Runway Act-One: A big step in AI-driven character animation

Effortlessly create expressive character performances with Runway Gen-3 Alpha

Building on the success of its Video-to-Video feature, Runway has unveiled Act-One, an amazing tool that simplifies the process of generating expressive character performances inside Gen-3 Alpha. 

I think it’s very good.

With Act-One, users can create stunning, emotionally resonant sequences using just a single driving video and a character image — no motion capture or rigging required.

Gone are the days of complex workflows for facial animation. 

Act-One enables creators to capture the essence of an actor’s performance and seamlessly transpose it onto a generated character. 

It can be a realistic character, or an animation. It doesn’t matter, the tool translates the eye-lines, micro-expressions, and pacing of an actor into visually striking animations. 

All this is achieved with something as simple as a video shot on a cell phone.

With the gradual rollout starting today, this innovation will soon be available to all users, making it easier than ever to create high-quality, character performances loaded with emotion.

Thanks for reading!

Hi👋 I’m Erik Knobl. I‘m sharing my learnings in this newsletter. It would be amazing if you could join me on this journey.