Latest news with #Firefly
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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
Adobe Firefly adds AI sound, avatars, and motion tools for video creation
Adobe enhances Firefly with AI-generated sound effects, avatars, improved motion fidelity, and new editing tools to simplify and speed up video creation workflows New Delhi
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Alan Tudyk: Resident alien, android and voice actor
Alan Tudyk was nearly 50 when he scored his first starring role in a TV series as the titular extraterrestrial Harry Vanderspeigle in Syfy's 'Resident Alien.' It's not that he was underemployed or little known — he's been celebrated in genre circles since 'Firefly,' the 2002 single-season western-themed space opera in which he played the sweet, comical pilot of a spaceship captained by smuggler Mal, played by Nathan Fillion, with whom he has since been linked in the interested public mind, like Hope and Crosby, or Fey and Poehler. His own 2015 web series 'Con Man' (currently available on Prime Video), based on his experiences at sci-fi conventions, in which he and Fillion play inverted versions of themselves, was funded by an enormously successful crowd-sourced campaign, which raised $3,156,178 from 46,992 backers; clearly the people love him. You can't exactly call 'Resident Alien' career-making, given how much Tudyk has worked, going back to onscreen roles in the late 20th century and on stage in New York, but it has made him especially visible over a long period in a marvelous show in a part for which he seems to have been fashioned. He has, indeed, often been invisible, with a parallel career as a voice artist, beginning with small parts in 'Ice Age' in 2002; since channeling Ed Wynn for King Candy in Disney's 2012 'Wreck-It Ralph' (which won him an Annie Award), the studio has used him regularly, like a good luck charm. You can hear him in 'Frozen' (Duke of Weselton), 'Big Hero 6' (Alistair Krei), 'Zootopia' (Duke Weaselton), 'Moana' (Hei Hei), 'Encanto' (Pico) and 'Wish' (Valentino). He played the Joker on 'Harley Quinn' and voices Optimus Prime in 'Transformers: EarthSpark.' Performing motion capture and voice-over, he was Sonny the emotional android in 'I, Robot' and the dry droid K-2SO in both 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,' and again in 'Andor.' (He's a robot again in the new 'Superman' film.) This is a partial, one could even say fractional, list. Among animation and sci-fi fans, being the well-informed sorts they are, Tudyk is known and honored for this body of work as well. 'Resident Alien,' whose fourth season is underway on Syfy, USA and Peacock (earlier seasons are available on Netflix, which has raised the show's profile considerably), is a small town comedy with apocalyptic overtones. It sees Tudyk's alien, whose natural form is of a giant, big-eyed, noseless humanoid with octopus DNA, imperfectly disguised as the new local doctor, whom he kills in the first episode. (We will learn that the doctor was, in fact, an assassin, which makes it sort of … all right?) Learning English from reruns of 'Law & Order,' the being now called Harry will preposterously succeed in his masquerade, and in doing so, join a community that will ultimately improve him. (By local standards, at least.) It's a fish way, way out of water story, with the difference that the fish has been sent to kill all the Earth fish — I am being metaphorical, he isn't actually out to kill fish — although he is now working to save them from a different, nastier race of alien. Some actors play their first part and suddenly their name is everywhere; others slide into public consciousness slowly, through a side door — which may lead, after all, to a longer, more varied career. Tudyk has the quality of having arrived, despite having been there all along. Like many actors with a long CV, he might surprise you, turning up on old episodes of 'Strangers With Candy,' 'Frasier,' 'Arrested Development' or 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,' or repeatedly crying 'Cramped!' in a scene from 'Patch Adams,' or in the movies 'Wonder Boys,' 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Tale' or '3:10 to Yuma.' You might say to yourself, or the person you're watching with, 'Hey, that's Alan Tudyk.' (You might add, 'He hasn't aged a bit.') It was 'Suburgatory,' an underloved ABC sitcom from 2011, though not underloved by me, where he played the confused best friend of star Jeremy Sisto, that, combined with 'Firefly,' cemented Tudyk in my mind as someone I would always be happy to see. He's handsome in a pleasant, ordinary way. If he's not exactly Hollywood's idea of a leading man, it only points up the limitations of that concept. His eyes are maybe a trifle close set, his lips a little thin. There's a softness to him that feeds into or productively contrasts with his characters, depending on where they fall on the good-bad or calm-hysterical scales. (In the current season of 'Resident Alien,' a shape-shifting giant praying mantis has taken over Harry's human identity, and this evil twin performance, which somehow fools Harry's friends, is as frightening as the fact that the mantis eats people's heads.) It makes his robots relatable and roots his more flamboyant characters, like Mr. Nowhere, the villain in the first season of 'Doom Patrol' — who comments on the series from outside the fourth wall, inhabiting a white void where he might be discovered sitting on a toilet and reading a review of the show he's in — in something like naturalism. As Harry, Tudyk is never really calm. Relaxed neither in voice nor body, he tucks his lips inside his mouth and stretches it into a variety of blobby shapes. The actor can seem to be puppeteering his own expressions, which, in a way Harry is, or splitting the difference between a real person and an animated cartoon, in the Chuck Jones/Tex Avery sense of the term, which is not to say Tudyk overplays; he just hits the right note of exaggeration. Harry often has the air of being impatient to leave a scene and get on with whatever business he's decided is important. Though he's given to explosive bursts of speech, as the character has developed, the humor he plays becomes more subtle and quiet, peppered with muttered comments and sotto voce asides he means to be heard. He is, as he likes to point out, the smartest and most powerful being around, but he has the emotional maturity of a child. At one point, having lost his alien powers, Harry was willing to sacrifice the entirety of his species to get them back. Where once he had no emotions, now he is full of them. Last season, he was given a romance, with Heather (Edi Patterson), a bird person from outer space, which has continued into the current run; he is also a father, with a great affection — anomalous in his species — for his son, Bridget, an adorably fearsome little green creature. And he loves pie. And that Tudyk himself seems genuinely nice — there are interviews with him up and down YouTube, and my friend David, who worked on 'Firefly,' called him 'kind, grateful and curious' — makes him easy to like, however likable a person he's playing. That possibly shouldn't matter when assessing an actor's art, but it does anyway.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why It's Time For Nio to Go Big
Key Points One study predicts that only 15 of 129 Chinese NEV brands will be viable by 2030. Notably, those 15 brands will generate roughly 75% of China's NEV sales. China's brutal price war will eventually force consolidation. 10 stocks we like better than Nio › For investors, Nio (NYSE: NIO) has always been a swing for the fences. This young electric vehicle (EV) maker took a slightly different route, preferring to spend extensive capital and effort to build out its battery swapping stations. While mostly known for its namesake Nio premium EV brand, the company has recently launched two sub brands, Onvo and Firefly, which are expected to significantly boost deliveries as production accelerates. All that said, it's time for Nio to go big with its new brands, because according to one study, it's end-time in China for a long list of EV brands. Dire warning Consultancy AlixPartners sent a dire warning to anyone interested when it said that only 15 out of the 129 brands currently selling EVs and plug-in hybrids in China will be financially viable by 2030. That's not great news for just about any automaker outside of China's own juggernaut, BYD. Those 15 brands remaining financially viable are predicted to account for roughly 75% of China's EV and plug-in hybrid market over the same time period. By the consultancy's count, that means each of the 15 brands would be averaging roughly 1.02 million units in annual sales. This makes the industry a lucrative proposition if you survive the consolidation and bankruptcies. What's the problem? At a glance, China's new energy vehicle (NEV) market looks like it's in fine shape. During June, sales of NEVs climbed 30% and accounted for a staggering 53% of overall new-vehicle sales in China. Of that chunk of the broader market, Chinese EV brands account for 71% of NEV sales. In a way, China's EV makers are victims of their own success, and of their government's subsidies. While the overcrowded and highly competitive market has fostered incredible advances in battery technology and cost efficiency, it's also left the entire market in a brutal and unsustainable price war. The price war is making it extremely difficult to protect market share and bottom lines. Time to go big The current environment in China is ripe for a company such as Nio -- with an established premium EV brand and two new brands accelerating production and deliveries -- to boost its deliveries and either build the scale to break even, or position itself as an ideal partner for industry consolidation. Already, Nio is aiming to double its vehicle deliveries from 2024 to this year, leaving them at roughly 450,000 units. Nio is currently slightly behind pace to achieve that. If that target wasn't ambitious enough, management is also aiming to break even by the end of 2025. That would be a large and impressive task indeed, but Nio has made progress on significantly reducing costs and supporting margins despite the ongoing price war. The rest of 2025 will tell us a lot about how Nio is positioned for potential mass consolidation in the Chinese EV industry, but it sure looks like a good time to double down on its marketing, incentives, and production efficiencies to really drive its new brands to new heights. For Nio, it's time to go big and prepare for many competitors to go home. Should you buy stock in Nio right now? Before you buy stock in Nio, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nio wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $679,653!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,046,308!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why It's Time For Nio to Go Big was originally published by The Motley Fool
GMA Network
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Miguel Tanfelix and Ysabel Ortega are the sweetest lovebirds in Seoul
Miguel Tanfelix and Ysabel Ortega are turning up the romance on their South Korean adventure. On Instagram, Miguel shared photos taken from their Seoul trip together, including their food adventures. He also shared a kilig-filled selfie showing Ysabel planting a kiss on Miguel's cheek with the N Seoul Tower in the background. 'Kung annyeong sayo, yun din ang akin,' Miguel playfully wrote in the caption. Ysabel and Miguel starred together in "Voltes V: Legacy" as Jamie Robinson and Steve Armstrong. They also appeared together in "Firefly," the Metro Manila Film Festival 2023 Best Picture. Miguel recently starred in 'Mga Batang Riles,' while Ysabel is part of 'Encantadia Chronicles: Sang'gre.' —Carby Rose Basina/JCB, GMA Integrated News
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Adobe Firefly can now generate sound effects from your audio cues
Since rolling out the redesign of its Firefly app in April, Adobe has been releasing major updates for the generative AI hub at a near monthly clip. Today, the company is introducing a handful of new features to assist those who use Firefly's video capabilities. To start, Adobe is making it easier to add sound effects to AI-generated clips. Right now, the majority of video models create footage without any accompanying audio. Adobe is addressing this with a nifty little feature that allows users to first describe the sound effect they want to generate and then record themselves making it. The second part isn't so Adobe's model can mimic the sound. Rather, it's so the system can get a better idea of the intensity and timing the user wants from the effect. In the demo Adobe showed me, one of the company's employees used the feature to add the sound of a zipper being unzipped. They made a "zzzztttt" sound, which Adobe's model faithfully used to reproduce the effect at the intended volume. The translation was less convincing when the employee used the tool to add the sound of footsteps on concrete, though if you're using the feature for ideation as Adobe intended, that may not matter. When adding sound effects, there's a timeline editor along the bottom of the interface to make it easy to time the audio properly. The other new features Adobe is adding today are called Composition Reference, Keyframe Cropping and Video Presets. The first of those allows you to upload a video or image you captured to guide the generation process. In combination with Video Presets, you can define the style of the final output. Some of the options Adobe is offering at launch allow you to create clips with anime, black and white or vector art styles. Lastly, with Keyframe Cropping you can upload the first and final frame of a video and select an aspect ratio. Firefly will then generate a video that stays within your desired format. In June, Adobe added support for additional third-party models, and this month it's doing the same. Most notable is the inclusion of Veo 3, which Google premiered at its I/O 2025 conference in May. At the moment, Veo 3 is one of the only AI models that can generate video with sound. Like with all the other partner models Adobe offers in Firefly, Google has agreed not to use data from Adobe users for training future models. Every image and video people create through Firefly is digitally signed with the model that was used to create it. That is one of the safeguards Adobe includes so that Firefly customers don't accidentally ship an asset that infringes on copyrighted material. According to Zeke Koch, vice president of product management for Adobe Firefly, users can expect the fast pace of updates to continue. "We're relentlessly shipping stuff almost as quickly as we can," he said. Koch adds Adobe will continue to integrate more third-party models, as long as their providers agree to the company's data privacy terms.
