It's not a meta-universe, it's animated.
10.30.2024. Californian company Wonder dynamic has released its latest product video.With just a camera, we can move everything to the virtual world.This product utilizes a variety of AI technologies combined with traditional CG industry tools to greatly improve animation productivity [1].
It doesn't replace the artist, but speeds up the production process, improves efficiency and helps productions save money.
In May, computer-aided design company Autodesk acquired Wonder Dynamics.
Products
Wonder Animation beta：Real-world video capture, fully converted to 3D editable animation.
Requiring only one camera for daily shooting, Wonder Animation utilizes AI technology to reconstruct all of its content in 3D space. This includes realistic scenes, character animation, camera movement data, and lighting [1]. (ps: AI scene reconstruction seems to have an element of imagination)
Unlike other generative AI black boxes, this data can be perfectly imported into the animation, film visual effects industry's everyday production tools (such as Maya, Blender or Unreal) for further editing.
This eliminates the need for motion capture (MoCap) and complex 3D software, making high-quality visual effects available to a wider range of artists and production studios.
market (also in abstract)
The initial two rounds of financing totaled $12.5 million, nearly 80 million RMB [3].
The 3D animation industry (Disney type of animation) is divided into three stages in terms of the value generation process.
Pre-design: scriptwriting, character, scene, props design, subplot.
Mid-term animation: modeling, textures, skeleton skinning, animation.
Post-wrap: editing, soundtrack.
Mid-period is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and getting the characters to move is key. Video is essentially a series of pictures played back-to-back, and the movie industry standard is 24 pictures per second. The body movements of the character models in each picture are posed by animators like puppets, and thanks to computer assistance, it's usually good to pose a few key movements a second.
Wonder Dynamics primarily serves film and television producers, independent filmmakers and digital content creators.
The current business model is based on a subscription service, the PRO version is $100 a month.
The company was founded in 2017 and began fundraising in 2021 after four years of validation. Seed and Series A rounds raised a total of $12.5 million. in 2024 it was acquired by Autodesk, a computer-aided design company. It's worth noting that one of the company's two cofounders is actually the lead actor of the Spielberg-directed Top Gun[4].
Insight
The AI video industry is mostly dominated by uncontrollable single functions. For example, keying, text to video, one-click video generation, avatars. And most of them are working towards replacing human creators.
From its inception, Wonder Dynamics set out to assist human creativity. Bringing artists closer to producing fully animated movies while ensuring they retain complete creative control. The author was not looking forward to its first generation, but this release is a huge change that can be said to reshape the paradigm of animated film and television production.
Wonder Dynamics' products are summarized as AI-assisted, but are actually a blend of AI technologies and traditional methods of the animation industry at various stages. The areas involved include AI visual reconstruction, AI motion capture, AI avatars, graphics rendering, modeling, and computer-aided design.
The AI industry seems to be going through another round of change, leaving aside the big modeling field performance as the main competitiveness, more so in other industries. Time forward alone you could come up with an AI motion capture and be a startup.
Many AI startups are currently focused on just a single AI area of application. In reality, it is a part of the workflow in many industries where people often need to keep switching AI tools. In the case of Wonder Dynamics' product this time, singling out an AI vision reconstruction might be a benchmark product for an AI startup. But is it useful? It's hard to support it alone.
In the future, AI systems will become more and more complex. the change of AI to other industries may require the deep integration of multiple AI technologies.
At the end of the writing, the man behind one of the top AI product companies is an actor, Tye Sheridan. 7 years after its founding, even after being acquired by a major company, their beginnings remain the same. In a May interview, he said, "As artists, we're so grateful to be able to make movies for a living, and we've always wanted to help other artists realize the same dream - no matter where they are, their social status or their budget. [4]"
Where are our ideals ......
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E-sheep reports, product and industry leading edge reports.
Author: Amer
special announcement Article fromE-Sheep Report.. Not affected by this blog's CC agreement.