- Disney Imagineering plans to use Adobe’s Firefly AI services to build the next generation of theme parks based on its own IP
- Disney says the move further builds on decades of collaboration between the two companies
- The move is seen as an important win for Adobe as it navigates increasingly pessimistic investor sentiment with its own AI offerings
Adobe and Walt Disney Imagineering have revealed that the studio’s research and development arm will leverage Adobe’s Firefly Foundry technology to design future parks, hotels, cruises and attractions.
Adobe’s Firefly Foundry AI offering is not just another one-size-fits-all service, but one custom-tuned to handle Disney’s unique needs. The custom AI is trained on Disney’s own IP offerings, allowing what the companies call a ‘responsibly built’ solution to handle the following workflows to begin:
– A sketch-to-picture model that transforms rough hand-drawn concepts into fully rendered 2D concept art.
– A custom image model trained on Disney’s own IP that generates franchise-accurate creative assets across Mickey & Friends, Frozen, Moana, Lilo & Stitch and Cars.
– A 3D modeling feature that takes 2D renderings and transforms them into detailed prototypes for construction planning and coordination with engineering teams.
How is AI helping to build the next generation of Disney rides?
Kyle Laughlin, SVP, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, stated that the company is a ‘long time user’ of Adobe’s Creative Cloud tools, with a relationship spanning decades, and was also among the early adopters of its Firefly offering.
“We were looking for a partner that could help us do it responsibly and do it in a way that ultimately respected the fact that we are a creator-driven company,” Laughlin noted. “We are a talent-driven company and we respect that the creative process has a human being as part of what we do.”
Disney says it has no plans to replace the human element of the process, but will use solutions provided by Firefly to compress workloads and speed things up significantly, even as “output remains consistent with the company’s storytelling heritage and visual language.”
“As teams at Imagineering build new experiences for fans around the world, our tools and workflows will provide a creative foundation to explore bolder ideas and bring the best to life,” noted Hannah Elsakr, vice president, GenAI New Business Ventures at Adobe.
Partnering with companies like Disney is the need of the hour for Adobe, which often leads investors to question the viability of its business model in an AI-enabled future where everyone has access to generative AI tools, even as it pitches itself as a frontrunner in a rapidly evolving industry.
The move is seen as a big win for Adobe, with Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development arguably one of the biggest customers it could land for its Firefly Foundry service.
The move comes at a time when Disney is a plaintiff in several IP-centric lawsuits against AI companies, including image and video generation company Midjourney, which allegedly plagiarized and therefore misused its copyrights.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
