Disney extends Adobe AI work into film post-production and ESPN

Adobe and Disney announced a multiyear alliance on November 9 that extends their custom generative AI work into film and sports. The collaboration adds Walt Disney Studios’ StudioLAB and ESPN Edge to work already underway at Walt Disney Imagineering, the group that designs the company’s parks and experiences. Adobe will supply technology and dedicated engineering and research resources as Disney’s official AI innovation partner.

Early StudioLAB projects will focus on custom models for post-production and visual effects, Adobe executive Hannah Elsakr wrote in a separate account of the alliance. ESPN and Adobe will explore sports highlights, documentaries and ways to use the broadcaster’s archive. Joint projects with the two organizations are already underway, the company said.

From park concepts to production research

The work uses Firefly Foundry to train proprietary models on company-owned content and guidelines. Adobe says these models encode character attributes, environments and visual styles for consistent output.

Foundry supports image, video, audio, vector and 3D output, with centralized development, deployment and access. Adobe says companies retain ownership of their data, content and output, plus exclusive usage rights. Reuters describes Disney’s models as private and proprietary. The deal’s value and individual release dates were undisclosed.

Imagineering is already using a sketch-to-image model that turns hand-drawn concepts into rendered 2D artwork, alongside a custom image model that produces assets consistent with Disney’s properties. Those are current uses identified in the November announcement. The film and sports teams will explore their own production applications.

The park-design collaboration was first announced on June 16. Adobe then described models tailored to Imagineering’s design catalog, with workflows for revising concept art and turning 2D designs into 3D prototypes. The prototypes were intended to support material estimates and coordination with engineers before construction. November’s statement specifically identifies sketch-to-image and custom image generation as existing uses. The planned models drew on franchises including Frozen, Moana and Cars.

Kyle Laughlin, Imagineering’s senior vice president of R&D technology and engineering, told Reuters that parts of the creative process previously measured in months could be completed in hours or days. He said faster iteration helped reduce expensive changes once construction began. Laughlin also said the tools were not intended to replace Imagineering roles. That comparison reflects his account of project work. The companies have published no standardized performance test for the alliance.

Tools and specialist support

Adobe’s early-access offering to Disney includes Firefly, Firefly Foundry, Premiere and Photoshop. Dedicated researchers and engineers will support the production pipeline alongside those tools. The companies describe the custom-model work as artist-led, with Disney’s own properties supplying the material used to tailor the models.

The alliance also covers marketing and industry events involving Disney’s parks, cruise business and media operations. Adobe said additional activations and experiences would roll out over the multiyear term as its joint work with StudioLAB and ESPN Edge continues.