logo
"We foresee the rise of a new kind of creator": Vidu AI and Aura Productions on their AI-generated sci-fi anime series

"We foresee the rise of a new kind of creator": Vidu AI and Aura Productions on their AI-generated sci-fi anime series

Yahoo18-03-2025

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
We've seen glimpses of AI-generated films and TV series before, but we've yet to see one that's watchable. AI video generation still has considerable limitations when it comes to consistency, but Aura Productions thinks that it's starting to over come that.
Aura's planning to launch an AI-generated sci-fi series for social media made using Vidu AI video generator. Will it be better than that daft AI romance? We spoke to showrunner D.T. Carpenter and Evan Liao, the head of Vidu to learn more.
ShengShu Technology's Vidu is a Chinese challenger to the likes of Open AI's Sora (also see our guide to AI image generators). Aura Productions, which was founded by Luo Yan and D.T. Carpenter, is using the model to make what it says will be a a groundbreaking sci-fi anime series created entirely with generative AI. Episodes will only be one or two minutes long, but 50 are planned, and they'll be released on social media platforms later in the year.
We're told the series was made possible by Vidu's 'Multiple-Entity Consistency feature', which is intended to enable the integration of characters, objects, and environments into complex animations with consistent and cohesive storytelling. While the episodes will be very short, D.T tells me he thinks it's the ideal length for social media with the current emphasis on fast pace and quick engagement.
D.T. Carpenter (DC): The creative process combines traditional anime workflows with modern technological solutions to optimize production. While we adhere to standard animation principles, we also integrate AI to help streamline certain aspects of the process, reducing both time and cost. This approach allows us to maintain high quality visuals while being flexible in our execution.
Evan Liao (EL): Traditional animation ensures consistency through manual frame-by-frame adjustments, whereas AI-generated content requires advanced techniques like Vidu's Multiple-Entity Consistency to achieve the same effect.
Many existing AI models are not yet capable of ensuring visual consistency with complex inputs that require the processing of multiple subjects or environments, and the attributes of multiple characters tend to blend or become inconsistent midway. However, we've made major strides in overcoming this, ensuring stable character designs, smooth motion, and cohesive world-building throughout the series.
DC: The biggest challenge has been achieving consistency and control in AI-generated animation. Vidu has been an amazing partner in helping refine our process and improve results.
EL: This is an AI generated animation series. Aura Productions is using Vidu for the majority of the animation, and may further apply additional refinements to enhance the final results.
EL: AI is already reshaping animation, making production faster, more scalable, and accessible to a wider range of creators. AI will unlock new possibilities for creative storytelling by pushing visual boundaries.
DC: AI is unlocking new creative potential, and we're likely to see more studios incorporating AI into their workflows.
EL: This series of anime shorts is a landmark for AI-generated animation, the challenge is proving that AI can deliver compelling narratives and visually stunning content. Our goal is to create an engaging experience that resonates with audiences while demonstrating the potential of AI in animation.
DC: At its core, animation is about story and character—those are the elements that resonate most with audiences. AI is simply a tool to help bring creative visions to life.
EL: With AI introducing new tools that expand creative possibilities, animators should definitely consider incorporating it into their workflow rather than treating it as a threat that replaces traditional skills. We foresee the rise of a new kind of creator – someone who understands both animation principles and AI's capabilities, using both to craft innovative content. AI is a transformative force, and those who adapt early will be at the forefront of the next era of animation.
DC: Looking ahead, we see a synthesis between creators and AI, where smaller teams can achieve much more than ever before. AI will enhance and expand creative abilities, allowing for more ambitious projects without the same traditional resource constraints. Rather than replacing artists, AI will empower them, enabling new storytelling possibilities that might not have been feasible in the past.
The few adverts that we have seen made with AI have been pretty horrendous, including the recent Volvo AI ad and the Coca-Cola Christmas ad. Meanwhile, the so-called 'Netflix of AI', Showrunner, plans to implement AI video generation to allow users to tell their own stories, but it remains to be seen how AI-generated video will be received.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Oracle (ORCL) Rallies 8% on Q4 Beat, Cloud Outlook Tops 70% Growth for FY26
Oracle (ORCL) Rallies 8% on Q4 Beat, Cloud Outlook Tops 70% Growth for FY26

Yahoo

time29 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Oracle (ORCL) Rallies 8% on Q4 Beat, Cloud Outlook Tops 70% Growth for FY26

Oracle (ORCL, Financials) shares jumped 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company topped Wall Street's fiscal Q4 expectations and issued robust guidance for accelerated cloud growth. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with ORCL. For the quarter ended May 31, Oracle posted adjusted earnings of $1.70 per share, beating the $1.64 consensus. Revenue rose 11% year over year to $15.9 billion, above the expected $15.59 billion. Net income increased to $3.43 billion from $3.14 billion a year earlier. Catz guided for 12%14% top-line growth in Q1, with adjusted EPS between $1.46 and $1.50both in line with LSEG forecasts. Catz said Oracle's cloud infrastructure revenue will grow over 70% in fiscal 2026, up from 50% in fiscal 2025. She also forecast more than $67 billion in total revenue for FY26, above the $65.2 billion analyst consensus. Looking further ahead, she said Oracle could exceed its previous $104 billion projection for FY29. Cloud services and license support revenue reached $11.7 billion in Q4, ahead of StreetAccount's $11.59 billion estimate. License revenue from both cloud and on-premises totaled $2.01 billion, also above expectations. Oracle highlighted several strategic wins during the quarter, including a cloud and AI health-care partnership with Cleveland Clinic and UAE-based G42, new deals with IBM, and infrastructure migration by Chinese retailer Temu. Capex surged past $21 billion in FY25 and is projected to exceed $25 billion in FY26. Larry Ellison said customer demand is so high that Oracle received a bulk order for all available cloud capacity. We never got an order like that before, Ellison said. The demand right now seems almost insatiable. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio

Dazu Rock Carvings: The Last Monument of World Grotto Art
Dazu Rock Carvings: The Last Monument of World Grotto Art

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Dazu Rock Carvings: The Last Monument of World Grotto Art

CHONGQING, China, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Located in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the Dazu Rock Carvings have held UNESCO World Heritage status since 1999. Sprawled across 75 recognized cultural relics protection zones, the site shelters over 50,000 breathtaking statues. As one of the eight great grottoes of the world, Dazu Rock Carvings epitomize the pinnacle of world grotto art dating from the 9th to the mid-13th century from different aspects. Celebrated as "the last monument of world grotto art," Dazu, together with Mogao, Yungang, Longmen and other grottoes, constitute the complete history of Chinese grotto art. Recent initiatives have rejuvenated Dazu's cultural presence. In an 8K dome theater, the Thousand‑Armed Guanyin's benevolent gaze fills the screen, inviting viewers into a celestial embrace. The dance‑drama Tian Xia Dazu (For an Eternal Homeland — Dazu Rock Carvers' Legacy) animates the carvers' epic tale with immersive stagecraft. Even video games now feature Dazu's statues, their contours and stories woven into virtual adventures. This thousand‑year‑old sanctuary is stepping firmly into the present. The 8k full-dome film Dazu Rock Carvings awakens all 50,000 statues in layered streams of live footage and CG animation, transforming the physical space into a digital world. Reclined within the dome, audiences look up through a canopy of digital stars, accompanied by haunting Buddhist chants and soulful light interplay. Time‑weathered halos reform around sculpted robes — reborn in pixels yet rooted in antiquity. In Black Myth: Wukong, the Monkey King cleaves through primordial chaos with his magical staff, the thousand-armed Guanyin of Dazu Rock Carvings smiles serenely amid dimensional rifts — holding a flower between her fingers. In the digital Buddhist world, gamers traverse a meticulously rendered Dazu, encountering Buddhist iconography amid mythic quests — an interactive bridge to Eastern philosophy. Meanwhile, CCTV's China in Intangible Cultural Heritage devoted its Chongqing episode to Dazu, describing the site's living legacy as "like stars falling all over mountains and rivers in Chongqing," rekindling collective memory through the screen. On stage, dancers echo the chiseling rhythms of bygone artisans. Silk‑flowing costumes swirl as performers burst from stone walls, transforming history into kinetic art. This isn't a static reenactment — it's a cultural translation, transmitting the carvers' spirit through flesh, motion, and emotion. The Dazu Rock Carvings are being revitalized through digital technology and cultural innovation. Digital projection breathes new life into carvings in the virtual spaces, enabling dialogues across time and space; Stage arts, meanwhile, imbue them with contemporary vitality. Technology extends their reach, while culture revitalizes their essence. Through this symbiosis, this millennium-old treasure resonates with the modern era, radiating timeless splendor. Photo - - - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Dazu Rock Carvings

This 23andMe Data Breach Settlement Could Pay You Up to $10,000: Here's How
This 23andMe Data Breach Settlement Could Pay You Up to $10,000: Here's How

CNET

time42 minutes ago

  • CNET

This 23andMe Data Breach Settlement Could Pay You Up to $10,000: Here's How

Hackers used a credential stuffing attack to gain access to 23andMe accounts in October 2023. Getty Images/Viva Tung/CNET If you have ever used 23andMe, there's a good chance you may be able to get paid as part of its massive data breach settlement, potentially as much as $10,000. Genetic testing company 23andMe was struck by a prolonged data breach that allowed hackers to gain personal data for about half of the company's 14 million customers. Since then, the company struggled, filing for bankruptcy in March 2025, and it was eventually acquired by Regeron. Now that the ownership situation has been settled, 23andMe has started to allow customers to file claims for their shares of the legal settlement related to the data breach. The San Francisco-based company, which allows people to submit genetic materials and get a snapshot of their ancestry, announced in October 2023 that hackers had accessed customer information in a data breach. As a result, a January 2024 lawsuit accused the company of not doing enough to protect its customers and not notifying certain customers with Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry that their data had been targeted specifically. It later settled the lawsuit for $30 million. "We have executed a settlement agreement for an aggregate cash payment of $30 million to settle all US claims regarding the 2023 credential stuffing security incident," a 23andMe spokesman told CNET. "We continue to believe this settlement is in the best interest of 23andMe customers, and we look forward to finalizing the agreement." A few months after that decision, there's now an official method available to make a claim and potentially get paid by 23andMe, in some cases as much as $10,000. Keep reading to get all the details you need, and for more, find out why T-Mobile settlement checks have been delayed and discover whether you can claim a piece of Apple's Siri privacy settlement. How many people did the 23andMe data breach hit? The settlement could cover roughly 6.9 million 23andMe customers whose data was targeted. To qualify, 23andMe customers must also have been US residents as of Aug. 11, 2023. That 6.9 million number includes around 5.5 million customers of 23andMe's DNA Relatives profiles, which lets people find and connect with genetic relatives. The other 1.4 million people affected by the breach used another service known as Family Tree, which predicts a family tree based on the DNA users share with relatives, 23andMe said. How much money could I get from the settlement? At the top end, 23andMe has said it would pay out up to $10,000 with an "Extraordinary Claim" to each customer who can verify that they suffered hardships as a direct result of their information being stolen in the data breach that resulted in unreimbursed costs. This includes costs from "identity fraud or falsified tax returns," acquiring physical security systems, or receiving mental health treatment. Residents of Alaska, California, Illinois and Oregon who were affected by the data breach can also apply for a payment as part of the proposed settlement, since those states have genetic privacy laws with damages provisions. The payments for these individuals are expected to be around $100, depending on how many people file for them, a settlement document said. Also, a smaller subset of affected users whose personal health information was impacted by the breach will be able to apply for a payment of $100. Infographic: Gianmarco Chumbe/CNET. Photo:Will the 23andMe settlement include anything else? Beyond those payments, 23andMe will also offer impacted users three years of a security monitoring service called Privacy Shield, which filings described as providing "substantial web and dark web monitoring." How can I file a claim for the 23andMe settlement? In order to file a claim electronically, you can do so using this official online portal from the Kroll Restructuring Administration. An additional online form is available if you would like proof of your claim sent to you. Potential claimants can also download and print out hard copies of the claim form and proof of claim form if they wish to submit them by mail. If you plan to use this method, send your forms to one of the addresses listed on the claims website. The deadline to make a claim is July 14, 2025. For more, you can read about how class-action lawsuits work.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store