Check Out Aimator, an AI-Powered Character Animation Tool

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I'm Oleksandr Shatalov, stepping in as the CEO and Founder of this innovative venture. My entire life has been dedicated to passionately pursuing innovations in the CG animation space, both independently and within high-tech startups. My AI experience comes from the CTO and co-founder position at BODS Inc. All this experience, with the help of my AI expert friends, has finally allowed me to solve my 15-year puzzle: automating the technical aspects of 3D character animation.

What is Aimator?

Aimator is a suite of AI-powered tools designed to speed up and significantly reduce the cost of creating 3D character animations, saving animators considerable time to focus on creativity. Aimator aims to elevate the art of animation by automating routine processes, thereby saving considerable time currently spent on the technical aspects of 3D character animation. Currently, Aimator offers two innovative solutions to automate these processes:

1. Inbetweener: This tool automatically generates 3D character animation between key poses, adhering to a specified style.
2. Anim Styler: This tool allows users to style existing motion capture using classic animation principles, easily manipulated with user-friendly sliders.

If you would like to be the first one to try it, please join our waitlist.

Is Aimator fully based on AI?

Currently, ‘Anim Styler’ is still utilizing classic math besides a few features that are using AI. The ‘Inbetweener’ tool is fully generative AI, except for a few minor algorithms that are helping with ground collisions, etc.

Are Anim Styler and Inbetweener the only tools available in Aimator?

Currently, yes, but we have a comprehensive long-term roadmap. It includes a variety of solutions aimed at automating and facilitating the process of character animation creation.

What is the main difference from existing solutions?

The main difference from existing solutions is that Aimator is focusing on classic stylized character animation and can be seamlessly integrated as a plugin into any software. We don’t aim to make another Maya or Unreal Engine; we want to be a part of it instead by offering tools that serve everyone, from professional animators to indie game developers, within their favorite software. Essentially, we can integrate ‘Anim Styler’ with anything capable of playing skeletal animation. ‘Inbetweener’ can communicate with anything that can send 3D skeletal poses. Our base architecture is flexible for use anywhere.

I would also like to mention that right now, we are often compared with Cascadeur. The primary distinction is that while Cascadeur emphasizes physics—beyond its outstanding auto-posing feature and new video-to-animation feature—Aimator leans heavily on AI. Moreover, Aimator can be integrated as a plugin into any software, including Cascadeur.

So it's going to be a plugin eventually?

Yes – it's going to be a plugin for any software. Currently, Aimator is a web-based platform equipped with an API that can be effortlessly integrated into any 3D software or platform using REST API. Moving forward, our plan is to create installers for the most popular software, eliminating the need for export/import and an internet connection. Starting with a web browser is a strategic decision aimed at onboarding a variety of users from all kinds of industries in order to show system potential and flexibility. However, at the end of the day, we see it as a platform that is capable of bringing generative stylized character animation into any industry that could be potentially interested in.

Are you planning to launch a beta?

Q1 – Q2 2024 beta is planned, with the experience that truly meets our standards and user expectations. We are blessed to have more than 4000 beta testers signed up without marketing, and we don’t want to disappoint them.

Where are you at right now?

Most of our resources have already been devoted to developing an AI architecture that delivers impressive results with limited datasets; however, we are also working with companies that can provide more comprehensive datasets in order to improve the general quality in the long run.

We also understand that there is a lot of hype around AI right now, and we want to be as transparent as we can. We have a private demo available and are happy to share it with potential partners and investors who are interested in joining our journey. You can message us directly here or contact us via our website.

Is Aimator going to take the animators' jobs?

Aimator is a tool for animators, which will help them do their work much more easily, making our lives a bit more enjoyable. It will not replace a single animator, but progress in this direction is unavoidable, and I strongly recommend adapting to it sooner rather than later.

However, at the end of the day, progress is the magic wand, and it absolutely depends on what its owner will decide to do with it. We, humanity, are the owners of this magic wand, and we need to decide what to do with all this progress together. I’m cautiously optimistic, and I am absolutely confident that finding the right balance between nature, technology, and spirituality is the best way of unifying people all over the world.

I would be truly happy to see people use progress to unleash their creativity in order to make more things that bring us together, instead of driving us apart.

Oleksandr Shatalov, CEO and Founder of Aimator