Archive

Maket, an AI-assisted architectural design tool, has added the ability to generate floor and wall textures directly from text prompts or reference images. The feature gives designers a faster way to explore material options within their existing workflow. It represents a natural expansion of Maket's generative toolset into the domain of surface and finish design.

The AI video generation landscape has shifted considerably over the past year, with native audio, longer clip lengths, and open-weights models now firmly part of the competitive field. A November 2026 ranking from Artificial Analysis's blind human-preference Elo arena pairs quality scores with API pricing to give a clearer picture of where each model stands. The result is a leaderboard that looks notably different from what it did in late 2025.

ArtCraft made waves by using AI to build an open-source reimagining of Photoshop, and CEO Brandon Thomas says that is only the beginning. The company's broader ambition is to challenge the closed, proprietary systems that dominate creative software and the web. It is a bold long-term goal, rooted in the idea that AI can lower the barrier to rebuilding complex software from scratch.

Google has added five new tools to Flow, its AI-powered filmmaking platform, developed with input from working filmmakers and visual artists. The additions are aimed at giving creators more precise control over how their stories are visualized and produced. Each tool addresses a specific stage or challenge in the visual storytelling process.

Runway has updated its content moderation policies to permit a broader range of dramatic and genre fiction content - including sword fights, shootouts, and horror - while keeping firm limits around genuine harm. The changes reflect an effort to bring the platform's written rules closer in line with what its systems actually allow in practice. Users can also now flag cases where moderation gets it wrong.

Adobe and Microsoft have deepened their partnership to bring better-optimized versions of Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and Substance 3D Painter to high-performance Windows PCs. The expansion also includes Adobe Express capabilities coming to Microsoft Photos, with a preview for Windows Insiders expected in December. The move is tied to a separate Adobe-NVIDIA collaboration centered on RTX Spark-powered hardware.

Phota Labs is a new AI-powered service that automatically processes ordinary photos into polished, professional-looking images without requiring users to touch an editing tool. Rather than layering more manual controls onto an already crowded market, the company focuses on automating the entire editing pipeline. The goal is to make quality photo output accessible to people who have no background in photography or post-processing.

Avid has launched Ready to Play, a suite of AI-assisted tools built into Media Composer using Google Gemini. The update introduces three core capabilities - creating, analyzing, and modifying video - designed to help editors maintain momentum without ceding creative control. It is available now as a free add-on for existing Media Composer subscribers.

A customer at a Los Angeles pizza shop attempted to use an AI-edited photo of their order to claim a refund, but the scheme did not succeed. The incident highlights a growing concern for small businesses as image generation and editing tools become more accessible. It is a early real-world example of AI-fabricated evidence being used in a consumer dispute.

Adobe MAX Sneaks is an annual event where Adobe researchers demo experimental technology that has not yet made it into any product. Some of these demos eventually become familiar tools in Premiere, After Effects, or Photoshop - others never ship at all. This year's Sneaks airs Wednesday, November 11, and is free to watch online.

Adobe's annual Max conference has brought a fresh batch of experimental features, including tools that convert flat photos into navigable 3D scenes, let creators shape AI characters through conversation, and simplify photo editing to a copy-and-paste workflow. These "Sneaks" projects offer a glimpse into where Adobe's generative AI research is heading. None are shipping products yet, but they reflect the direction of the company's broader creative toolset.

MBZUAI's Institute of Foundation Models has released PAN 2, an open-weight world model designed for physical AI applications. The system pairs a language model planner with a 29-billion-parameter diffusion transformer to simulate the visual outcomes of actions as video clips of up to 20 seconds. It is released under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, making it freely available for research and commercial use.

VSCO has updated its Terms of Use to explicitly state that it does not and will not use user photos to train generative AI or machine learning models. The move comes months after vague policy language raised concerns among photographers and creators on the platform. The clarification offers a clearer commitment than the previous wording provided.

The Polar Express, Robert Zemeckis's 2004 performance-capture film, is back in seasonal rotation - and it remains one of the more technically unusual productions of its era. Tom Hanks played five distinct characters across 38 days of work, a casting choice that was rooted in story logic as much as technical curiosity. Here is a closer look at how that decision came together and what it meant for the actors involved.

MiniMax has released H3-Image, an open-weight image generation model capable of producing 4K images in roughly 10 seconds. The model supports text-to-image generation, reference-based generation, and image editing within a single architecture. Built on MiniMax's H3 foundation, it marks the company's entry into the open-weight visual generation space.

Google has introduced the Multimodal Knowledge Agent (MKA) benchmark, a new evaluation framework designed to test how AI agents reason through visually complex, multimodal tasks. Unlike simpler benchmarks, MKA focuses on the kind of layered reasoning required when an agent must draw on both visual and textual information simultaneously. The release signals growing interest in more rigorous, real-world testing standards for multimodal AI systems.

At its Max conference in Miami, Adobe outlined a broad push toward agentic AI, positioning chatbots and autonomous agents as potential collaborators in creative workflows. New features span Firefly, Creative Cloud, and third-party integrations - pointing to a future where repetitive design tasks can run largely on their own. The announcements signal a meaningful shift in how Adobe imagines its tools being used day to day.

Instagram has launched Effect Builder, a tool that lets US users create custom Stories filters by describing them in plain text prompts. The feature also accepts style reference images and allows iterative refinements through follow-up prompts. It is available now for users aged 18 and over in the United States.

GIANTS, a five-minute animated short screening at this year's Austin Film Festival, began as a live-action shoot in 2013 before filmmaker Nate Bayless transformed it into a stylized rotoscope-animated film over a decade later. The project is a case study in patience, creative reinvention, and the particular appeal of rotoscoping as a medium that sits between live-action and animation. No Film School spoke with Bayless about the film's long journey and what finally brought it to the screen.

Adobe MAX kicks off this week in Miami, and ahead of the conference the company has released its 2026 Creators' Toolkit Report, surveying over 2,000 US creators on how AI is shaping their workflows. The data shows broad adoption, with 78% of creators using AI tools reporting accelerated business or audience growth. Major announcements about AI integrations across Creative Cloud are expected throughout the week.

Disney and Adobe have announced a multiyear partnership to develop proprietary generative AI models tailored to Disney's creative and production needs. The collaboration, revealed at Adobe's MAX conference, spans properties from theme parks and cruise lines to ESPN content. The models are described as "artist-led," with a focus on responsible AI development.

ByteDance has released Seedream 5.5, an update to its generative image model that focuses on two areas: improved photorealism and more consistent multi-round editing. The model claims stable output across up to 100 rounds of iterative editing, a significant step for workflows that require repeated refinement without drift.

Google has updated its Vids app with the Omni 1.2 Flash model, allowing users to generate longer AI video clips of up to 15 seconds at no cost. The update also brings improved consistency across scenes, making it easier to produce cohesive video content. This marks a meaningful step forward in Google's effort to integrate generative video tools into its Workspace productivity suite.

NVIDIA has released Cosmos 3, a new set of open models designed for interactive world simulation. The models are hosted on Hugging Face and represent a step forward in physically grounded, controllable video generation for robotics and autonomous systems research.