--- title: "Mind-Blowing Video Editing App Can Replace Actors With CGI With a Simple Drag and Drop" description: "The AI-powered Wonder Studio allows users to automatically replace real actors with convincing CGI characters — with a simple drag and drop." date: "2023-03-19" modified: "2023-03-19" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/video-editing-replace-actors-with-cgi-drag-drop" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "animation" - "cgi" - "the digest" - "vfx" --- # Mind-Blowing Video Editing App Can Replace Actors With CGI With a Simple Drag and Drop ![The AI-powered Wonder Studio allows users to automatically replace real actors with convincing CGI characters — with a simple drag and drop.]() *\Image: Wonder Dynamics\* ## Control C, Control V An AI startup called Wonder Dynamics just came out with a new AI-powered editing studio called Wonder Studio, which they claim allows users to automatically replace real actors with convincing CG characters — with a simple drag and drop. Gotta say: it looks pretty impressive. "We built something that automates this whole process, animates it live, frame by frame, there's no need for mocap. It automatically detects actors based on a single camera," Wonder Dynamics cofounder Nikola Todorovic [told *TechCrunch*]() last week. "It does camera motion, lighting, color, replaces the actor fully with CG." ## Industry Madness Of course, if your first thought, here, is: "hm, a tool like this might be absolutely terrible for the livelihoods of VX artists," you'd be forgiven. But Todorovic and the product's other creator, Tye Sheridan — yes, that Tye Sheridan, actor of "Ready Player One" fame — claim that the tool is designed to help artists, actually. ([Never heard that one before]().) "This doesn't disrupt what they're doing, it automates 80 to 90 percent of the objective VFX work and leaves them with the subjective work," Todorovic told *TechCrunch*. "The beauty of AI is taking something so complicated and simplifying it." "The goal all along was to make a tool *for* artists, to empower them," Sheridan added. "Someone who has big dreams doesn't always have the resources to manifest them." Certainly, a rosy outlook on tech that, no matter how you shake it, is definitely replacing a human task. But to their credit, the VFX industry, as *TechCrunch* notes, is notably overwhelmed — too many studios, making too many Marvel movies and/or Marvel knockoffs, fixing everything in post as they go. As [*GQ* reported]() back in January, the majority of the film industry's VFX studios are booked out for years, and a tool like this could be a legitimately helpful means of bypassing the embattled industry's ongoing clusterfuckery. According to TechCrunch, Wonder Studio comes with a set of premade characters, but the studio maintains that the preexisting characters are really just there for inspiration, or early-phase work like storyboarding. And soon, they say, they're hoping to build out into CG environments. "This is a big first step," Todorovic told *TechCrunch*, "but the big picture is we want to have a platform where any kid can sit and direct films by sitting at his computer and typing." All in all, congrats to these cofounders, as their platform seems legitimately impressive. And honestly? We're kind of looking forward to a TikTok feed flooded with Wonder Studio animations. **READ MORE:** [*Wonder Dynamics puts a full-service CG character studio in a web platform*]() \[*TechCrunch*\] **More on CGI:** [*Netflix Romcom Allegedly Used CGO to Make Jonah Hill Kiss Lauren London*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()