WEBTOON, the world's largest webcomic platform, is currently developing two new AI products with the goal of “significantly reducing drawing time” for its creators.
WEBTOON shared that it has developed two new products leveraging AI to reduce the workload for creators. In a filing with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) ahead of its proposed IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the filing said, “We have leveraged artificial intelligence and our data to launch products. The goal is to reduce the workload for creators with high-quality content.” One of their products in testing, Shaper, uses 3D modeling and AI to turn sketches into character models, allowing creators to “seamlessly create a character's pose and sketch each pose.” Allows change without the need to create.” Below are photos of the process, showing the conversion from a 2D image to a 3D test model, before converting it back to a 2D output image using another of our new technologies.
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Constella, the second experimental product, is powered by WEBTOON's “proprietary AI technology” and will “allow these 3D character models in various poses to be transformed into natural-looking 2D characters in the creator's own drawing style.” With both products used together, the creator can significantly reduce drawing time compared to manual methods.” The platform adds that while these products will soon be rolled out to professional creators, amateur creators can expect similar technology in the long run.
Creators don't know how Webtoon's new AI technology is trained.
It's worth noting that the SEC filing highlighted that the decision to create Shaper and Constella came from feedback from creators, saying, “For example, many of our creators have indicated that their The biggest pain is repetitive sketches in serialized content, like when a character changes a pose or their outfit, and they need to start the sketch from scratch.” It's unclear how the models were trained, leading WEBTOON to face questions about the controversial practice of scraping images of online artists. Midyear was criticized last year when its CEO suggested that 100 million photos had been taken without consent, arguing, “It's really hard to get a hundred million photos and know that There's no way they're coming from.”
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WEBTOON also highlighted its AI Painter tool in the filing — an auto-painting tool that's already rolled out to creators. Other Spotlight tools include its dashboard that “helps manage creator earnings over time” and an advertising-based revenue sharing program for amateur creators through CANVAS.
WEBTOON has announced live-action and animated adaptations of its popular titles
WEBTOON is currently the largest webcomics platform worldwide, covering all of our major geographies including Korea (#1), the US (#1) and Japan (#1), and Southeast Asia in terms of monthly active users. and number one in several geographies of Europe. [via data.ai]The company is also expanding its production of live-action films, and Freaking romance, Death of a Pop Star, Love advice from the great duke of hell An animated series based on and Apocalyptic Horseplay. WEBTOON launched a webcomic adaptation of Maqbool himself. Avatar: The Last Airbender On the platform in April 2024.
Source: SEC via PerfectSerenad3 on X (formerly Twitter)