Onoma (official site) is an AI firm presenting its first AI-powered service referred to as TooToon at CES 2024. TooToon is a webtoon creation instrument, and if you happen to don’t know what webtoons are, they’re a type of digital comics or graphic novels which might be particularly created for on-line platforms or cellular apps. The time period “webtoon” is a portmanteau of “internet” and “cartoon.” What distinguishes webtoons from conventional comics is their distinctive format, usually offered in a vertical scrolling model.
Similar to producing comics or manga, making a webtoon is extremely time-consuming and it appears to be like like most of that point is spent in storyboarding because the creators work on the visible construction of the story. It may be counter-intuitive if nothing about this, however as soon as the storyboarding (tough drawings) is finished, including the ultimate particulars doesn’t take that lengthy.
As such, TooToon focuses on accelerating that side of the work, because of generative AI. This begins with the high-level thought technology, synopsis, and storyboard achieved by the AI, based mostly on person inputs, whether or not textual content prompts or photos. For instance, the creator may draw stick figures or 3d model figures and add these as 2D photos. From there, the AI takes over and does the heavy lifting.
The Tontoon service lets creators add a number of views of their characters as a reference for the AI, which may later re-create them underneath any angle and place. Apparently, as few as 30 photos could be sufficient to create a reference character.
As you’ll be able to think about, utilizing generative AI on this context may ship an unbelievable increase in productiveness for present webtoon creators. However this might open the door to much more individuals into the webtoon universe. Why? Since you may conceptually have nice story concepts however little drawing expertise. Rent somebody to create the character references, or use Onoma AI’s asset retailer, as soon as and use the AI to generate future drawings.
Certain, it’s not that straightforward to supply a commercial-grade webtoon, however this might entice many individuals and spark new passions.
From a enterprise standpoint, Onoma AI deploys TonToon as a SaaS, so we’re speaking a couple of recurring earnings supply. Similar to TV Exhibits, webtoon creators must churn new episodes and as soon as they’ve began, it’s straightforward to think about they’ll keep invested to protect the workflow and magnificence of their work.
Onoma AI has not revealed pricing but. Now, they’re working carefully with prime webtoon creators to find out the ultimate public pricing. Simply as a reference, the corporate estimates that its instrument saved as a lot as 30% to 40% of labor throughout one of many take a look at tasks.
From the demo that I’ve seen, the workflow made a whole lot of sense. I used to attract Mangas and I may see how TonToon may save an infinite period of time. And I’ve a way that is just the start. Generative AI provides much more alternatives not just for storyboarding but in addition for ultimate rendering, permitting completely different types. I can’t wait to see webtoons created with this instrument.
Filed in . Learn extra about AI (Artificial Intelligence), CES, CES 2024, Comics, Korea, SBA, Seoul, Seoul Business Agency and Startups.
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