Wonder Dynamics Unveils AI Tool That Converts Live-Action Footage to 3D Animation

Wonder Dynamics, the artificial intelligence start-up co-founded by actor Tye Sheridan, has unveiled its latest AI-powered tool, which is capable of easily turning live-action footage into a 3D, animated scene.

On October 30, Wonder Dynamics launched the beta version of Wonder Animation, a new video-to-3D scene tech that lets artists shoot a scene with any camera, in any location, and turn the footage into an animated scene with CG characters in a 3D environment via AI reconstruction.

Wonder’s flagship, Wonder Studio, has already made waves in the industry for tech that allows users to easily create animated CG characters on top of live-action footage. But this tech goes a step further.

What’s noteworthy about the video-to-3D scene tech is its ability to film and edit sequences with multiple cuts and various shots, and then use AI to reconstruct the scene in a 3D space. Additionally, it matches the position and movement of each camera’s relationship to the characters and environment.

This essentially creates a virtual representation of an artist’s live-action scene containing all camera setups and character body and face animation in one 3D scene, with fully editable elements (animation, character, environment, lighting, and camera tracking data) in their preferred software, such as Maya, Blender, or Unreal.

“There is a current misconception that AI is a one-click solution, but we know that’s not the case,” said Nikola Todorovic, co-founder of Wonder Dynamics. “That’s why with the beta launch of Wonder Animation, our focus is on bringing the artist one step closer to producing fully animated films while ensuring they retain full creative control. Unlike the black-box approach of most current generative AI tools on the market, we’re empowering artists to shape their vision instead of just relying on automated outputs.”

Wonder Dynamics was founded in 2017 and in May was acquired by Autodesk, expanding the company’s reach and offering more access to its tech to provide studio-level films with VFX and CGI that can be done on an indie film budget.