Bentley Labs, with Runway, drives Manhattan's storm barriers.

Bentley Labs used Runway AI to animate Manhattan storm barrier scans and simulate flooding for a presentation at the London ATN Summit.

Bentley Labs, the R&D arm of infrastructure software developer Bentley Systems, reports having used Runway for an immersive presentation given at the ATN Summit in London, focused on the storm barriers designed to keep Manhattan dry during events like Hurricane Sandy.

The challenge lay in the available material: Gaussian splats from on-site scans, 3D models in Unreal Engine, and photographs, but almost no video, as the gates could only be scanned in their open state. To demonstrate their closure as a storm approached, the team used Runway's first-and-last-frame animation: from the splat of the open gate, the tool generated the closing sequence, then weather variations (storm, rising water levels) chained together into a continuous shot. A modeled control room was similarly virtually flooded.

Notably, the client, owner of the structure, deemed the water too dramatic, with too much surface debris: the correction was made in a few seconds during the meeting, whereas a traditional pipeline would have required a new cycle. Bentley Labs, which is preparing for an upcoming edition in Berlin, now incorporates Runway into its client workflow, not just in post-production.