Top 5 in Tech: Runway Aleph, Showrunner AI, Photoshop Harmonize, and more

VP Land Staff

VP Land is a newsletter & YouTube channel covering the latest updates in creative technology for M&E professionals.

Here's a quick roundup of the most significant developments in media and entertainment technology this week:

Runway Aleph: Manipulate Videos with Just Text

Runway launched Aleph, a new AI video model that enables users to edit, generate new angles, and restyle videos using simple text prompts. Demos so far include relighting, changing weather, removing objects, adjusting camera angles, and much more. Similarly, Luma AI introduced Modify with Instructions on its Dream Machine platform, allowing users to guide visual changes through natural language commands.

Showrunner: The “AI of Netflix”

Fable’s Showrunner platform, now backed by Amazon, lets anyone create fully animated TV episodes just by typing in text prompts. Described as the “Netflix of AI,” Showrunner allows users to write, direct, and edit their own episodes, customizing everything from scenes to dialogue. The platform showcases a future idea of “playable media,” where interactive, user-driven entertainment enables fans to build on existing shows, remix storylines, and even insert themselves and friends into new episodes.

Adobe Harmonize: One-Click AI Compositing in Photoshop

Adobe introduced Harmonize to Photoshop Beta, tackling one of digital compositing’s toughest hurdles—matching colors, lighting, and shadows across layered elements. Powered by Firefly AI, Harmonize instantly blends objects into backgrounds. Alongside Harmonize, Adobe has also rolled out Generative Upscale for boosting resolution up to 8 megapixels, enhancements to the Remove tool, and a new Projects beta designed to improve creative team collaboration and project organization.

Alibaba Wan 2.2: Open-Source AI Video Gets a Cinematic Upgrade

Alibaba’s Wan team released Wan 2.2, a major upgrade to their open-source AI video toolset. The release introduces three new models based on a Mixture-of-Experts architecture, enhancing video quality, resolution support, and creative control—making it a solid upgrade for filmmakers and creators seeking more polish and flexibility.

Ideogram Character: Generate Consistent Portraits from a Single Image

Ideogram launched Ideogram Character, a free AI feature that generates consistent character images from just one reference photo. Designed to address a core problem in AI image creation—maintaining visual identity across multiple outputs—it enables users to produce endless variations of a character with impressive fidelity. 

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