Wētā FX and AWS unite to build AI tools for VFX artists
Wētā FX and Amazon Web Services are teaming up to create AI tools that put artists at the center of complex visual effects work. The goal is simple: speed up the technical grind without handing creative decisions to automation.
Instead of chatbots and text prompts, the focus is on natural interfaces that let artists orchestrate intelligent systems. Think fast iteration, precise control, and collaboration that actually helps the shot.
Artist control first
The collaboration is about giving artists better control over AI and machine learning inside the tools they already use. The interface matters-no clunky prompt engineering, just systems that respond to the way artists work.
"AI represents an opportunity to shift how high-end entertainment is crafted, with custom agents to assist with mechanical tasks. We are collaborating with AWS to build tools that provide a new interface for artists, not with chatbots or text prompts, but providing artists the ability to orchestrate intelligent systems with a natural interface and manage a complexity and sophistication not yet possible. With the artist in full control, they are then enabled to collaborate with the rest of the team, crafting the next-generation of premier storytelling to entertain the world," said Kimball Thurston, CTO, Wētā FX.
Faster workflows without losing fidelity
Capturing performances, building creatures, and crafting realistic environments can take weeks per scene. The plan is to fold AI assistance into artist-centric workflows so repetitive work shrinks while realism holds.
One example: training models to generalise motion and physics across creature types-not just humans-so artists get interactive tools that respond like the real thing. Less wrangling, more shot-building.
VFX-specific models
General-purpose AI misses the nuance VFX needs. Wētā FX and AWS aim to build purpose-built models that understand the language and constraints of production.
That could include synthetic training data from decades of sims and tools-thousands of creature motions, destruction events, and environment interactions-to teach models the visual logic artists expect.
Access, scale, and sustainability
As shows get bigger, AWS's elastic compute can help teams scale up and down with less overhead. The intent is to make advanced assistance accessible to productions of different sizes, with smaller, efficient models that move reviews from days to hours.
"World-class filmmakers turn to Wētā FX to deliver iconic, awe-inspiring visual effects, from the battlefields of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings to the bioluminescent forests of Pandora in Avatar. We've done this for three decades by ensuring our artists have the most innovative tools as they craft the best path forward for every creative challenge. Together with AWS, we're approaching AI with the goal of enhancing our artists' work, enabling them to be more creative. We strongly believe AI technology should amplify human creativity and intent, and together with AWS we are committed to exploring and developing this," said Daniel Seah, CEO, Wētā FX.
"AWS has been powering media and entertainment innovation for nearly two decades, and this agreement represents an exciting milestone to explore and develop AI workflows and services that will transform the visual effects industry. Wētā FX's vision is about enabling exceptional artists to be more exceptional by creating purpose-built AI to fit their creative workflow. That's exactly the kind of innovation we want to enable with AWS infrastructure and our AI services," said Nina Walsh, global leader, industry business development for media, entertainment, games and sport.
What this means for creatives
- Use AI as an assistant for mechanical steps-track, retarget, simulate-so you can spend more time on look and story.
- Push for tools with direct manipulation and live feedback, not text-box guessing. Control breeds trust.
- Curate your studio's data. Clean animation takes, sim caches, and approved shots become valuable training material.
- Prototype on a single sequence. Measure review cycles, notes addressed per day, and final-pixel quality before scaling.
- Keep human approvals at key checkpoints to protect artistic intent and continuity across sequences.
How to get ready
If you're leading a team, start with a lightweight pilot: one creature rig, one performance capture workflow, one lighting pass. Define success metrics, version control your experiments, and document what sticks.
Want a curated view of practical tools and courses shaping generative video workflows? Explore this resource for creatives: Generative Video AI Tools. For AWS's approach to media production in the cloud, see AWS for Media & Entertainment.
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