Crazy week for AI Tools: Midjourney, Runway, Canva and Ideogram launched upgrades

All the news from the AI world for creatives

Erik Knöbl | AI Video Creator

Oct 27, 2024

Good day, humans.

In today’s Newsletter:

1️⃣ Midjourney has upgraded its editing capabilities

2️⃣ Runway releases Act-One for motion capture

3️⃣ Canva launches new Dream Lab

4️⃣ Ideogram now has an infinite Canvas

5️⃣ Character.AI and Google sued after chatbot-obsessed teen’s death

6️⃣ Create custom voices with ElevenLabs

7️⃣ Steal this Midjourney sref

Let’s go.

Midjourney now allows you to change the texture of any image

Midjourney has upgraded its editing capabilities

Midjourney has just launched an upgraded image editor, opening up capabilities that make it a serious contender to legacy photo editing tools like Photoshop.

Here’s what to know about Midjourney’s latest features:

Edit External Images: For the first time, users can edit images uploaded from outside Midjourney. This goes beyond generative AI images, enabling wider creative control.
Re-texture & Lighting Adjustments: Users can alter textures, materials, and lighting, making it possible to transform settings—like changing a room from day to night with a few clicks.
Sketch-to-Art Capabilities: Users can upload simple sketches or hand drawings and transform them into fully realized artwork with AI-enhanced design.
Moderation Enhancements: To maintain quality and safety, Midjourney is implementing more restrictive moderation and privacy protocols as this feature rolls out.

This feature is currently available only for members with yearly subscriptions, those subscribed for 12+ months, and users with over 10,000 images created.

Runway releases Act-One for motion capture

Runway has introduced Act-One, a new tool within Gen-3 Alpha that allows users to generate expressive character animations using only a single driving video and a character image, eliminating the need for traditional motion capture or rigging. The tool faithfully captures an actor's performance, including eye-lines, micro-expressions, and pacing, and applies it to different character designs across various styles.

Why It's Important:
By removing the need for costly and time-consuming motion capture systems, it enables creators of all skill levels to bring complex, emotional characters to life with just a cell phone.

Canva releases new Dream Lab

Canva has added a bunch of new AI features to its web-based design platform, including updates for generating text and video effects and a more powerful text-to-image app. The latter is called “Dream Lab” — a new image generator tool born from Canva’s acquisition of generative AI startup Leonardo.ai earlier this year.

Ideogram now has an infinite Canvas

Canadian AI image startup Ideogram, founded last year by former AI researchers from Google Brain, is getting in on the trend of expanding its web-based user workspace to include a new interactive, infinite Canvas where users can spread newly generated images out, compare them to older generations, resize and reorder them at will, and even combine multiple AI generated images into one new composite.

Important to know: Character.AI and Google sued after chatbot-obsessed teen’s death

A lawsuit claims that Character.AI’s founders launched a dangerous product that it advertised as safe for use by kids without warning them or their parents of possible risks. Read the news.

ElevenLabs now lets you create a custom voice from a text prompt

ElevenLabs has launched a Voice Design engine that allows users to create custom synthetic voices from text prompts, enhancing generative AI's dialogue capabilities.

Why it’s important

This tool enables the rapid design of unique voices, making it ideal for applications in gaming and multimedia where real-time voice changes are needed.

Steal this Midjourney sref

To use it, add --sref 386961075 at the end of your prompt in Midjourney. Your images will be generated with this style.