Nation A (official site) is a startup that recognizes the huge potential of 3D Graphics in multiple domains such as entertainment, education, fashion, and more. Currently, GPUs have never been faster, displays have never been sharper, and VR/AR headsets have never been more immersive.
However, something didn’t quite scale as fast: creating 3D content is both hard, labor intensive, and extremely expensive.
That’s the friction point Nation A is trying to address with its generative AI technology for 3D animation creation. Animations are one of the most specialized and sophisticated aspects of 3D content creation. Whether a company uses experienced animation staff, motion capture, or a mix of both, high-quality animations are difficult to produce.
Nation A can generate 3D animations based on a GPT-style text prompt such as “a girl walks,” “a girl swims,” etc. The company also has an option to create 3D animations based on a simple 2D video recording. The output is remarkably good and even more so when you realize it only took seconds to produce.
Their system also takes care of complex pre-animation preparation work such as “rigging,” which sets up the invisible virtual skeleton that is underneath a 3D character. AI comes to the rescue here as well, and their A.I can generate a skeleton that matches the 3D character you provide.
Obviously, the AI model can only deal with things it has been trained on before, so humanoid characters are easier than random aliens people might create. However, with additional training, more skeleton types could be added. For example, common four-legged animals are supported.
The end game is to generate animation data compatible with the most popular 3D packages, including Unreal Engine, 3DS Max, Maya, Blender and Unity. I’ve suggested to Nation A CEO Su Yeon Yoo to add support for USD since NVIDIA is making a big push on that front. Roblox creators should try their Neuroid online application for Roblox creators.
From what I have seen, these animations can be utilized immediately in simple-looking games like Roblox or Minecraft, which is great because that can help millions of modders worldwide. Likewise, the quality seems high enough for crowds and education applications, but perhaps not quite there for main AAA game characters yet – we’ll see.
Nation A also has an “AI Human Studio” to observe a real person and capture facial features and human expressions that could be much more cost-efficient than legacy solutions, we’ll have to see.
Still, providing this kind of service as a SaaS seems like an amazing idea that can genuinely let a potentially huge number of 3D creators express their ideas without being burdened by the cost of animations.
For those who are overwhelmed by even using AI to generate 3D animations, Nation A has an asset store with many “ready to use” animations. That’s also a good idea because even with AI, it’s true that not everyone might be good or have time to explore the AI prompt animation generator. There are also themes and categories that would require more expertise to make things realistic.
I’m looking forward to seeing more creators have access to quality 3D animations and am curious to see whether higher tiers developers would abandon some of their animation workflow for this generative AI product.
Filed in . Read more about CES, CES 2024, Korea, Startups and Virtual Reality (VR).
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