Isn’t that fascinating?
Derived from the renowned production company Rideback known for its work on the Lego Movie franchise Cheehoo’s founding team includes Co-CEOs Michael LoFaso and Jonathan Eirich along with co-founder Dan Lin. This strategic shift could position Cheehoo to compete with startups like Cartwheel and Cinamon, supported by Accel and Naver respectively, that are also working on simplifying various aspects of animation production né?. The lineup doesn’t end there; former DreamWorks Animation president Chris deFaria and former Apple AI researchers Yao-Hung Hubert Tsai and Wei-Cheng Kuo are also part of the team.
According to a recent conversation with TechCrunch LoFaso shared Cheehoo’s ambition to revolutionize the animation creation process for studios and creators. They facilitate tasks like data annotation file conversions and format consistency easing creators through various stages of animation production né?.
How do you feel about the innovative approach Cheehoo is taking towards animation creation? né?.
Brentt Baltimore principal at Greycroft is optimistic about Cheehoo’s potential to address challenges in animation pipelines and cut production costs né?. Furthermore, their workflow seamlessly integrates with platforms like Maya or Unreal, enabling users to make real-time changes and toggle AI features on and off for enhanced editing control.
Utilizing in-house AI models, Cheehoo assists in character and asset creation, while also offering the option to incorporate third-party models from platforms like OpenAI and Runway for tasks such as post-generation and motion stylization.
Although Cheehoo hasn’t revealed their launch partners yet, they mentioned collaborations with several IP holders, studios, and creators. He envisions Cheehoo empowering sophisticated creators to produce animation films without the need for an expensive studio setup, opening doors for independent filmmakers and individuals to explore their creativity.
Looking into the future, LoFaso hinted at Cheehoo’s plans to introduce more consumer-oriented products, in addition to their current focus on enterprises and prosumers. The startup has secured $10 million in funding led by Greycroft and Point72 Ventures with support from investors like Basis Set Headline Asia Powerhouse Capital Playground Productions and Rideback.
Cheehoo’s suite of tools provides creators with the ability to swiftly prototype and iterate on animations. Do you find creating animation to be a time-consuming process? Have you ever wondered about the numerous steps involved from storyboarding to rendering composition and lighting just to create a single scene? What if a director wants to try a different approach and the animation team has to backtrack and make adjustments before finalizing the scene?
Picture this: Cheehoo a startup launched by a group of Hollywood executives and technologists is on a mission to develop an AI-powered tool to simplify the production of animated content. He emphasized the growing costs and complexities in Hollywood’s animation industry, stressing the importance of simplifying creators’ lives né?
