In 1932, Walt Disney released the world’s first commercial, full-colour cartoon, Flowers and Trees, using a new technology called Technicolor — and signalling an industry-wide shift towards colour film. Then in 1995, Pixar took the world by storm when it released Toy Story, the first 3D computer animated film, which went on to become a childhood favourite for generations to come.
A few decades later, we’re on the cusp of another technological revolution in animated film — one brought about by AI, says Sixte de Vauplane, the founder of secretive Paris-based startup Animaj. And he’s determined to be at the forefront of that next breakthrough.
Animaj quietly launched in 2022 with an ambitious pitch: to use AI to accelerate and increase the production of animated content for kids.
By combining faster production with more targeted distribution on digital platforms, de Vauplane says that Animaj can create a whole new wave of kids film franchises, much like Pixar and Disney before it.
“We want to build kids franchises that are as big as those we’ve known over the past 10 years — Pokémon, Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, Cars, Frozen, and so on,” says de Vauplane.
“We’re trying to build what Disney built over 100 years ago.”
AI for animation
Animaj is using AI to try and disrupt a very expensive process. With an estimated total budget of $200m, an animated film like Toy Story 3 costs about $2m per minute to make.
De Vauplane says this is due to the lack of scalability of the ‘animation phase’ in the making of a film — where hundreds of animators bring the ideas of creators to life, based on their scripts and storyboards.
Grabbing his coffee spoon, de Vauplane says: “If I want to show this spoon moving, I need an animator rendering every movement of my hand at about 25 frames per second. This means they’ll produce 2-5 seconds of animation per day.”
“That’s where we put AI.”
Two years after launch, Animaj is developing three different franchises: French nursery rhymes channel HeyKids, German educational show Kidibli and Spanish comedy series Pocoyo. All three existed before and were acquired by the startup.
Using open-source AI models that it re-trained with content from those brands, Animaj has built models that transform text into animation. The company is now working on a proprietary AI model to transform creators’ storyboard sketches into motion.
“If we achieve this, we will have answered the dream of many creators, which is: ‘I’ve made my sketch and I can see it come alive exactly in the shape that I want,’” says de Vauplane.
The founder says that Animaj currently enables animators to create 30 seconds of film a day, with the objective of reaching 500 seconds per day in the next three years.
The company “doesn’t touch” the creative phase, where scripts and storyboards are created, says de Vauplane. To generate ideas, the company acquires the IP for shows that it has identified as good candidates to grow into franchises, and builds a creative team around each of them.
When Animaj acquired Pocoyo, a popular series in Spanish-speaking countries, the startup also hired the show’s inventor, Guillermo García Carsí. Since 2005, there have been five Pocoyo series; de Vauplane says that the plan is to create four more in four years.
“We want to enable the best creatives to join us, by telling them: ‘You’ll see your ideas come to life 10 times faster than if you go through a traditional studio,'” says de Vauplane.
How’s it working out?
De Vauplane says that across its three brands, the company registers 15bn views per year and 150m followers on YouTube. In comparison, leading US children’s channel Cocomelon has 177m subscribers on YouTube and nearly 185bn views.
The Paris-based startup raised a €100m round — in debt and equity — led by global VC Left Lane last year; it saw an annual revenue growth of 470% year-on-year in 2023 to reach over €10m and it is now profitable, with an EBITDA of “a few million euros”, according to de Vauplane. The founder expects to reach €100-150m annual revenue in the next three years.
It’s only the beginning, he adds. “We’re still very far from having built a global franchise,” he says. “PAW Patrol makes $2bn in yearly revenues just from licensed products.”
“But there is a real opportunity to create a player that will dominate the market for the next 100 years.”
YouTube first
Animaj also differentiates itself in where it shows its content.
With three young children at home, de Vauplane says that he is seeing first-hand that a big change in kids’ consumer behaviour is happening.
“When I was a kid, I’d watch cartoons on TV on Saturday mornings,” he says. “That doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t even have a TV at home.”
A study by parental control software Qustodio found that with 70 minutes of usage a day on average, YouTube was the most popular online video app for children globally in 2023, followed by Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
“If you want to create the next Mickey Mouse or Toy Story, you have to be on YouTube, because that’s where children are,” says de Vauplane.
Two-thirds of Animaj’s revenue currently comes from YouTube. De Vauplane says that with that cash in the bank, the startup is then able to dictate its own terms to push its content on TV and streaming platforms — who would normally negotiate exclusive rights to broadcast a show.
“Historically, the market produces for TV, then for Netflix, and then puts old, used content on YouTube,” says de Vauplane. “We do the opposite.”
“Digital platforms fund our presence on premium platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime. So instead of being present on one platform, we are on over 100 at the same time.”
Touchy stuff
Despite the successful start, Animaj is making a tough pitch to a sector that is resistant to the use of AI. For nearly four months last year, Hollywood screenwriters and actors went on strike asking for guardrails against the use of the technology.
“It’s a touchy topic,” says de Vauplane. “But whether we like it or not, AI is here. We have to adapt to it rather than build fortifications against it that won’t resist anyways.”
The founder is determined to keep growing, and to eventually achieve Walt Disney’s famous ‘flywheel effect’ — where all the business units built around a franchise, from branded merchandise to music through comic books and theme parks, contribute to reinforcing each other.
Getting there will require increasing viewership, pushing content on more platforms, acquiring more IP and developing better AI models. “This requires a lot of investment, which is why we’ve had a big fundraise, and those fundraises will only get more ambitious,” says de Vauplane, declining to confirm whether the company is raising again.
He also declines to confirm whether traditional studios like Disney or Pixar have made offers to buy the startup.
“We haven’t created the company to sell it two years later,” says de Vauplane. “There is something more powerful to create.”
“The level of change is similar to when we went from mute films to talking films. So yes, there is interest from these traditional actors — but what we want is to create, in standalone, a global leader.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/interview-sixte-de-vauplane-animaj/
