Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, develops AI-powered tools that can turn text and images into 3D renderings.
The tool, called Explorer, is similar in some ways to the so-called world model recently demonstrated by DeepMind, World Labs, and Israeli startup Decart. If you give it a caption like “Lush Japanese Garden,” Explorer can generate an interactive real-time scene.
Output from Odyssey's Explorer tool. Image credit: Odyssey
Odyssey claims its tools are “specifically tailored” to create photorealistic scenes. This is largely a result of the startup's technological approach. The AI-powered Explorer was trained on real-world landscapes captured by the company's custom-designed backpack-mounted 360-degree camera system.
According to Odyssey, all scenes generated in Explorer can be loaded into creative tools such as Unreal Engine, Blender, and Adobe After Effects for manual editing. how? Explorer uses Gaussian splats, a decades-old volume rendering technique that can reconstruct realistic scenes. Gaussian splats are widely supported by computer graphics tools.
“Although it's early days, we're excited to see the level of 3D detail and fidelity that Explorer can already achieve, and its potential use in live-action films, hyper-realistic games, and new forms of entertainment.” writes Odyssey on his blog. post. “Although research is still in its infancy, generative world motion, which is done entirely in 3D, offers fine-tuned control that is difficult to reproduce in generative video models, as well as allowing artists to explore new, more realistic methods of It has great potential to generate and manipulate motion in
Another sample from Odyssey's Explorer. Image credit: Odyssey
Odyssey acknowledges that Explorer currently has some limitations. For example, the tool takes an average of 10 minutes to generate a scene, but the scene is relatively low resolution and does not contain distracting visual artifacts.
But the company says it has already seeded Explorer with a “growing group” of production companies and independent artists, including Britain's Garden Studio. Anyone interested in testing the Explorer can apply through the Odyssey blog.
Creators, especially those in the video game and film industries, may have mixed feelings about tools like Explorer.
A recent Wired investigation found that game studios like Activision Blizzard, which has laid off large numbers of employees, are cutting corners, increasing productivity, and leveraging AI to offset layoffs. Additionally, a 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, the union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, predicted that by 2026, more than 100,000 U.S.-based film, television, and animation jobs will be replaced by AI. It is estimated that it will be destroyed.
Yet another sample. Image credit: Odyssey
But Odyssey says it's focused on working with creative professionals rather than replacing them. To that end, the company announced Wednesday that Ed Catmull, one of Pixar's co-founders and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, has joined its board of directors and invested in Odyssey. .
“Generative world models are the newest and most unexplored major frontier in all of artificial intelligence,” Odyssey writes. “We aim for a world that constructs itself and is indistinguishable from reality, a world where new stories are created and remixed, and a world where human and machine intelligence interact for fun and purpose. If all we ended up with was better movies and games, we would have missed our goal.”
Mr. Cameron was previously Vice President of Product at Cruise, and Mr. Hawke was a founding researcher at Wayve. To date, Odyssey has raised $27 million from investors including EQT Ventures, GV, and Air Street Capital.