Adobe is now Disney’s Official AI Innovation Partner. The multi-year alliance, announced this morning at Adobe MAX, will give Disney’s creative teams custom generative AI models built on Adobe Firefly Foundry.
The Adobe deal is placing Disney’s most valuable assets, its characters and visual worlds, at the core of a custom AI toolset. Under the new alliance, Adobe Firefly Foundry will be producing models that Disney says are “human-centered and artist-led” and built to generate “commercially safe” outputs. Imagineering is already using them to turn hand-drawn sketches into rendered concept art, and projects with StudioLAB and ESPN Edge are underway.
As part of the newly announced deal, Disney will receive a list of privileges and tools, including early access to Adobe’s latest AI, creative, and media technologies. As for named products Disney will receive, a press release included Adobe Firefly (generative AI), Firefly Foundry (proprietary AI models), Premiere (video editing), Photoshop (digital imaging). Additionally, dedicated Adobe engineering and research resources will be offered to support Disney’s production pipeline.
The Firefly Foundry is an enterprise generative AI platform and managed service tool that includes models customized on Disney properties and trained on character attributes, environments, and visual styles, to produce what Adobe and Disney are calling “commercially safe and production-ready” outputs.
As of now, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development has already been using Firefly Foundry in their theme park development pipeline. Some listed examples of the tool’s uses were a sketch-to-image model that turns hand-drawn concepts into fully rendered 2D concept art, as well as a custom image model that generates on-brand, franchise-accurate assets.
Disney and Adobe’s announcement also referenced StudioLAB, Disney Studios’ innovation hub for prototyping ideas and turning experiments into tools. Adobe is set to join the team as a StudioLAB Innovation Partner, and plan to explore internal creative workflows. Additionally, Adobe will contribute to the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN Edge, ESPN’s innovation center for emerging tech in sports storytelling. The two companies will work together to look at using AI to further engage sports fans and to bring ESPN’s archive to life. Co-innovation projects between Adobe and StudioLAB and ESPN Edge are said to already be underway.
Hannah Elsakr, Adobe’s VP of GenAI New Business Ventures said that “the deal is the next chapter” of the decades-long relationship, with AI deployed as an accelerant for artistic vision, creativity, and guest engagement. “The two companies will build a new creative foundation that thoughtfully deploys AI as an accelerant for artistic vision, creativity and guest engagement.”
Additionally, Becca Vodnoy, Disney’s SVP of Corporate Alliances explained how the partnership offers Disney’s creative teams new ways to explore and develop ideas. “By bringing together Disney’s world-class storytellers and beloved brands with Adobe’s technology,” Vodnoy said, “we have an exciting opportunity to give our creative teams new ways to explore and develop their ideas and bring Disney stories and experiences to life for guests and fans around the world.”
As an additional benefit of the partnership, Adobe will receive access to global marketing activations, industry events, thought leadership, and customer storytelling with Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, ESPN Edge, and StudioLAB. Adobe will also increase its presence across Disney’s media platforms, and the partnership is expected to show up at Adobe Summit, Adobe MAX, and other conferences.
Adobe and Disney both stated that the models are “human-centered and artist-led,” and that they protect “creators and their works,” and are “commercially safe.”