AI startup Odyssey raises $9 million for advanced visual AI software

From Fortune Magazine: 2024-07-08 11:30:00

Two veterans from self-driving car companies have launched Odyssey, a startup providing AI software for filmmakers and animators to create films. Securing $9 million in seed funding from Google Ventures and others, Odyssey aims to offer fine-grain control for longer video sequences and more realistic effects compared to existing models like OpenAI’s Sora.

Odyssey’s AI software, led by CEO Oliver Cameron and CTO Jeff Hawke, is a family of models specializing in various tasks like graphic renderings, motion, and lighting effects. This unique approach allows filmmakers greater creative control over the final product, bridging the gap between text-to-video AI models and professional visual effects.

Coming from the world of self-driving cars, Cameron and Hawke leverage their expertise to train AI models with real-world three-dimensional datasets for Odyssey. Unlike competitors, who rely on internet data scraping, Odyssey’s unique approach ensures the scalability and quality needed for their AI models to create high-quality film sequences. Expanding its team and building bigger AI models is on Odyssey’s agenda with the recent seed funding secured.



Read more at Fortune Magazine: AI startup Odyssey announces $9 million seed round for “Hollywood-grade” visual AI