Runway’s Act-One uses smartphone cameras to replicate facial expression motion capture [Video]

Runway AI Inc., the generative artificial intelligence startup that builds tools for AI-generated video creation, has launched a new feature to help creators give their AI video characters more realistic facial expressions.

Called Act-One, it makes it possible for existing users to record themselves on something as simple as a smartphone camera, capture their facial expressions, and then replicate them on an AI-generated video character.

Runway said in a blog post today that the tool is being rolled out to users starting today, and can be accessed by anyone with a Runway account. That said, it’s not entirely free-to-use, as users will be required to have enough credits on their account to access the startup’s most advanced Gen-3 Alpha video generation model.

The Gen-3 Alpha modeldebuted earlier this year, introducing support for text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video modalities, meaning that users can write a description of a scene, upload an image or a video, or use a combination …