Uthana, a pioneering generative AI company, announced the closing of a $4.3 million funding round led by IA Ventures. Participating companies included A16Z Speedrun, Acequia Capital, Cursor Capital, HustleFund, MetaVision, and JonesTrauber.
Along with this funding milestone, Uthana is launching an Open Beta of its platform for 3D character animation, designed to transform the animation and game development industry.
Uthana envisions a future where AI-based animations dynamically adapt to gameplay in real time. This means creating living and breathing virtual worlds where every NPC moves uniquely, every interaction feels unscripted, and every animation evolves naturally with player engagement.
Ultimately, Uthana sees possibilities for real-time and responsive generative motion that extend beyond gaming to interactive experiences, virtual production, and simulated environments.
Uthana’s AI capabilities compress the process of conceiving an animation and seeing it into minutes (not hours or days) using simple prompts:
1.) Text-to-Motion (TTM) lets you generate character animations by describing movements in plain language.
2.) Video-to-Motion (VTM) applies motions to your 3D character in reference videos.
3.) Motion Library lets you use natural language queries to search Uthana’s collection of over 10,000 motions, including finger data.
4.) Accelerating game development workflows
Built for game developers and animators, Uthana empowers indie and mid-sized studios to compete with AAA game developers. The platform’s unique features include:
1.) Unlimited Pre-visualization (PreViz): Create and instantly preview animations before download or purchase.
2.) Rig Agnostic: Use any skeleton, including Unreal Engine and Unity rigs.
3.) Seamless integration: Outputs are compatible with industry-standard tools such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya, and Blender.
Uthana has 10+ design partnerships with studios of all sizes. Partners co-develop new capabilities and have access to advanced features such as Style Transfer (adapt styles from one motion to another for consistency and uniqueness), and APIs (developers can seamlessly integrate Uthana’s AI-powered solutions into their games and applications).
KEY QUOTE:
“Our mission is to ‘beat a visual Turing test’ for human motion, creating truly lifelike animations. Generative AI has the potential to transform how animators and game developers work and unlock creativity across the industry.”
– Viren Tellis, Co-Founder and CEO of Uthana
