Cartwheel
Turn text, video, or a motion library into production-ready 3D character animation in the browser.
About
Cartwheel is a browser-based AI platform that turns text prompts, video clips, and a motion library into production-ready 3D character animations. The company says its models handle rigging automatically, so an animator can start working on a character as soon as it is generated, and outputs drop into standard pipelines like Maya and Unreal Engine. The tool targets game studios, animation teams, and social or advertising creators who need character motion without mocap suits or large animation departments.
The company was founded in 2023 by former OpenAI scientist Andrew Carr and former Google Creative Lab director Jonathan Jarvis, with a team drawn from Pixar, Riot Games, Sony, and Unity. Cartwheel launched publicly in May 2025 after a closed beta tested by around 8,000 artists, and has raised $15.6 million in total from Craft Ventures, Accel, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Tirta Ventures, Runway, and Human Ventures. Pixar veterans Catherine Hicks and Neil Helm lead its animation teams.
What it can do
- Text-to-animation for rigged 3D characters
- Video-to-animation motion capture without suits
- Large searchable motion library
- Automatic character rigging
- Export to Maya, Unreal Engine, and standard pipelines
- Browser-based editor, no install required
Setup
- Sign up at getcartwheel.com and open the browser-based studio.
- Upload a character model or start from a generated one.
- Generate motion from a text prompt, a video clip, or the motion library.
- Refine the animation in the timeline and export to Maya, Unreal, or other pipeline tools.
Prerequisites
Web browser; a 3D character model helps but the platform can work from generated assets.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: $15.6M total raised, $10M round led by Craft Ventures with Accel, Khosla, WndrCo, Runway (Animation Magazine, 3D Mag, May 2025); public launch May 2025 after closed beta with ~8,000 artists; founders ex-OpenAI and ex-Google Creative Lab, team from Pixar and Riot Games. Strengths: top-tier investors, experienced team, live product with real beta users. Docked for: (1) quality claims about production-ready output are vendor-reported; (2) competes with Anything World and Autodesk-owned Wonder Dynamics. License: proprietary.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 7.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · $15.6M total raised, $10M round led by Craft Ventures with Accel, Khosla, WndrCo, Runway (Animation Magazine, 3D Mag, May 2025)
- · Public launch May 2025 after closed beta with ~8,000 artists
- · Founders ex-OpenAI and ex-Google Creative Lab; team from Pixar and Riot Games
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.