Copyright Variety
Obsidian, launching this week with Imagine Entertainment as a key partner, is an AI-powered studio start-up. But its founders say that’s not the full picture: Their venture, they say, is focused on using technology to empower creatives to make their entertainment and advertising productions more efficient — and ultimately pack an even bigger emotional punch. The company was incorporated in January 2025 by Wes Walker, a commercial director who hails from Texas, and Louis Gheysens, a Belgian native who is CEO of global creative studio Gang Group. The two have been working together for almost two years to start up the company. “AI gives us a chance to imagine beyond the limits of production,” says Walker. “It’s a way to build new worlds and bring audiences closer to stories that feel vivid and human.” The co-founders say Obsidian’s approach compresses production cycles from months to weeks while protecting human-led creativity. While both Walker and Gheysens come from the advertising world, they say Obsidian’s approach translates to long-form entertainment productions as well. “We always had high-end cinema in mind,” says Walker. The AI-enabled processes Obsidian is developing are well-suited for commercial campaigns, which typically have much shorter turnaround times, while they also apply to feature films, he says. Obsidian has a creative partnership with Imagine, the film and TV production company co-founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Together, the companies are exploring how Obsidian’s director-driven units of storyboard artists, CG generalists, editors and AI specialists can serve both Hollywood and global brands. Each unit begins with hand-drawn storyboards and “human-centric design,” before then moving through AI-enabled iteration and high-end VFX, according to Obsidian. The Imagine partnership with Obsidian extends across development, previsualization, and post-production, including for upcoming feature film and documentary projects. “At Imagine, we are committed to emotionally resonant, human storytelling and we have already seen the ways AI can be a beneficial tool in that mission,” Justin Wilkes, president of Imagine Entertainment, said in a statement. “Obsidian’s artist-led approach is exactly the kind of collaboration we stand behind to amplify human creativity and we’re excited to be working with them.” To train its AI workflows, Obsidian uses storyboards and custom datasets developed with veteran industry artists including Marc Vena (“Logan,” “Passengers,” “War for the Planet of the Apes”) and Tani Kunitake (“Black Panther,” “The Matrix,” “Fight Club,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”). The company’s patent-pending technologies include DigitalForge, a live team-based production system that can bring AI and CGI directly on set to let artists collaborate with directors and brand partners in real time. “The artist sits at the center of everything we do,” says Walker. “Technology alone doesn’t move people — emotion does. It’s the artist using the tools, not the tools themselves, that makes the image feel real, the spirit tangible, and the connection with the audience unmistakable.” While Obsidian develops its own AI models, Walker says the company is able to work with all commercially released AI tools and VFX platforms, Gheysens says Hollywood filmmakers and global brands both face the same challenge: to produce more stories on tighter budgets. Obisidian’s DigitalForge model “was designed for exactly that, scaling production efficiently while keeping creative integrity intact,” he says. In addition to Imagine, Obsidian has worked with Disney’s ESPN to create previsualizations for ad campaigns, which has let the sports programmer conduct A/B testing on creative that’s more than just a script, according to Walker. Obsidian also has collaborated with brands including Louis Vuitton, Longchamp, Crayola, Aramco, Amazon and the NBA on films and marketing campaigns. Obsidian (obsidian.studio) is owned by Walker and Gang Group, which is co-founded by Gheysens, with no outside investors. The company has 27 employees and brings on freelancers as needed on a per-project basis. Its team operates worldwide, including in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Riyadh and Dubai. Pictured above: Obsidian co-founders Louis Gheysens (left) and Wes Walker
