[AI Revolution](114) RealDrow "Using AI as a Stepping Stone for the Second Golden Age of K-Webtoons"

AI Webtoon Production Startup Receives Investment from Altos Ventures and Others
CEO Choi Sang-gyu of RealDraw Talks About Webtoons and AI
Creating High-Quality Webtoons by Training AI on Artists' Drawings to Develop AI Used Exclusively by the Artists

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has brought many changes to the webtoon industry. The era of relying solely on the artist's pen to draw webtoons is over. AI reduces the workload of artists. However, it also raises issues related to copyright protection. RealDraw is a startup that addresses this problem and presents the most effective solution for applying AI to webtoon production. Unlike other webtoon AI technology solution companies, it focuses on producing high-quality webtoons together with webtoon artists and overcoming the technical limitations of AI in the process.

CEO Choi Sang-gyu is explaining RealDraw's AI technology.

On the 26th, Sangkyu Choi, CEO of RealDraw, said, "We are creating AI that learns the artist's drawing style and is used exclusively by the artist to produce high-quality webtoons. We clearly understand the limitations of the currently developed image generation AI technology and are continuously improving it." He added, "This is a way to maximize the benefits of AI technology while alleviating concerns about copyright infringement."

RealDraw was founded last year by webtoon and design experts from NCSoft and Watcha. CEO Choi also led the webtoon business at Watcha. RealDraw’s approach combines AI technology with the 3D 'Unreal Engine,' which is widely used in game development, to create webtoons. Webtoon artists, engineers, and AI technology developers form a team to produce webtoons directly. They have structured the process so that projects that previously required 10 to 20 people can now be completed by just three or four using AI. This caught the attention of Altos Ventures, which invested in RealDraw, drawing significant interest. Altos Ventures is a venture capital firm that has led companies like Coupang, Toss, Baedal Minjok, and Zigbang to unicorn status.

CEO Choi Sang-kyu is explaining RealDraw's AI technology.

RealDraw challenges the reality where production is labor-intensive and focused on mass-produced works. Although the domestic webtoon market continues to grow, CEO Choi analyzes that it has entered a stagnation phase from a production perspective. As the landscape shifts from individual artists to studio-produced webtoons, mass-produced webtoons have become dominant, weakening diversity and creativity in content. CEO Choi stated, "To advance to a second golden age by continuing the status of K-webtoons established by Naver Webtoon as a new competitive edge in the global market, it is necessary to maximize artists' creativity and achieve a high level of drawing quality that cannot be reached by human work alone." He added, "If AI becomes a stepping stone, it can break through the current stagnation and surprise the market with high-quality webtoon IPs never seen before."

Therefore, further advancing AI models is a crucial pillar of RealDraw’s business. To establish AI as a tool that enhances webtoon artists' creative activities, it is essential to continuously upgrade solutions in line with the rapid pace of technological development and make them easier for artists to use. They plan to quickly accumulate and utilize artists' learning data to advance technologies such as 3D character motion generation, video data utilization for webtoon learning, and automated data generation. CEO Choi said, "Above all, the market needs competitive artists who can create diverse original content, and only then can the content ecosystem develop." He added, "RealDraw plans to raise the overall competitiveness of webtoons together with artists and release blockbuster webtoons to the global market."