newslounge.co · Dec 12, 2023

Good Morning. What could be more exciting than Christmas shopping in December? We're adding Tuesday editions to NewsLounge! Starting this week, we'll be sharing cool and interesting finds that you can skim through in under 60 seconds. Let's call it 'Tuesday Update' or something like that. It's going to be fun!

-Ardy

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TRENDING

LucidDreamer: Dreaming and Alignment for Multi-View Image Generation

As VR technology grows, so does the need for creating 3D scenes.

• Current methods are limited and don't reflect the real world well.

• LucidDreamer is a new way to create any type of 3D scene using a large-scale model.

How does it work? LucidDreamer uses a novel two-step method: Dreaming and Alignment. It employs point clouds for geometric guidance in creating consistent images from various views. The system projects parts of the point cloud onto specific views, aiding in detailed inpainting. This technique accurately captures the complexity of dreams.

🔗Discover more on their Project Page: Link

👩‍💻Explore the code on GitHub: Link

🎨Test Drive: Link

🎬watch on X: Link

Meta has unveiled 'Imagine with Meta AI,' a groundbreaking AI tool capable of generating images, trained on over a billion photos from Facebook and Instagram. Lets compare with Midjourney.

Meta AI:

• Easier to use,

• Faster

• Free

• Better at rendering text

• Blocks images of real people and copyrighted images

• Good for generating logos

• Images are not as realistic as Midjourney's

• Less configurable

• Watermarks all images

Midjourney:

• More realistic images

• More configurable

• Can render images of celebrities and in the style of specific photographers

• More creative

• Harder to use

• Slower

• Not free

• Can generate disturbing images

• Cannot render images of real people or copyrighted images

SPOTLIGHT

Harmonizing Celestial Bodies: MOPA Students' Artistic Journey in 'La Diplomatie de l'Éclipse

Take a moment to free your thoughts and dedicate eight minutes to immerse yourself in "La Diplomatie de L’éclipse," a mesmerizing, contemplative, and breathtakingly beautiful short film created by five senior animation students at Ecole MoPA in Arles, France.

Unfolding in a sequence of dreamy scenes that blend the surreal with magical realism, the narrative centers on a diplomat appointed by The World Council. Tasked with a crucial mission, the diplomat engages in negotiations with the Sun and Moon upon discovering that humanity faces extinction at the moment of their alignment in a total eclipse.

School: Ecole MoPA

Director/animator: Clémence Bailly, Sélim Lallaoui, César Luton, Axel Mechin, Achille Pasquier

Music: Titouan Gramain

Sound design: Pierre Duchesne-Bénéteau

Solstice-5: The Continental Alliance's Quest for Power

In a race for domination, the Continental Alliance's ambition leads to the uninhibited exploitation of planet Solstice-5. As they construct unstoppable autonomous factories, the Alliance's insatiable quest for power leaves behind a forsaken workforce in a world spiraling out of control.

▶ Watch on YouTube

🎨Renders on Artstation

FILM

The Severance, A Masterful Blend of Space and Design

Remember that old episode of "Seinfeld" in which Jerry, in his opening monologue, riffs on office workers who keep family photos at their desks? "Do they forget that they are married?" he asks.

the show takes place in and around the Lumen industry, a massive corporation where the employees are severed. a medical procedure that divides their memory between work and life. as the result each character is really two people, known as "innie" and "outtie". so as you can imagine for the innies there no escape.

Not only are the characters separated from time, but they are separated from meaning. They have no idea what their work actually does or if has any impact on the outside world.

Entering the severance floor is disorienting and that's because the creators of the show perfectly used space and design to explore its complex themes of alienation, capitalism and retrofuturism (what did people think the future would look like?).

Severance feels like what happens if The Office meets the Backrooms. But trust me you don't want wanna look that up on youtube.

-AA