Digital Domain Holdings Limited (OTCQX: DDHLY, Hong Kong Exchange: Stock code 547) has introduced an AI-powered video creation tool called HANBAO, aimed at helping creators produce compelling short videos for online platforms. The solution focuses on identifying key selling points of products or services and applying a cinematic style to enhance visual appeal and audience engagement.
HANBAO addresses several challenges in video production. Unlike traditional methods, it improves efficiency and effectiveness by leveraging a digital asset library, giving creators a broad range of visual options without increasing production costs. The AI-driven platform also excels in generating hero shots, key visual highlights, without the need for live-action filming. This allows for seamless integration of digital characters, environments, and other elements. Digital Domain’s three decades of expertise in virtual humans, visual effects, and visualization help overcome common issues such as distortion and misalignment, ensuring high-quality results.
The company has already applied HANBAO to various projects including advertising, game cinematics, and immersive experimental experiences. One notable example involved a collaboration with Alibaba Cloud during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Digital Domain created a digital crowd scene set in the 18th century, featuring 80 photorealistic avatars generated through AI text-to-image and image-to-video technology. This approach solved the problem of limited live-action filming opportunities and brought the arena atmosphere to life with detailed facial expressions and body movements.
At Computex 2025, Digital Domain partnered with MediaTek and Uniwaves to produce a cinematic video titled “Artificial Intelligence for Everyone: From Edge to Cloud.” This 2-minute and 35-second piece showcased AI’s role in delivering hero shots and smooth transitions between scenes. By controlling key frames and optimizing AI prompts, the team avoided traditional filming challenges such as foreground occlusion and environment development. The video demonstrated how AI tools can replace conventional pipelines, enabling a fluid narrative that integrates MediaTek-related visuals throughout.
Digital Domain’s CEO William Wong emphasized that AI is not a replacement for creativity but a tool to enhance it. He explained that AI helps artists produce high-quality visuals more efficiently and supports a shift toward digital and real-time production processes. This gives creators greater control to continuously improve short videos tailored for online audiences.
The company’s AI innovations come amid a booming market for virtual humans. Digital Domain’s platform combines biometric precision and cloud scalability to meet growing demand for personalized digital avatars in gaming, advertising, and other industries. Collaborations such as the one with TOPPAN Holdings further advance this effort by integrating high-resolution face scanning with cloud-based virtual human operation, reducing production time and costs.
Digital Domain’s work with Alibaba Cloud at the Olympics and MediaTek at Computex highlights the company’s commitment to merging technology and art. By applying AI-driven tools to virtual humans, visual effects, and visualization, Digital Domain aims to accelerate the commercialization of these technologies and open new opportunities across multiple sectors.
