Naver-backed Cinamon wants to make 3D video animation easier using AI

It’s by no means been simpler to create and publish artwork than it’s now, and if you happen to imagine the businesses constructing tech round AI, the manufacturing course of goes to get much more environment friendly. That’s particularly the case with video manufacturing, with firms of all sizes utilizing giant language fashions to construct instruments that allow you to whip up decent-quality movies and animation with a couple of prompts and actions.

Standard instruments on this area embrace Google’s Veo 2, OpenAI’s Sora, Runway, Luma AI, and Shanghai-based Hailuo. Now, a South Korean startup known as Cinamon is ramping up efforts to assert part of this burgeoning market — it lately raised an $8.5 million Sequence B spherical to proceed constructing its animated video era platform “CINEV,” slated to be launched in beta within the first half of 2025. Altos Ventures, an present backer, in addition to Saehan Enterprise Capital invested on this spherical.

Cinamon’s pitch is that its platform offers a video generator that may allow you to construct 3D environments, direct scenes and actions, place characters, edit digital camera angles, and extra — all with textual content prompts and sliders.

In keeping with its CEO Doosun Hong, the corporate’s method basically differs from present AI video turbines, which create movies by producing pixels utilizing textual content, photos, and movies as reference supplies. In distinction, CINEV combines a 3D asset library, AI movement era, and a filmmaking-focused giant language mannequin to first assemble 3D scenes full with characters and components, after which enables you to edit them utilizing its suite of video manufacturing and enhancing instruments.

“Our method permits simpler course and enhancing with out consistency/physics points, making it significantly appropriate for longer-form content material like movies and dramas,” Hong stated. “We envision CINEV to be complementary to present AI video instruments, probably enabling new workflows the place CINEV’s output might function high-quality reference materials for different AI video platforms.”

Cinamon began life in 2019 as Cinamon Video games, a subsidiary of content material manufacturing agency Vonvon. Cinamon initially arrange a JV with NAVER WEBTOON, a Korean digital storytelling platform, to create Perhaps, an interactive storytelling app. Going through rising information privateness issues, Vonvon merged with Cinamon Video games later in 2019 to focus solely on storytelling within the social content material area.

Whereas its rivals like Loopy Maple Studio began providing animated interactive story apps, fiction apps, storytelling apps, and short-form movies, Cinamon as an alternative selected to concentrate on creating 3D animation instruments that would velocity up and scale animation manufacturing for content material creators and studios. Despite the fact that it value extra funding than instruments for 2D content material, they noticed better scalability potential.

In 2022, the startup started constructing its 3D animation platform, and later built-in AI options to boost manufacturing effectivity. In September that 12 months, South Korean gaming firm Krafton, Naver Z (a unit of Korean web large Naver), and SNOW, (a digital camera app run by Naver), invested $10 million in Cinamon’s Sequence A.

Going ahead, Cinamon plans to make use of its traders’ IPs and 3D property to bolster its providing. Krafton has substantial mental property and 3D property utilized in its Battleground video games, whereas Naver Z operates the Zepeto metaverse platform. Cinamon says CINEV may help prolong these IPs past gaming by enabling content material creators to make use of these IPs, and probably drive person acquisition for Krafton and Naver Z. Cinamon additionally entered Nvidia’s startup accelerator, Inception, final August.

“Our potential customers embrace comedian, manga, webtoon artists, internet novel writers, recreation builders, video creators, and conventional animators searching for simpler workflows,” Hong stated. “In 2025, we plan to concentrate on prospects [ranging] from particular person creators to content material IP firms searching for simpler, sooner, cheaper methods to create Anime, VTuber, and cinematic online game content material.”

Cinamon plans to make use of the brand new capital for hiring extra AI engineers and for R&D. The startup has a group of 60 workers with experience in 3D graphics, AI, gaming, and content material manufacturing. This Sequence B brings its whole capital raised to date to $18.5 million (25 billion KRW).