Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

This new AI animation tool is blowing people’s minds

More AI tools are popping up to advance features of the popular generators that are already available, and the latest one is blowing people’s minds.

One AI research company, Runway, has recently introduced the second generation of its Motion Brush tool, which helps animate aspects of AI-generated images, such as those created in Midjourney. The simple brush tool to animate images feels like magic — which is always true when AI is done right. The video below, as posted by AI enthusiast, Rory Flynn, shows the new tool in action.

Recommended Videos

Full Video: https://t.co/iyJr8TEyyt

— Rory Flynn (@Ror_Fly) November 25, 2023

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Many creators are already having fun with the Motion Brush tool, bringing to life still images such as trucks driving down a dirt road, panning nature shots, moving people and animals, leaves twisting in the wind, and moving clouds. Runway also showcased examples of making waterfalls, fish in a tank, fire, and the smoke from a burning cigarette move.

Motion Brush works by uploading an image into the service. Select Start with Image and then select the Motion Brush tool. Then use it to draw a highlight over the area of the image you would like to animate on the image. You can also generate an image within Runway using a text prompt before using Motion Brush. Confirm the horizontal, vertical, and proximity controls at the bottom of the screen, and then press Save. Once saved, you can generate the video by selecting the Extend 4s button. You can also click Extend 4s again to expand the length of the video up to 16 seconds. Generated videos are available for downloading, sharing, and use in other editors, among other functions.

Some of the features that you can use together are Motion Brush and Camera Controls, which allow you to set aspects of the image to move while the camera pans or zooms at the same time. Other updated features include the Gen-2 Style Presets, which allow you to add style to content without prompts, and Director Mode updates allowing for adjustments to camera moves at a fraction of a second.

Runway Motion Brush preview.
RunwayML

Its interface resembles most image or video editors. You’ll have access to different functions and limits in the service, depending on your price tier, which includes basic, Standard, Pro, Unlimited, or Enterprise. Currently, the Motion Brush tool is in beta, making it available to all Runway members.

In addition to the Motion Brush update, Runway recently introduced new Gen-2 Style Presets, and updated Camera Controls, among other features, the company said on its X (formerly Twitter) profile.

Runway is free to sign up and you can use Google or Apple as sign-up options. There is also a Single Use Sign-on available only for the Enterprise tier.

Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh is a Computing Writer at Digital Trends. She covers a range of topics in the computing space, including…
Google expands AI Overviews to over 100 more countries
AI Overviews being shown in Google Search.

Google's AI Overview is coming to a search results page near you, whether you want it to or not. The company announced on Monday that it is expanding the AI feature to more than 100 countries around the world.

Google debuted AI Overview, which uses generative AI to summarize the key points of your search topic and display that information at the top of the results page, to mixed reviews in May before subsequently expanding the program in August. Monday's roll-out sees the feature made available in seven languages — English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish — to users in more than 100 nations (you can find a full list of covered countries here)

Read more
OpenAI could release its next-generation model by December
ChatGPT giving a response about its knowledge cutoff.

OpenAI plans to release its next-generation frontier model, code-named Orion and rumored to actually be GPT-5, by December, according to an exclusive report from The Verge. However, OpenAI boss Sam Altman is already pushing back.

According to "sources familiar with the plan," Orion will not initially be released to the general public, as the previous GPT-4 variants were. Instead, the company intends to hand the new model over to select businesses and partners, who will then use it as a platform to build their own products and services. This is the same strategy that Nvidia is pursuing with its NVLM 1.0 family of large language models (LLMs).

Read more
One of the hottest AI apps just came to the Mac (and it’s not ChatGPT)
the Perplexity desktop app

Perplexity announced Thursday the release of a new native app for Mac that will put its "answer engine" directly on the desktop, with no need for a web browser.

Currently available through the Apple App Store, the Perplexity desktop app promises a variety of features "exclusively for Mac." These include Pro Search, which is a "guided AI search for deeper exploration," the capability for both text and voice prompting, and "cited sources" for every answer.

Read more