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New system combines CGI pipelines with generative AI tools in an artist-driven platform built around model provenance, data security, and transparent usage, designed for modern film and episodic production.
Digital Domain has launched DDAI, an AI-integrated infrastructure designed for modern film and episodic production, and appointed VFX industry veteran Matt Smith as Creative Development Director of AI to lead the initiative.
According to the company, DDAI combines CGI pipelines with generative AI tools in an artist-driven framework built around model provenance, data security, and transparent usage. The infrastructure is designed to support a hybrid production model that integrates into existing pipelines while also offering a fully generative track for projects that require speed, scale, or a different creative approach.
“Generative AI is advancing rapidly,” said Smith. “Through DDAI, we provide a powerful framework of artist-driven tools seamlessly integrated into our traditional production pipeline. DDAI is built around model provenance, data security, and transparent usage.”
Smith will lead a team of generative AI artists, researchers, and engineers who have spent years collaborating with filmmakers and studios while testing production processes.
“Technology has always changed the way artists create, but the heart of storytelling has never changed,” said Sudhir Reddy, President of Global VFX Business at Digital Domain. “With DDAI, we’re building tools that help artists and our pipeline be more efficient – to iterate, discover, and refine ideas in real time while keeping creativity firmly human-led. We believe AI should amplify artistry, not automate it away. That means using these tools ethically and transparently, always in collaboration with the people behind the work. Our mission is simple: empower artists to tell better stories and push creative boundaries further than ever before.”
Digital Domain’s Visualization team is the first group to adopt DDAI, with AI concept artists now involved at every stage, “helping teams align faster on visuals and design, reduce costly last-minute revisions, and return creative decision-making to directors earlier in the production process.”
“Integrating DDAI into our visualization pipeline enables us to secure early approvals on look and design, significantly shortening production timelines and allowing directors to rapidly iterate on their vision at a stage of the process that simply wasn’t possible before,” said Matt McClurg, Head of Visualization at Digital Domain.
Digital Domain said DDAI builds on its existing work in machine intelligence, including proprietary digital human technologies such as Masquerade, its markerless motion-capture system, and Charlatan, its neural-network-driven face-replacement process. The company also noted that key technical partnerships with leading software companies will provide early access to emerging models and a direct feedback loop, allowing DDAI workflows to be shaped by production challenges. Details of the software partnerships were not provided.
Digital Domain is a leading visual effects company with more than 30 years of work across film, advertising, games, and immersive media. Its credits include Academy Award-winning films such as Titanic, What Dreams May Come, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Since 2016, the company has expanded into virtual reality, real-time production, photorealistic virtual humans, artificial intelligence, and next-generation visualization.
Source: Digital Domain
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
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