At Kaedim we are building a world where creativity can be realised without frustration.
We are achieving this vision with our software, powered by AI, that can create and style multiple new digital 3D assets from a single input image.
This will transform the creative process of making games, increasing their productivity significantly and bringing down the costs. This will enable the creation of a more diverse array of interactive experiences and enable 3D artists to do more of what they love: create.
Team
Roman Bromidge – Computer Science with Innovation
Konstantina Psoma – Computer Science with Innovation
Inspiration
Both co-founders had firsthand experience of the often tedious and repetitive process of making digital 3D assets in previous creative projects. With a passion for games, they also noticed how the industry was being undermined by the skyrocketing cost of game production. This growth in costs, they discovered, was driven heavily by the slow and expensive asset creation process. They knew that AI could be used to speed up asset production and reduce the cost, so set out to develop a tool that can use this emerging technology to enable the creation of next generation games.
Process
To make sure that this problem was important and worth solving we talked to game developers across the UK, experts in 3D design and many creative professionals. This was core to our process, and we always sought to validate our assumptions at the earliest opportunity. We approached Aardman Animations at an early stage and found that they were excited about what we were trying to do. This collaboration has lasted over the duration of the project, and we ended up testing our first prototype with them and other Bristol companies.
Desirability/viability
Our users are 3D artists and designers, working either individually or in teams. We found that their production processes are incredibly labour intensive, exhausting and unfulfilling. This is driven by the need of game companies to keep costs down even as consumer expectations rise, but it is not working. After developing an initial prototype and testing it with several companies in Bristol, we validated the desirability and viability of our idea powerfully. 43% of testers said that we were solving an important problem and 57% said they would buy our product.
Impact
Kaedim was the overall winner of the 2020 Bristol New Enterprise Competition, powerfully validating the idea’s desirability and viability. We know that with AI we can dramatically improve the productivity of this growing and exciting industry, enabling more creators to produce interactive experience that cater to more diverse audiences. We’re now taking the idea forward, looking for pre-seed funding to grow the team and develop our Minimum Viable Product.