Uthana has secured $4.3m to “revolutionize” 3D character animation with generative AI.

The $4.3 million funding round was led by IA Ventures, with participation from A16Z Speedrun, Acequia Capital, Cursor Capital, HustleFund, MetaVision, and JonesTrauber.

To mark the feat, Uthana is launching an open beta of its “groundbreaking platform for 3D character animation, designed to revolutionize the animation and game development industry.”

It said that with its technology, “game developers will no longer be constrained by pre-set animation loops or extensive manual rigging,” but instead, “motion will be an organic part of game design, responding fluidly to environments, story progression, and user behavior.”

Uthana added that its “state-of-the-art” AI can animate in “minutes – not hours or days,” using simple prompts like text-to-motion, video-to-motion, or via its motion library, where you can “use natural language queries to search the company’s collection of over 10,000 motions.”

“Our mission is to ‘beat a visual Turing test’ for human motion, creating truly lifelike animations,” said Viren Tellis, co-founder and CEO of Uthana.

“Generative AI has the potential to transform how animators and game developers work, by removing tedious tasks like keyframing and the time and expense of motion capture, which is not accessible to many game developers. We believe this will unlock creativity across the industry.

“Our ambition is to bridge the gap between reality and digital expression,” concluded Tellis. “In the coming years, we see AI-driven motion revolutionizing how we interact with virtual characters, pushing the boundaries of immersion, realism, and emotional storytelling.”