# Where we are today Period: Sep 2026 – now · Era: 2026 · The Shakeout Every workflow above, still in use, now stacked into one practice. September 2026. None of the earlier workflows died. The frame-by-frame instinct became the storyboard as first frame, video-to-video became video references and motion control, the still frame became the character sheet, the prompt became a bundle of thirty references, the editing primitives became one edit propagating across a thirty-second scene, and an agent now routes all of it. Stronger models, one-take scenes, native audio, agents in the app and in the terminal, coding agents that build the missing tools, and true HDR delivery are what turned those techniques into a repeatable practice. ## How it worked 1. **Character sheet first.** A turnaround and face close-ups (ChatGPT Image-2/2.5, Nano Banana Pro, Seedream, Soul ID) become the reference for every shot. 2. **Storyboards become first frames.** Boards turn into first and last frames; chain the last frame of one shot into the first of the next. 3. **Block it or act it.** A gray-box 3D render or a phone performance drives the camera and the acting through motion control. 4. **The prompt is a bundle.** Video generations are built using a collection of multi-modal inputs: images, video clips, audio and documents go in at once, and the model resolves them into a scene. 5. **Generate scenes, not shots.** Multi-shot and thirty-second one-takes (Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0/2.5), with native audio for dialogue, or ElevenLabs into a lip-sync model when the performance needs control. 6. **Edit in place.** Change one frame and Aleph 2.0 carries it across the sequence. 7. **Direct with your preferred agent.** Inside the apps (Runway Agent, Higgsfield Supercomputer, Luma Agents, Flow Agent), inside ChatGPT through plugins (e.g. Runway), or from a terminal using MCP. Coding agents are used to build whatever tools are missing, like Sam Wasserman's free suite. 8. **Curation is the craft.** Generate far more than you keep; draft modes and turbo tiers make that ratio affordable. ## Why it mattered The moving parts still double roughly every six months: reference counts, clip lengths, model count per project. But the shape of the practice has stabilized: references in, a scene out, an agent in between, and a coding agent for everything the apps do not do yet. Persistent project context and likeness rights are the next things to be built into the product rather than worked around. ## Tools of the era - Nano Banana Pro (2025): https://gemini.google - Seedance 2.5 (2026): https://seed.bytedance.com/en/seedance - Kling 3.0 / 3.0 Omni (2026): https://klingai.com - Gemini Omni (2026): https://gemini.google - Runway Aleph 2.0 + Edit Studio (2026): https://runway.com - Runway Agent (2026): https://runway.com/news/introducing-runway-agent - Runway Ruby (2026): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5Rgbb0FK4 - Wasserman's Filmmaker Suite (2026): https://github.com/wassermanproductions/wassermans-filmmaker-suite - ComfyUI (2023): https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI - Genie 3 (2025): https://deepmind.google - Marble (2025): https://www.worldlabs.ai - Claude (2025): https://claude.ai - Magnific (2023): https://magnific.ai ## Example videos and posts - Getting started with Runway Ruby: real HDR from any video model · Runway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5Rgbb0FK4 - Real HDR versus SDR in a costume: bit depth, BT.2020 and PQ or HLG · Diesol: https://x.com/Diesol/status/2097733597667188987 - The secret to AI character sheets · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-rlr3k-2TI - Ten secrets of AI filmmaking · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w4-mRF1njI - New coverage from existing footage with Seedance 2.5 and MiniMax H3 · Curious Refuge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wva-82hHJ0 - The face-grid character hack for Seedance · Curious Refuge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AVUM6AR1W8 - Remaking The Bridge in a day and a half: Astra in Codex driving Runway and Seedance 2.5 · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKO-YgMQhLI ## On the timeline - [Seedance 2.5](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/seedance-2-5) (2026-06-24) - [Runway Aleph 2.0](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/runway-aleph-2-0) (2026-05-21) - [Runway Ruby: Real HDR From Any Video Model](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/runway-ruby) (2026-08-24) - [Runway Ships Inside Premiere Pro and After Effects](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/runway-in-adobe) (2026-09-08) - [Solaris — Runway's Interface World Model](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/runway-solaris) (2026-08-31) - [Gemini Omni](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/gemini-omni) (2026-05-19) - [The Miracle](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/the-miracle-wasserman) (2026-09-05) - [The Bridge (2026 Remake)](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/the-bridge-2026-remake) (2026-09-14) ## Sources - Creating a character sheet with Nano Banana: https://www.pixelsham.com/2026/04/18/creating-a-character-sheet-for-ai-videos-using-nano-banana/ - From storyboard to finished sequence: https://prompt-architects.com/blog/619-from-storyboard-to-finished-sequence-full-pipeline - Seedance with Blender: https://toonkit.io/en/models/seedance-blender - Wasserman Productions on GitHub: https://github.com/wassermanproductions - Getting started with Runway Ruby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5Rgbb0FK4 - 2026 predictions for AI filmmaking: https://www.vp-land.com/p/2026-predictions-what-comes-next-for-ai-filmmaking --- Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/workflows/ten-habits-september-2026