Cartwheel, a new 3D animation startup founded by former OpenAI scientist Andrew Carr and ex-Google creative director Jonathan Jarvis, aims to revolutionize AI-driven animation by providing artists with greater creative control. Unlike current generative AI tools that produce final videos with limited editability, Cartwheel focuses on generating precise 3D motion data. This approach allows animators to manipulate lighting, camera angles, and character poses after the AI has completed the initial technical work, thus overcoming the "sameness" often seen in AI-generated content. The company's core hypothesis is that movement is a fundamental data type, and they are building models that understand human motion nuances to enable "open-ended storytelling" and real-time character reactions, bridging the gap between 2D vision and 3D execution.