This AI video generator may be almost as fast as creating real videos
AI-powered video maker Runway is now offering Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, which makes the recently released Gen-3 Alpha model even faster than its Gen-2 successor. The latest version is said to be seven times faster and costs just half as much as the Gen-3 Alpha, which is likely to generate a lot of interest from professional and amateur filmmakers interested in AI.
As the name suggests, the Gen-3 Alpha Turbo is all about speed, reducing the time between submitting a prompt and watching a video to near-real-time production, according to Runway. The idea is to offer something for industries where that kind of speed is crucial, like social media content and live advertising. The trade-off is quality. While Runway maintains that the Turbo model’s videos are essentially as good as the standard Gen-3 Alpha, the non-Turbo variant can produce higher-quality images for the video as a whole.
Still, the Turbo model is fast enough for Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela boasted on X that “it now takes longer to type a sentence than to generate a video.”
Creators who want to focus on plotting and producing videos rather than waiting for them to render will likely find the Gen-3 Alpha Turbo to be faster. That goes doubly true as the price is halved in this case. A second video costs five credits, as opposed to ten credits for a second of a standard Gen-3 Alpha model video. Credits on Runway come in bundles starting at $10 for 1,000 credits, so it’s the difference between 100 seconds of film for $10 or 200 seconds of film for $10. Interested parties can also try out the new model via a free trial.
Movie AI tree
Runway ML’s aggressive pricing and performance improvements come as the company faces stiff competition from other AI video generation models. The most notable is OpenAI and its Sora model, but it’s far from alone. Stability AI, Pika, Luma Labs’ Dream Machine and more are all busy bringing AI video models to the public. Even TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, has an AI video maker called Jimeng, though it’s limited to China for now.
Runway’s focus on speed and accessibility with the Turbo model could help it stand out in a crowded field. Next, Runway plans to expand its models with better controls and possibly even real-time interactivity. The Gen-3 Alpha Turbo model has a lot of what creators experimenting with AI want. But it will have to deliver consistently to truly beat the competition at turning words and images into video.
Providing reliable consistency in character and environment design is no small feat, but using an initial image as a reference point to maintain coherence between shots can help. In Gen-3, Runway’s AI can create a 10-second video guided by additional motion or text prompts in the platform. You can see how it works in the video below.
“Gen-3 Alpha Turbo Image to Video is now available and delivers 7x faster rendering at half the price of the original Gen-3 Alpha. All while delivering the same performance across many use cases. Turbo is available on all plans, including a free trial.
Runway’s image-to-video feature doesn’t just ensure that people and backgrounds stay the same when viewed from a distance. Gen-3 also includes Runway’s lip-sync feature, so that someone speaking moves their mouth in a way that matches the words they’re saying. A user can tell the AI model what they want their character to say, and the movement is animated to match. The combination of synchronized dialogue and realistic character movement will interest many marketing and advertising developers looking for new and, ideally, cheaper ways to produce video.
Next
Runway isn’t done adding the Gen-3 platform. The next step is to bring the same improvements to the video-to-video option. The idea is to keep the same motion, but in a different style. For example, a human running down the street becomes an animated anthropomorphic fox running through a forest. Runway is also bringing its control features to Gen-3, such as Motion Brush, Advanced Camera Controls, and Director Mode.
AI video tools are still in the early stages of development, with most models excelling at creating short-form content but struggling with longer stories. That puts Runway and its new features in a strong position from a market standpoint, but it’s far from alone. Midjourney, Ideogram, Leonardo (now owned by Canva), and others are all working to create the definitive AI video generator. Naturally, they’re all keeping a close eye on OpenAI and its Sora video generator. OpenAI has some brand awareness advantages, among other benefits. Toys”R”Us even created a short commercial featuring Sora and premiered it at the Cannes Lions Festival. Still, the film about AI video generators is only in its first act, and the triumphant winner’s slow-motion cheer at the end is far from inevitable. With the competition heating up, Runway’s release of Gen-3 Alpha is a strategic move to secure a leading position in the market.