Press release: “AI alone isn’t enough” – FILMIC rebrands and takes position in the next phase of AI-driven animation.
AI-generated content is exploding. At the same time, Stockholm-based FILMIC ART is rebranding to FILMIC Animation and taking position in the next phase: moving from isolated clips to fully realized productions with demands on quality, control, and delivery.
The name change reflects a development over several years, where advanced animation has become the core of the business.
“Now we’re called what we actually do,” says Andreas Ibohm, Founder and Executive Producer at FILMIC.
Demand for AI is largely driven by efficiency, but many companies are trying to combine lower costs with maintained control, intellectual property rights, and creative quality. At the same time, much of today’s AI usage remains experimental and often stops at isolated visual moments.
“Many companies want to reduce costs with AI, while still maintaining control, IP rights, and creative quality. That’s where it gets difficult for real. Right now, the industry is drowning in AI slop. It’s easy to be impressed by individual clips, but much harder to deliver all the way through a real production.”
FILMIC has therefore spent the past year developing a production pipeline where AI works in real assignments, with actual deadlines, format requirements, creative control, and multiple decision-makers. The foundation is an established model covering the entire process, from idea and storyboard to final delivery, where AI is integrated as an additional layer rather than replacing existing workflows.
“You still need to build the foundation first. Story, design, timing, and pipeline. AI can take us further, faster, but that’s not where the work begins.”
“We are fundamentally directors, producers, designers, and animators. What we do is about making a production hold together from start to finish. AI is a tool in that process, not a shortcut. Otherwise, you just end up with meaningless clips that no one connects with emotionally,” says Jonathan Knape, Founder and Creative Director at FILMIC.
At the same time, AI is not the right path in every context. There are clients who do not want to use AI at all.
“In gaming, where we work extensively, it can be directly counterproductive. Fans are extremely sensitive, and there is no point in making a film that the audience is already negative towards. In those cases, we rely on our established 2D, 3D, and VFX tools, which are highly proven. In other areas, such as advertising, there is greater room to explore the possibilities.”
According to FILMIC, the real difference does not lie in the technology itself, but in the ability to execute the entire production, from brief to delivery across multiple formats.
“Anyone can prompt today,” says Andreas Ibohm.
“But taking a project from brief to 75 deliverables in different formats, with clear
deadlines and multiple decision-makers, requires something entirely different.”
The view is shared by Jonathan Knape.
“We will never create finished film clips from text alone. What works is still production, design, and storytelling. AI is the final rocket stage that can take us further into space. Call it creative AI, AI-assisted animation, or handcrafted AI.”
With this new position, FILMIC aims to shift the focus from hype to craft and take a long-term role in the development of AI-driven animation.
