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Forbes
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Cheehoo Raises $10 Million To Build AI Tools For 3D Animation
Los Angeles-based startup Cheehoo has raised $10 million to build what it describes as a "creative engine" for animation and interactive storytelling, putting advanced AI-enhanced workflows into the hands of artists, animators, and IP owners. The company was incubated at production company Rideback ("The LEGO Movie," "Avatar: The Last Airbender"). The round was led by Point72 Ventures with participation by Greycroft, Basis Set, Headline Asia, and others. Cheehoo's founding leadership team blends Hollywood and Silicon Valley experience, including former DreamWorks Animation President Chris deFaria, AI scientists from Apple and Stanford, and Rideback Co-CEOs Michael LoFaso and Jonathan Eirich. Rideback founder Dan Lin is also a co-founder. The company's early focus is on professional studios, IP holders, and select artists participating in a closed pilot program. Cheehoo is building a modular platform designed to reduce the time, friction, and cost associated with animated content production. LoFaso, who remains co-CEO of Rideback while helping lead Cheehoo, described it as a flexible and nimble animation pipeline that maintains compatibility with industry-standard tools like Maya and Unreal Engine, while incorporating AI to accelerate processes that typically bog down production. "Our sole focus is empowering artists," LoFaso told me in an interview. "We're trying to give them better tools — to eliminate the friction points that slow down iteration and prevent them from spending more time on the creative aspects of their work." Rather than scraping the internet for training data — a controversial tactic among some AI firms — Cheehoo generates its own proprietary 3D assets in-house and allows clients to retain ownership of anything they contribute. The system applies metadata to models and animation files, making it easier to search, repurpose, and build upon assets across projects. Over time, as studios and creators produce more with the platform, they generate a growing "data flywheel" that fuels further automation. Cheehoo's system can train mini-models on specific characters or projects using relatively small datasets compared to the massive corpuses typically needed to train pixel-based video generators. By focusing on 3D asset-based workflows, rather than pure video synthesis, the platform offers greater control and fidelity — a critical requirement for professional animation. The company is initially targeting enterprises but has a long-term vision of opening the platform to smaller studios, prosumers, and eventually, user-generated content creators. In LoFaso's view, the biggest immediate opportunity isn't replacing traditional studios but helping creators meet the ever-increasing demand for frequent, serialized content across platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and streaming services. "Studios spend years and tens of millions to produce one major animated feature," LoFaso said. "But building a franchise today increasingly requires consistent, high-quality output — in addition to the big tentpole events." Cheehoo plans to announce its first creative partners and project slate later this year.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Everything is awesome at Springboro Performing Arts Center the rest of February
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – The Springboro Performing Arts Center will be hopping the rest of February. The city has announced multiple events coming to the center this month, including a 'More The Words' art gallery, a heart health speaker series and a screening of 'The Lego Movie.' The first event is the Premier Health Speaker Series and workshop on heart health. The free program is on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m. It will teach people how to manage their hearts and how to prevent heart failure. This heart lecture is one in a series of free presentations on health and wellness. The center will have two screenings of 2014's 'The LEGO Movie' on Feb. 22: noon and 2 p.m. The movie grossed more than $470 million and launched a short-lived 'LEGO Cinematic Universe' and the 'Everything Is Awesome' musical earworm. Massive Lego-themed expo arrives in the Miami Valley The art exhibit of the month, 'More Than Words,' continues through Feb. 28, but there will be a chance to meet featured artist Jonathan Heart on Saturday, Feb. 22, from noon to 2 p.m. The gallery will be open for viewing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Heart's displayed work includes origami, sculpture, painting and word art. The guest artist is Clarice Moore. The gallery will feature a Scrabble artworks scavenger hunt for prizes. To learn more about the Springboro Performing Arts Center call 937-748-5774. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
