AI animation startup Creator's X receives 110 million yen in financing
Creator's in mergers and acquisitions, service development and talent recruitment.
In addition to the financing news, Creator's .
What does Creator’s X mainly do?
The goal of Creator's X is to assist animation creators through AI technology to improve the quality of their works and reduce production costs, hoping to improve the overall treatment of creators.
Specifically, creators will apply AI to all aspects of animation production, such as background art, character design, etc., to reduce the workload of creators and allow them to focus more on creation.
To achieve this goal, Creator's X will set up an animation-specific AI team to create exclusive AI tools for each creator. These tools can learn the style of the creator's past works and generate images that match the creator's style based on the creator's needs. Creator's X will also continue to develop new AI tools to improve the efficiency of animation production.
Source: Creator's X press release AI animation startup Creator's X received 110 million yen in financing and acquired animation production company K&K Design
K&K Design participated in the animation production of (Ranma 1/2)
K&K Design, acquired by Creator's painting), (Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Soldiers of Love) (CG animation), etc.
Hideji Yoshikawa, the representative director of K&K Design, said that after joining Creator's X, K&K Design will be able to focus more on creation and explore more possibilities of AI in animation production together with Creator's X.
Oishi Shu, who will join Studio SAIGA, said that background art is an important element that supports the world view of the work. Market demand and quality requirements are rising year by year, but it is faced with the problem of shortage of manpower and difficulty in cultivating talents to keep up with the demand.
He believes that after the introduction of AI technology, the production of background art will usher in huge changes, and backgrounds can be quickly produced in a short time, greatly improving the problems encountered in the current production process.
Image source: BS11K&K Design participated in the CG animation production of Japanese animation: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Soldiers of Love
Generative AI is growing explosively, and Japanese animation is exploring related applications
Generative AI has triggered changes in many industries. As early as 2023, Netflix launched the first animation (Dog and Boy) produced by AI. In the background part, the animator first drew the layout (picture structure), and then let the AI draw the layout according to the background. The structure is used to generate pictures. If the director is not satisfied, he still needs to manually add pens and delete some elements.
Recently, Japan has even produced an animation (Twins of the Year) (ツインズひなひま) with the gimmick of "95% using AI technology" and is expected to be launched in 2025.
(Mobile Suit Gundam) character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko said that he is optimistic about the potential of AI in improving the animation production process, because humans can leave simpler tasks to AI, which will help improve the overall painting level.
The establishment of Creator's X also symbolizes an important step in the application of AI technology in the animation industry. With the assistance of AI technology, the efficiency of animation production will be greatly improved, and it will also allow humans to inspire more creativity.
As for whether AI can really improve the labor shortage problem in the animation industry, the author believes that AI is just one of the tools that can be tried. The only way to fundamentally improve the profit sharing structure of animation production, the long-term pathological labor relations, and the taxation of freelance workers is Structural problems such as pressure can bring real sustainable development to the industry.
Discussion on the labor shortage phenomenon in the Japanese animation industry:
95% are drawn using AI! Japan’s AI beautiful girl animation will be released next year. Will AI be used to improve the labor shortage problem?
Japanese animation companies are short of manpower: almost all single-episode animations are outsourced. Can Anime Chain solve the problem?
"An animation company in the AI era!" Creator's