Filmmaker James Gunn, YouTuber Mark Rober, and creator Brandon Baum headlined Adobe MAX Day Two's Inspirations keynote with compelling stories of storytelling and creativity.
Adobe’s Day Two keynote pivoted from the creativity of products to the creativity of people. Three creator spotlights—Brandon Baum, Mark Rober, and James Gunn—each illustrated different ways to blend story, craft, and technology.
AI was, as is typical this year for MAX 2025, part of the warp and weft of all the stories. Flexibility was a recurring motif throughout all this, and it’s a good point: some days you hand-craft, other days you lean on AI to iterate or deliver at greater speed.
UK creator and influencer Brandon Baum has racked up 17.5 billion views of his vfx-heavy videos, and has over 20 million followers. In short, he knows what he’s doing, and in his slot demonstrated how to iterate a live “alternate ending” workflow powered by Firefly.
“AI is not some almighty piece that replaces the whole puzzle, but it does help us move through it faster,” he said. “Suddenly, whether you're a first time creator or seasoned filmmaker, you can test more combinations, try more ideas, but most importantly, you can fail faster, so you can stumble on gold quicker, one of my favourite new tools, bringing so many of these puzzle pieces into one toolbox is Adobe's Firefly boards. It's unlocking a speed of iteration unlike anything I've used before. So today I want to see if we can put it to the test and reimagine the ending to one of my videos.”
Which is what he then does. Starting with a video posted the previous day, he pulled direct inspiration from a viewer comment and then:
The point wasn’t just the on-stage trickery but the process: public ideation, comment-driven riffing, and rapid iteration. Baum frames AI as a box of puzzle pieces that still require a storyteller's guidance to form a coherent picture, and it was a persuasive argument.
Rober showed how he does what he calls “hiding the vegetables”—designing spectacular builds (glitter bomb, squirrel obstacle courses, giant jello pool) that hook attention and then help get young minds hooked on science and learning.
His is a quality over quantity approach. He makes only around 10 videos a year, but gets about 20 million viewers for each of them.
The image below is the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline of the first video he uploaded ten years ago.
And this is the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline of one of this year’s crop.
That is what we call progress. But for all the technology Rober can throw at projects nowadays, generating that visceral response remains key.
“What does that mean? It means if someone watches this video or whatever content, it needs to make them laugh, they need to feel curious, feel angry, feel amazed, feel sad… they just need to feel something.”
The final creative conversation of Adobe MAX Day Two paired filmmaker James Gunn — writer, director, and now co-CEO of DC Studios — with Adobe’s Jason Levine for a wide-ranging talk about craft, ambition, and the discipline behind creativity.
Unlike many of the characters in his current movies, he disavows the concept of people having a single ‘origin story’. “Unlike in comic books, human beings have many origin stories,” he said. “I was always kind of searching for what I was best at… I loved every creative field, so I played music, drew comics, and eventually wrote my first movie for $150.”
Okay, so it then cost $350,000 to make, but 1996’s Tromeo and Juliet was the start of the journey that has now made him one of the most influential people in the global film industry.
The session having started with the hands-on practicality of Baum, the interview with Gunn was also full of advice.
“I love technology… I love seeing the ways computer graphics have improved. But I’m a storyteller, so it’s always about what works best. I’ve never been prejudiced in terms of practical over CG—it should always augment the story,” he said.
“A lot of people don’t plan, so they get on set and say, ‘We’ll just make it CG.’ It ends up sloppy. You should know what you’re doing as well as you can, so you’re using the best tool to create a reaction from the audience.”
The storytelling is everything. When he peppered the Guardians films with 70s AM radio pop, it was assumed that, like to many other filmmakers, he was imposing his own tastes on the audience. Not a bit of it.
“I did it because it fit the vibe and helped ground the movie emotionally.” He says. “With Peacemaker, it was glam-metal because that’s the kind of music he listens to. It’s always about storytelling.”
His final words of advice? “Be honest and authentic about who you are,” he concluded. “Take risks. The worst thing that can happen is you get hurt or disappointed—but you’ll always feel good about yourself.”