A new creative studio has entered the arena — and it’s not arriving quietly. Obsidian, co-founded by award-winning director and Adweek 100 Creative alum Wes Walker and Gang Group veteran Louis Gheysens, officially launches this week with an impressive slate of early partnerships spanning Hollywood, luxury, and global sports brands.
Built by creatives for creatives, Obsidian positions directors and artists at the center of its process, blending live-action filmmaking with advanced digital and AI-driven production pipelines. The goal: vivid, emotionally resonant storytelling delivered at a fraction of the time it takes in traditional storytelling, without sacrificing taste or craft.
The studio debuts with a creative partnership with Imagine Entertainment — the Academy Award-winning powerhouse founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Together, the teams are exploring how Obsidian’s compact, director-driven production units — comprising storyboard artists, CG generalists, editors, and AI specialists — can reimagine workflows across both entertainment and brand work.
Every project begins with hand-drawn storyboards and human-centered design, then moves into AI-assisted iteration and premium visual effects. The system is powered by Obsidian’s patent-pending technologies, including DigitalForge, a team-based, on-set production platform that integrates AI and CGI into the real-time creative process; and EchoChrome, which ensures consistent, high-end image quality across deliverables.
“The artist sits at the center of everything we do,” said Walker. “Technology alone doesn’t move people — emotion does. Tools only matter in the hands of artists who know how to give images soul.”
Obsidian’s workflows are trained on custom datasets built with veteran artists such as Marc Vena (Logan, War for the Planet of the Apes) and Tani Kunitake (Black Panther, The Matrix, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), ensuring that human craft shapes every stage of the process.
The studio’s hybrid model is already resonating across industries. Throughout 2025, Obsidian partnered with Louis Vuitton, Longchamp, Crayola, Aramco, Amazon, the NBA, and ESPN to deliver films and campaigns that blend cinematic ambition with production agility. On the entertainment side, the Imagine partnership spans development, previs, and post, including work on upcoming feature and documentary projects.
“Hollywood and global brands face the same challenge: more stories on tighter budgets,” noted Gheysens. “DigitalForge was built for exactly that, scaling production with efficiency while protecting creative integrity.”
Justin Wilkes, President of Imagine Entertainment, underscored the alignment: “Obsidian’s artist-led approach is exactly the kind of collaboration we believe in. We’re committed to emotionally resonant storytelling, and we’ve already seen the ways AI can support that mission.”
Looking ahead, Obsidian is expanding its R&D and developing original IP, with an eye toward new audience experiences that merge narrative, design, and next-generation technology.
“Longevity is the bar,” Walker added. “AI gives us a chance to build worlds we couldn’t before — worlds that feel vivid, human, and alive.”
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