Earlier this 12 months, IndieWire shared a report that an infinite quantity of AI manufacturing firms have launched inside the final three years. Not all of these have been created equal, however the ones that stand out — and probably have endurance in Hollywood — have noticeably been backed by different main business gamers.
On Tuesday, November 4, Obsidian Studio introduced its launch with a aim of mixing live-action movie tasks with AI-powered digital manufacturing. And will probably be kicking issues off with a giant identify behind it, care of a inventive partnership with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Think about Leisure.
Obsidian co-founders Wes Walker and Louis Gheysens, in a dialog with IndieWire, mentioned they’ll be producing a number of long-form tasks, together with a characteristic movie challenge, for Think about and in partnership with Howard, with whom Walker developed a friendship during the last 12 months. Obsidian has, all through 2025, quietly been working with varied manufacturers, together with Louis Vuitton, Longchamp, Crayola, Aramco, Amazon, NBA, and ESPN, however the partnership with Think about will permit Obsidian to broaden into unique narrative tasks.
“Promoting strikes at an extremely fast tempo. This 12 months we have been actually blessed to do actually excessive finances, lovely commercials. And the velocity at which we transfer, the tempo at which we’re in a position to create, the openness to expertise, the openness to attempt issues, that’s actually what’s unimaginable about promoting: we will actually push boundaries collectively alongside a few of the finest groups on the planet,” Walker mentioned. “We’re taking and researching and learning what we’re studying in promoting, bringing that into the leisure area, after which utilizing that to serve Think about Leisure tasks.”
“At Think about, we’re dedicated to emotionally resonant, human storytelling and we now have already seen the methods AI could be a helpful device in that mission. Obsidian’s artist-led method is precisely the type of collaboration we stand behind to amplify human creativity and we’re excited to be working with them,” mentioned Justin Wilkes, President of Think about Leisure, in an announcement.
Obsidian has two proprietary instruments it makes use of, one referred to as EchoChrome that’s designed to reinforce picture high quality of low bit depth AI video and produce it into high-level VFX productions. Walker mentioned, for campaigns for Cadillac and Mercedes, they’ve been in a position to incorporate AI into 3D quantity stage backgrounds to be able to mix reside motion and AI-generated CG.
The opposite is known as DigitalForge, and it refers to how Obsidian makes use of AI by integrating it into the manufacturing workflow. The corporate has recruited two storyboard artists, Marc Vena and Tani Kunitake, who’ve labored on movies like “Black Panther,” “Logan,” “Star Wars: The Final Jedi,” and extra, and can prepare fashions primarily based on their work to then construct additional worlds primarily based on these creations. Walker describes having the ability to immediate AI concepts in real-time on set, to edit in real-time, and that “AI shouldn’t be publish; AI is manufacturing.”
“Our method is admittedly about amplifying what artists can do, amplifying what DPs can do, amplifying what storyboard artists can do by the expertise, after which creating worlds from that,” he mentioned.
Walker stresses that Think about didn’t grow to be fascinated with Obsidian’s work simply due to AI, however due to the work they’re doing with VFX in different instruments like Unreal Engine, Maya, Blender, and Houdini. He added that generative AI shouldn’t be all the time one of the best device for each challenge.
“We’re artists working alongside artists. Everybody within the group is a excessive stage artist, and we actually imagine that passionate, disciplined creatives are the world builders. We’ve the power to to see,” Walker mentioned. “That in service of different administrators is admittedly the place the magic occurs for us as administrators. We all know what different administrators undergo. We all know the struggles that they’ve in bringing their visions to life… the tech and the instruments don’t matter. What issues is the viewers expertise. What issues subsequent is the story and the emotion that the story is bringing about. After which we make the most of the tech in service of that.”
