For the first time this year, MediaCat Magazine will attend SXSW, one of the world’s biggest conferences for the creative industries. Covering everything from music and film to media, tech, marketing and advertising; SXSW is a massive event that brings together tens of thousands of participants each year. Since 2008, SXSW has been organising SXSW Pitch, a competition in which selected interactive technology companies showcase their innovative products in 8 different categories.
One of the selected companies at this year’s SXSW Pitch edition is PentoPix, an AI-supported platform that helps filmmakers automate the script visualisation process. Ahead of their presentation at SXSW Pitch’s Entertainment, Media and Content competition, we had a little chat with the company’s founder Volha Paulovich about the technology and idea behind PentoPix, and how it will impact content generation in the upcoming years.
The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Can you talk a little bit about PentoPix? What’s the product and what does it aim to achieve?
PentoPix is a groundbreaking startup that aims to revolutionize the film industry by using cutting-edge technology to streamline the preproduction process. The product is a game-changing AI and NLP-powered platform that translates long-form text into 3D animated videos, enabling film studios to create stunning visual representations of their scripts in a matter of minutes rather than weeks or months.
The traditional pre-production process can be slow and costly, with film studios spending considerable resources on developing and visualizing stories that may never see the light of day. PentoPix’s innovative platform promises to change all that by automating the initial script visualization process, freeing up valuable time and resources for film crews to focus on bringing their stories to life.
What’s more, PentoPix’s platform is incredibly user-friendly, allowing the entire film crew to collaborate and iterate on the story using visual cues to find the best way to tell it. With PentoPix, filmmakers have an invaluable tool to help them create and develop compelling stories more efficiently than ever before.
PentoPix represents a major breakthrough in the film industry, and its potential to revolutionize the way films are made is truly exciting. With its combination of cutting-edge technology, user-friendly interface, and expert team of tech entrepreneurs and researchers, PentoPix is poised to become a major player in the film industry for years to come.
How did the idea come about?
Innovative startups are often born out of a desire to solve a problem, and PentoPix is no exception. The founders of PentoPix have a combined experience of almost a decade in the business of storytelling, having worked in advertising, game development, and video production. Through our collective experience, we identified a challenge in visualizing scripts for various projects.
The idea for PentoPix was initially conceived as an experiment — we wanted to automate the process of script visualization, but we were unsure if it was even possible. Undeterred, we began developing the technology in their lab, starting with nothing more than a fun project.
But with grant funding from Innovate UK in late 2021, the PentoPix team was able to take the idea out of the lab and into the real world. This funding allowed us to test our assumptions and turn our idea into a fully-fledged company.
Today, PentoPix is poised to revolutionize the world of script visualization, making the process faster, more efficient, and more accessible than ever before. Thanks to the founders’ ingenuity and creative industry support, PentoPix is a shining example of what can be achieved when innovation meets opportunity.
How does it work?
PentoPix utilizes AI to parse entire scripts, splitting sentences into lists of subjects, verbs, and objects. It then builds 3D scenes from a library of models and automates character animation based on the script’s actions and dialogues. Users have creative control to edit every aspect of the scene, add characters, and set camera tracks through text or by exporting a project into Unreal.
How does it leverage AI?
PentoPix leverages AI in two key ways. Firstly, it uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand the context of long-form structured text. This helps differentiate between actions, dialogues and descriptions. Secondly, we developed machine learning algorithms that can create 3D scenes and automate character animation. This is particularly noteworthy as character animation requires non-trivial solutions. These AI capabilities are at the core of PentoPix’s innovative and exciting technology.
You’re one of the finalists for SXSW Pitch’s Entertainment, Media & Content competition. Congrats! What will you present and how do you see it going?
As a finalist for SXSW Pitch’s Entertainment, Media & Content competition, we are thrilled to showcase our innovative product to a global audience. We can’t reveal too much about our presentation yet, but we’re confident that our unique offering will capture the attention of industry experts and investors alike. All I can say is, we will give the first glimpse of technology at SXSW. We’re grateful for this incredible opportunity and can’t wait to share our story with the world.
How do you think PentoPix contributes to the entertainment and media industries? What is its potential?
PentoPix is poised to revolutionize the entertainment and media industries by enabling filmmakers to create compelling stories faster than ever before. Its potential lies in its ability to meet the growing demand for original and timely content, which is critical in today’s market. As a result, PentoPix has the potential to become a game-changer in story development, and its impact could be felt across the entire industry.
How has it been adopted so far?
PentoPix has been adopted by a limited number of early adopters who are actively using it in their creative processes. We are currently in a closed beta stage, with over 1,100 film studios signed up on the waitlist. Early adopters have shown great enthusiasm for PentoPix, which has the potential to revolutionize the content industry while fitting seamlessly into existing workflows. Users have reported quick and easy integration of PentoPix’s 3D videos into their development and fundraising stages for fiction and animation projects. Overall, the response to PentoPix has been very positive and promising.
Featured image: Hoang Loc / Pexels