centre venues between 13 and 16 August, will include a children's theatre performance and a Zulu have urged children aged six to sixteen who are interested in singing, dancing, acting or cultural displays to get in touch."It is to express our culture and then teach our children as well," Ms Dlamini explained the festival was part of Bradford's 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations and aimed to reflect the city's growing African communities, including newcomers from Zimbabwe, Botswana and will feature food, music, dance and storytelling from a range of African countries. Ms Dlamini stressed the festival was both a celebration and a response to a need felt by many in the community who may be newer arrivals to the city."We can work together… we who have been in this country for many years, [and] we can welcome them so that they don't feel lonely," she said."It is difficult when you have just moved. We want to help to make Bradford feel like home for people, because it has been home for us for many years. So we want those that are joining us here as well to feel at home."Young performers and community groups interested in taking part are encouraged to contact organisers via the Bradford African Festival website. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Scandalous society sisters' saga still enthrals
Outrageous (now streaming on BritBox, with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays) is the story of the Mitford sisters, six aristocratic Englishwomen whose lives overlapped with a who's-who of 20th-century history in a fashionable flurry of weddings, divorces, betrayals and scandals. Some cultural commentators have attempted to explain why Mitford mania is still relevant today by comparing the sisters to the Kardashians, which is catchy but misleading. Yes, both sibling sets have a knack for grabbing tabloid headlines and a talent for picking terrible men. But if one is really looking for relevance in Outrageous, the most relatable scene for many 2025 viewers might be the Christmas dinner where the Mitford girls' mother (Anna Chancellor) tells them to stop arguing about Hitler and just pass the Brussels sprouts. What really makes the Mitford saga so crushingly current is its collision of ordinary family life (well, sort of ordinary — the Mitfords were an eccentric lot) with polarizing politics. Coming of age in the 1930s, in a world that seems on the verge of violence and collapse, the sibs take up entrenched and irreconcilable political positions, testing their sisterly bonds and taking the 'let's agree to disagree' stance to its absolute limits. Now that feels contemporary. This soapy, splashy six-episode series is never subtle, but then neither were its subjects. The messy adolescent bedroom of Unity (Shannon Watson) and Jessica (Zoe Brough) features swastikas and pictures of the Fuhrer on one side and images of Marx, Lenin and the hammer and sickle on the other. This is not the scriptwriters creating an overly obvious image of a house divided: This was the sisters' actual décor. (In real life, they drew a chalk line down the centre.) Outrageous initially presents these two sisters' ideological differences as awkward comedy, as in a scene in which Unity is vigorously Sieg Heiling on the well-rolled lawn of the family's ancestral home while Jessica lounges nearby, reading The Daily Worker. But things get more serious, more world-historical, when Unity travels to Munich, eventually gaining entry into Hitler's inner circle, while Jessica becomes enamoured with her cousin Esmond Romilly, a communist who has gone off to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Meanwhile, another emotional and political rift is developing between Diana (Joanna Vanderham), the beauty of the family, and Nancy (Bessie Carter), 'the clever one.' After Diana leaves a safe society marriage to begin an affair with Oswald Mosley (Joshua Sasse), the black-shirted leader of the British Union of Fascists, Nancy — the writer who will become known for The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate — pens the 1935 comic novel Wigs on the Green. The book satirizes a fictionalized version of Mosley's movement as silly, self-important and ineffectual, and even though Nancy defends it as 'meaningless fun,' as 'froth,' Diana is furious. The eventual fate of Wigs on the Green hints at some of the problems with Outrageous. After the war, Nancy Mitford declined to reprint the book. There was 'nothing funny about fascists,' she suggested. Likewise, the series can feel confused as it deals with its political clashes and with the very Mitfordian overlap of private life and public events. Sometimes the show plays as a good-looking comic romp, with its posh frocks, jaunty jazz-age songs and seemingly endless supply of champagne. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Sometimes it plays as melodrama, with the Mitford girls' rivalries, resentments and deep love given poignant expression. And then, whoa, suddenly we're at the Nuremberg Rally with Unity and Diana. Not surprisingly, Outrageous has a tricky time handling these tonally disparate parts. The show struggles to convey the weight of wider world events, but it does understand the divided dinner table. What will resonate for many viewers, what will make the leap from the 1930s to today, are the smaller, intimate conflicts of family members who love each other but can't stand each other's politics. Alison GillmorWriter Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto's York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
