The Top 5 AI Tools Reshaping Creativity

Since AI has become more prevalent over the last few years, creative toolsets have also become much more robust. Behemoths like Adobe have been adding new features that feel indistinguishable from magic with the addition of generative AI, and companies like RunwayML and Midjourney are taking strides to become the leading genertaive AI platforms. Amongst this, there are some players that you may not heard of—so I’ve collected a list below of the top five generative AI tools that are impacting creatives today, and my thoughts on how they may evolve over the coming years.

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1. Midjourney:
Redefining Visual Concepts

Midjourney leads the pack in AI image generation, offering unparalleled style refinement, and realism. Its strength lies in its ability to use user-provided images as stylistic input, allowing for a more directed creative process. Under the hood, it’s powered by Stable Diffusion—the machine learning scaffold for all modern day generative AI.

In my experience, Midjourney has become an invaluable tool during the ideation phase. Once I have a concept in mind, I often turn to Midjourney to quickly visualize it. This immediate visual feedback invariably informs and refines my creative decision-making process.

A recent project at the REFERENCE studio with Tiffany & Co. perfectly illustrates this workflow. We needed to create visuals of flowers dipped in rose gold liquid—a crucial element in the commercial narrative we were building. Tiffany, being the luxury brand they are, had extremely specific requirements for the flower's appearance and movement.

By rapidly iterating with Midjourney, we explored various renderings of gold—rough, smooth, liquid, textured. Presenting the most successful visualizations to the client led to swift approval of the visual direction. This AI-generated concept then served as a guide for our 3D artists during the final execution in Houdini and Cinema 4D.

2. AI Writing Assistants:
Collaborators in the Creative Process

AI writing tools like ChatGPT and Claude are revolutionizing content creation. Claude, developed by Anthropic, excels at understanding context and nuance, making it invaluable for brainstorming and refining ideas. Its ability to handle complex, multi-step tasks sets it apart in the creative process.

Amazon's recent deal to use Claude's technology to enhance Alexa's capabilities signals a significant shift in AI integration. This move could bring advanced language models into millions of homes, potentially transforming how we interact with AI in our daily lives.

As these AI assistants evolve, they're becoming integral to the creative process across various industries. They serve not just as tools, but as collaborators, helping to spark ideas, overcome writer's block, and challenge our thinking in new ways.

3. Figma AI:
Transforming the Design Workflow

Figma's AI features, including auto-generated design variations and AI-assisted layouts, are streamlining the design process. These advancements may reshape the role of junior designers, pushing them to elevate their creative skills to complement the AI's capabilities.

The impact on the industry could be profound. As I see it, interns and entry-level designers will need to push themselves creatively to compete against the generalized offerings of Figma's UX AI. The key for emerging designers will be to master these tools, positioning themselves as efficiency drivers who can leverage AI to produce high-quality work at unprecedented speeds.

Looking ahead, I anticipate Figma and similar tools will continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in collaborative design. We might see AI-powered real-time design suggestions or even AI that can predict and suggest design elements based on project goals and target audiences.

4. RunwayML Gen-3:
Revolutionizing Video Production

RunwayML's Gen-3 is transforming video generation with features like text-to-video creation and advanced motion tracking. Looking ahead, I believe Runway will be able to take over many generally advanced simulations like you see in a typical Hollywood film. Even today, it can generate convincing scenes like open oceans or liquid close-ups—elements that are often needed in filmmaking.

Runway touts it’s self as being ‘the new camera’ offering a new medium to creatives beyond traditional film, and CGI. AI is generating the thoughts from your mind via prompting and directing of the camera. It generally does a good job at creating scenes from scratch—or you can even upload your own image and Runway’s tools will transform it into a a video, with somewhat accurate content and context awareness. This especially comes in handy if you are more familiar with tools like Midjourney for image generation.

However, integrating custom 3D models, particular scenes, or complicated objects will take more time to perfect. For example, if I have a client that needs a perfume bottle rendered perfectly, I can’t upload the 3D information to Runway and have it export a perfect visual—advancements like this will take more time to develop over the coming years. But, I suspect organizations like Runway are already working on integrating their tech into existing pipelines to address these challenges. This shift will likely alleviate current 3D pipeline restrictions, allowing artists to focus more on creative challenges and less on technical ones.

5. KreaAI:
The Underrated Gem

While tools like Runway grab headlines, Krea.ai deserves its own spotlight. Krea offers a unique workflows that enables users to work with a blank canvas that can be interpreted by AI. The platform allows for custom image uploads and drawings, with the AI considering the entire canvas as image input before applying stylization to create a cohesive image.

Their suite of tools doesn’t stop at image generation though, you can also take it one step further with motion treatments, and blending of one sequence to another. Stylistically I would say that Runway offers a better understanding of realism, while Krea uses a more stylized approach. This is also a part of the uniqueness of each tool—there’s an inherent personality from the developers woven into the software, allowing each tool to cater to a different flavor of creative personality.

This capability opens up exciting possibilities for creative professionals, allowing for a more intuitive and hands-on approach to AI-assisted image creation. It's a prime example of how AI tools are evolving to better complement traditional creative processes.

Looking Ahead:

As these AI tools become more integrated into creative workflows, the creative process itself is transforming. The ability to generate ideas quickly and iterate rapidly is becoming standard practice across creative industries.

However, amidst this technological revolution, the most crucial skill for creatives remains cultural awareness and critical thinking. The most valuable toolset is and has always been the creative's ability to stay attuned to modern work, to question how it challenges norms, and to identify how it pushes boundaries.

As we navigate this AI-augmented future, our role as creatives isn't diminishing—I believe it's evolving. By embracing these tools while honing our uniquely human skills of ideation and cultural understanding, we're unlocking new realms of creative possibility. The future of creativity lies not in AI replacing human insight, but perhaps in the powerful synergy between the two.

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