It’s by no means been simpler to create and publish artwork than it’s now, and if you happen to consider 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 corporations 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.
In style instruments on this house embody Google’s Veo 2, OpenAI’s Sora, Runway, Luma AI, and Shanghai-based Hailuo. Now, a South Korean startup referred to as Cinamon is ramping up efforts to assert part of this burgeoning market — it just lately raised an $8.5 million Collection B spherical to proceed constructing its animated video technology 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 digicam angles, and extra — all with textual content prompts and sliders.
In keeping with its CEO Doosun Hong, the corporate’s strategy basically differs from present AI video mills, which create movies by producing pixels utilizing textual content, photographs, and movies as reference supplies. In distinction, CINEV combines a 3D asset library, AI movement technology, and a filmmaking-focused giant language mannequin to first assemble 3D scenes full with characters and parts, after which permits you to edit them utilizing its suite of video manufacturing and modifying instruments.
“Our approach enables easier direction and editing without consistency/physics issues, making it particularly suitable for longer-form content like films and dramas,” Hong mentioned. “We envision CINEV to be complementary to existing AI video tools, potentially enabling new workflows where CINEV’s output could serve as high-quality reference material for other 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 house.
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 deal with creating 3D animation instruments that would pace up and scale animation manufacturing for content material creators and studios. Though it price extra funding than instruments for 2D content material, they noticed larger 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 yr, South Korean gaming firm Krafton, Naver Z (a unit of Korean web large Naver), and SNOW, (a digicam app run by Naver), invested $10 million in Cinamon’s Collection A.
Going ahead, Cinamon plans to make use of its buyers’ 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 might help lengthen these IPs past gaming by enabling content material creators to make use of these IPs, and doubtlessly drive person acquisition for Krafton and Naver Z. Cinamon additionally entered Nvidia’s startup accelerator, Inception, final August.
“Our potential users include comic, manga, webtoon artists, web novel writers, game developers, video creators, and traditional animators looking for easier workflows,” Hong mentioned. “In 2025, we plan to focus on customers [ranging] from individual creators to content IP companies looking for easier, faster, cheaper ways to create Anime, VTuber, and cinematic video game content.”
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 Collection B brings its whole capital raised thus far to $18.5 million (25 billion KRW).
