BEIJING, Nov. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — iQIYI Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company"), an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China, today announced that its research paper on the Company’s proprietary automatic animation colorization technique has been accepted by the Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV 2021), the world’s leading international computer vision event, that is due to be held virtually from January 5th to 9th, 2021.

Building on iQIYI’s proprietary smart colorization engine that will be employed in the Company’s original animation series Devour Eternity, the new model proposed in this research paper improves the accuracy and efficiency of automatic animation colorization. iQIYI’s newest smart colorization engine reduces manual labor by nearly 30% compared with traditional manual colorization, thereby enabling producers to devote more of their time and energy to creative ideas.

iQIYI’s smart colorization engine is an automated animation and cartoon colorization system that helps studios and producers colorize their line art efficiently and at a high quality.

Powered by deep-learning technology, the engine analyzes massive animation production data and generates colorization models of varying styles, including realistic, line drawing, and Kawaii style. When colorizing new works, the AI-powered engine automatically identifies the line arts and colorizes them according to the style selected by the studio. It takes only 0.7 seconds to finish colorizing one whole piece of line art. The engine includes a layered output mode that enables illustrators to refine their coloring to achieve even better results

In animation production, line art colorization is considered as mundane yet time-consuming work that requires a large amount of time to refine. China’s anime market has boomed in recent years, with the number of anime fans expected to hit 400 million by the end of 2020 according to third-party research company iResearch. Meanwhile, the number of animation releases in China rose 38.7% in 2019 compared to 2018, according to data from research firm Guoduo Media.

Although a flourishing animation and comics market means that coloring artists are in high demand, rising labor costs and the low efficiency of manual colorization have emerged as obstacles hindering the expansion of animation production. The static comics colorization tools available today cannot deliver the desired colorization results for animation, which demands style consistency and high requirements for colorization quality and refinement.

The smart colorization engine developed by iQIYI, an industry first, deploys a novel approach to solving this pressing issue within the animation industry. iQIYI’s smart colorization engine is expected to help increase the refresh rate of animation work and stimulate the development of China’s animation and comics market by inspiring creators to produce more work.

iQIYI is committed to exploring the application of new technology to content production, and use technology to replace work that are simple and repetitive, allowing creators to focus on their ideas and improving the content production process to industrialize content production.

iQIYI has developed a suite of AI-assisted production solutions, such as Xmaking, Ysera, Aichuang Media System, covering all stages in the content production process, including shooting, asset management and post-production. The solution significantly shortens the time needed for variety show production. 

iQIYI’s smart colorization engine extends the reach of AI technology to the animation industry, and is expected to help drive a rise in production volume while cutting costs and maintaining quality, making the Company a pioneer in industrializing animation and comics content production.

About iQIYI, Inc.
iQIYI, Inc. is an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China. Its corporate DNA combines creative talent with technology, fostering an environment for continuous innovation and the production of blockbuster content. iQIYI’s platform features highly popular original content, as well as a comprehensive library of other professionally-produced content, partner-generated content and user generated content. The Company distinguishes itself in the online entertainment industry by its leading technology platform powered by advanced AI, big data analytics and other core proprietary technologies. iQIYI attracts a massive user base with tremendous user engagement, and has developed a diversified monetization model including membership services, online advertising services, content distribution, live broadcasting, online games, IP licensing, online literature and e-commerce.

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