Earlier this year, IndieWire shared a report that a huge amount of AI production companies have been launched in recent times three years. Not all of these were created equal, but the ones that stand out—and potentially have staying power in Hollywood—have noticeably been supported by other major industry players.
On Tuesday, November 4, Obsidian Studio announced its launch with the goal of mixing live-action film project with AI-driven digital production. And it will kick off with a big name behind it, taking care of a creative partnership with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Think Entertainment.
Obsidian co-founders Wes Walker and Louis Gheysens said in a conversation with IndieWire that they will produce several long-form projects, including a feature film project, for Imagine and in collaboration with Howardwith whom Walker developed a friendship over the past year. Throughout 2025, Obsidian has been quietly working with brands including Louis Vuitton, Longchamp, Crayola, Aramco, Amazon, the NBA, and ESPN, but the partnership with Imagine will allow Obsidian to expand into original narrative projects.
“Advertising moves at an incredibly fast pace. This year we were really blessed to make really high-budget, beautiful commercials. And the speed at which we’re moving, the pace at which we can create, the openness to technology, the openness to try things, that’s really what’s incredible about advertising: we can really push boundaries with some of the best teams in the world,” said the Walker team. “We take and research and study what we learn in advertising, bring it into the entertainment realm, and then use it to serve Imagine Entertainment projects.”
“At Imagine, we’re committed to emotionally resonant, human storytelling, and we’ve already seen how AI can be a beneficial tool in that mission. Obsidian’s artist-led approach is exactly the kind of collaboration we stand behind to amplify human creativity, and we’re excited to work with them,” said Justin Wilkes, CEO of Imagine Entertainment.
Obsidian has two proprietary tools that it uses, one called EchoChrome which is designed to improve the image quality of low bit depth AI video and bring it to high level VFX productions. Walker said, for campaigns for Cadillac and Mercedes, they have been able to incorporate AI into 3D volume scene backgrounds to blend live action and AI-generated CG.
The other is called DigitalForge, and it refers to how Obsidian uses AI by integrating it into the production workflow. The company has recruited two storyboard artists, Marc Vena and Tani Kunitake, who have worked on films like “Black Panther,” “Logan,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and more, and will train models based on their work to then build more worlds based on those creations. Walker describes being able to prompt AI ideas in real-time on set, to edit in real-time, and that “AI is not post; AI is production.”
“Our approach is really about amplifying what artists can do, amplifying what DPs can do, amplifying what storyboard artists can do through technology and then creating worlds from that,” he said.
Walker emphasizes that Imagine became fascinated with Obsidian’s work not just because of AI, but because of the work they do with VFX in other tools like Unreal Engine, Maya, Blender and Houdini. He added that generative AI is not always the best tool for every project.
“We are artists working with artists. Everyone on the team is a high-level artist, and we truly believe that passionate, disciplined creatives are the world builders. We have the ability to see,” Walker said. “Serving other directors is really where the magic happens for us as directors. We know what other directors go through. We know the struggles they have to realize their visions… the technology and the tools don’t matter. What matters is the audience’s experience. What matters next is the story and the emotions that the story evokes. And then we use the technology.”
