Kinetix, the AI startup, has developed Text2Emotes, a novel AI technology that launches a new era of user-generated gaming content. This technology enables anyone to create 3D animations and emotes for games – all they have to do is enter a prompt or phrase into the tool. For instance, a user could type in a dance move such as “griddy” or a literal phrase such as “I’m angry,” and the AI will generate an appropriate emote.
Kinetix has been collecting data for the past three years and its AI is trained on this dataset. Through their technology, the company is delivering animated emotes that not only express emotion in a natural way but can also be easily published across gaming platforms. In the latest years, emotes have become essential for game developers and publishers worldwide.
Kinetix global partner Naver Z has released a statement regarding the new technology, claiming it offers an exciting use case for generative AI in virtual worlds and has the potential to offer a new dimension of expression for users.
The company has also developed a no-code tool allowing users to create 3D animation easily and quickly. Before the emergence of this technology, creating 3D animations was a costly and time-consuming task. With Kinetix, the process has been almost entirely automated and requires no expertise.
Kinetix is also looking into what kind of content users are looking for. Through a partnership with The Sandbox and an external study lab, they have collected analytics and insides about why people want to use emotes and what they want to express using them. This analysis is critical to the development of the technology and providing users with a rewarding experience when using their content.
Since its foundation in 2020, Kinetix has almost a million users sharing their emotes across various virtual worlds. The company has raised $12.5 million in seed funding and currently employs a team of 45 deep learning engineers, 3D animation experts, developers, and scriptwriters.
Kinetix’s CEO Yassine Tahi expressed in an interview with GamesBeat that the company is at the forefront of bringing cutting-edge technologies into gaming. He believes generative AI-powered emotes will be the next big thing for user expression within video games, creating a sustainable long-term revenue driver for game makers.
The power of user-generated content has been seen with games such as Fortnite and Roblox. Emotes have become a key focal point of self-expression, with videos tagged #emote having gotten more than 2.4 billion views on TikTok. By leveraging Text2Emotes, developers and publishers can open their games to a new wave of user-generated content and provide players with the opportunity to import trends into their favorite games or even create their own in-game emotes.
