Tetavi brings volumetric capture to Web3 music artists

Tetavi is bringing volumetric video capture technology to Web3 music artists to enable them to do new kinds of virtual music content.

The Los Angeles company sees itself at the nexus of technology, entertainment and content creation. And today it is partnering with new music artists, developing and creating a virtual stage where artists can produce enhanced music video content, immersive concert experiences and artist-specific non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Tetavi is starting out with a collaboration with two emerging artists, Riell and Besomorph. It provides them with volumetric capture services, meaning it captures their form and movements and renders it in a way that makes it available for the artists to use to wow their audiences with cool visual performances.

Tetavi will create a virtual stage that can produce immersive music video content and artist-specific non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through Tetavi’s volumetric video platform. Tetavi provides these artists with a one-stop-shop for all music video production — from previsualization and production to editing and finalizing the content. The artists’ “virtual twin” is able to be digitally dropped into any environment.

Today, fans can access RIELL and Besomorph’s hit singles, volumetric music videos, and exclusive volumetric NFT drops. In early July, you’ll also be able to catch RIELL, Besomorph and more artists to be announced soon in a free experimental virtual volumetric stage performance from Tetavi on mobile and desktop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEeq0AuxD3M

Tetavi’s volumetric video technology is powered by a proprietary algorithm, AI and machine learning. It will allow music creatives to transport themselves into any digital environment, immersing them in production and the current music video experience while providing the gateway for the next generation of artists to enter the metaverse and Web3, said Gilad Talmon, CEO of Tetavi, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“We’re really focusing on the balance between quality, the portability of the system and the usability of the models,” Talmon said. “If you’re combining those three, that will lead the market.”

The musicians are the first ones featured through this partnership.

“Tetavi’s volumetric technology opened my eyes to what’s possible for the future of music artists in the Metaverse and Web3,” said Besomorph, in a statement.

Riell added, “This project was exceptional and I am thrilled to offer my fans more engaging ways to connect with me and my music. My fans are everything to me.”

Tetavi said its quality level of volumetric video capture would be nearly impossible if done through the traditional production process. From cost, time-to-shoot, to location logistics, Tetavi’s software is more efficient across the board running about six weeks in total from creative development to final delivery of the music video, Talmon said.

Because everything is virtual, Tetavi can experiment and drop the volumetric video capture into any location and backdrop offering multiple set-ups which would be nearly impossible in real physical environments resulting in a fraction of what a full-blown traditional production would cost to create a comparable experience.

“This collaboration with emerging artists like Riell and Besomorph is just the beginning as we look to continue to build out larger partnerships and projects across the music industry,” said Talmon. “Our technology platform breaks down barriers for those looking to create immersive content that is efficient and cost-effective, and we are excited to curate new avenues for artists to connect and engage with their fans.”

Today, fans can access Riell and Besomorph’s hit singles, volumetric music videos, and exclusive NFT drops with an immersive concert to be announced at a later date.

Talmon said the company is working with another still-unnamed music celebrity on a gamified world. It’s a big project, but it is taking a kind of incremental approach. He is thinking about how AI can help change the development cycle.

“You give value to the audience, you don’t overcommit and you don’t start by spending $200 million on developing a game,” Talmon said. “I really liked the approach and I think that’s the future of triple-A game development because the development costs are becoming huge.”

“With AI, some of the benefit might be that the time will be reduced or the development may just be less labor intensive,” Talmon said. “With volumetric video, we’re using a lot of AI in order to make the process simpler, more cost effective and more photorealistic.”

By automating the volumetric video, Tetavi helps save time, like saving time with the process of doing motion capture, where video cameras capture the movements of actors and then artists take a basic rendering and stitch them all together into a working computer animation.

“It’s a relatively long process if you want to get realistic motion and you never really get realistic,” he said. “We believe that video solves this problem to a large extent.”

Talmon wants the tech to get to a point where the transition between volumetric video and high-end digital human animation, as is possible with Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman creator tool, is seamless. Tetavi captured imagery of the LA Kings hockey team and optimized it for mobile phones. The movements look quite natural and the renderings look good enough for many purposes. With the hockey players, it took a matter of hours to do the setup and capture.

But the requirements for quality of the videos is going up. Both gaming and music are where most of the demand is right now for Tetavi’s services.

The artist Riell, captured using Tetavi technology.

“Music artists are looking to get additional monetization channels and ways to engage with audiences,” he said. “Social gaming is also huge as people spend a significant amount of time with friends playing games online.”

Tetavi is focusing on democratizing the creation of volumetric video, which can be manipulated to show new kinds of performances for characters in games or music artists. If a dancer jumps into the air and that is captured in the volumetric video, then that character can be used to generate more movements and imagery.

“If you think about our mission, it’s like you and me putting ourselves into a game,” Talmon said. “That’s definitely something we’re focusing on. We can do a lot of the rigging and skinning automatically.”

The future of AI and capture

I wondered what Talmon thought about whether AI could really be used to design some of the worlds in the metaverse.

“It depends on how realistic you want it to be, or how accurate you want it to be,” he said. “At least from from our experience, with some caveats, machine learning is very good in creating stuff that looks good. At the current state of AI, that’s something that’s doable.”

“If you develop the neural networks and you tell them how to design cities with 3D modeling, then they can do it,” he said. “Would it be accurate to reality? Probably not. Would it be possible five or 10 years from now? I don’t know. I think we are just starting the scratch the surface.”

The company has about 78 people working for it and they are spread around the world. Tetavi has raised $20 million to date, with the latest round led by Insight Partners. The tech is still in a beta stage.

As for the metaverse, Talmon said, “I’m a very big believer in metaverse. I think my definition of metaverse is closer to what kind of Niantic is thinking about than what Meta is thinking about. It’s not VR. It’s a combination of real world spatial computing and AI, with augmented reality, mixed reality.”

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