Autodesk – the behemoth of 3D tools – has acquired Wonder Dynamics, a startup that allows creators to quickly and easily create complex characters and visual effects using AI image analysis. The two companies have been working closely together for years but are making it official today.
Founded by VFX artist Nikola Todorovic and actor Tye Sheridan, Wonder Dynamics essentially made adding animated CG characters to footage as simple as dragging an icon over an actor.
But Wonder Studio, as its flagship tool is called, was never a game, even if it could be used like one. With years of experience in the film industry, the co-founders were clear from the start that it was a tool for professionals, providing all the raw mocaps, animations and masks that VFX people need to do their jobs.
They were careful to say then — and throughout the writers’ and actors’ strikes — that the goal was to empower creatives, not replace them.
TechCrunch covered the company’s debut in 2021 when it was still in stealth mode after raising a $2.5 million seed round. Later that year they raised an additional $10 million and eventually developed Wonder Studio into a fully cloud-hosted, web-based platform.
As the provider of Maya, one of the most powerful and durable tools in 3D work and multimedia production, Autodesk naturally took note.
“We did an integration with Maya last year, a plug-in, so you can simplify that process in the character studio. It’s been the industry-leading software for decades, so we wanted to make it easy for those users. We started talking to them and one thing led to another,” Todorovic told TechCrunch.
“We’ve tried to bridge the old with the new, making things possible in the pipelines that artists are already using, and this collaboration is a perfect example of that,” added Sheridan. Not that Autodesk is “old,” they were both quick to point out (though few would call it new).
The issues surrounding artificial intelligence in media, from movies to advertising to music, stem from what the two see as a misunderstanding of both technology and art.
“There are new tools and new waves of artificial intelligence, but I think a lot of them underestimate what artists have to do and how hard they work,” Todorovic said. “We know – we came from this space. Ty and I are both artists. We did this to allow artists to do things they couldn’t do before. Because we don’t want to see a future where the artist isn’t involved, isn’t asked — that, to me, doesn’t mean filmmaking. Autodesk deeply understands that this is a collaborative, iterative process.”
“People have this compelling idea that we’re going to start making movies with artificial intelligence, but I think the people who draw those conclusions don’t really understand the industry well or understand the limitations of these tools,” Sheridan said. . “Using them as a complementary part of the process is key – learning what has viability where and how to bridge the gap.”
Both founders will go to Autodesk along with the full staff. Todorovic said he doesn’t expect any changes in the near term and that any changes that appear should only be positive for users. “That’s the thing about startups: You have to pick and choose what to do, which direction to go,” because of a lack of resources. The Autodesk acquisition should allow them to accelerate and expand, though they declined to suggest specific directions.
Other requests for details, such as the terms of the deal, were politely declined. I asked Autodesk about the acquisition, and Diana Colella, EVP of Entertainment & Media Solutions, emphasized that the company is a perfect fit with its existing strategy.
“Autodesk has been working on AI technologies for more than a decade, and we have already introduced many AI tools into our current M&E products,” he wrote in an email. “However, we haven’t yet been working on anything that does exactly what they do, so their work is highly complementary to the AI work we’re already doing.”
As for the immediate future, “Our immediate focus is continuity,” Colella said. Don’t expect big changes like switching to a new account or a complete rebrand. Of course, if you’re a fan of Wonder Studio, you’re probably already using Maya anyway.
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