Standard Grant: Sia Studio

Introduction

Project Name: Sia Studio
Name of the Organization Submitting the Proposal: Daltonic LLC

Describe Your Project:

We at Daltonic LLC propose Sia Studio, a decentralized, AI-driven video content generation platform integrated with Sia Renterd for secure, immutable storage. Sia Studio empowers creators to produce professional-grade videos for social media, e-learning, marketing, and storytelling, covering story writing, scene generation, narration, storyboarding, voice/music generation, and animation. All assets are stored directly on the Sia Network, with no centralized servers; the lightweight web interface is deployable locally, ensuring full decentralization. Targeting the $250 billion creator economy, Sia Studio has potential to drive Sia adoption by onboarding as much as thousands of new users and increasing storage demand. As an open-source tool, it offers a privacy-focused, cost-effective alternative to centralized video creation tools.

Key features include:

  • Comprehensive Video Creation Pipeline:

    • Story Writing/Generation: AI generates compelling scripts or stories tailored to user inputs, such as themes or target audiences.

    • Scene Generation: AI designs visual scenes based on scripts, ensuring cohesive storytelling.

    • Scene Narration: AI-powered voiceovers provide natural, customizable narration.

    • Storyboard Generation: AI creates storyboards to visualize video flow.

    • Voice and Background Music Generation: AI composes custom voice styles and background music to enhance emotional impact.

    • Scene Animation: AI generates animations for scenes to bring each scene to life with character consistency.

    • Media Asset Saving/Backup: All assets (scripts, storyboards, videos, audio) are stored securely on the Sia Network via Sia Renterd, ensuring creator control and data integrity.

  • Intuitive Web Interface: A user-friendly platform for managing the entire video creation process, from ideation to export.

  • Applications: Ideal for social media content creation (e.g., TikTok, YouTube), e-learning modules, marketing campaigns, and narrative storytelling.

Sia Studio strengthens the Sia ecosystem by providing a native tool that showcases the practical benefits of decentralized storage for creative workflows. It reduces reliance on centralized platforms, offering creators a secure, scalable solution for producing and storing high-value video content.

Who Benefits from Your Project?

  • Sia Ecosystem Users:
    Creators and organizations within the Sia Network gain a powerful, native tool for video production, deepening their engagement with the ecosystem.

  • Social Media Creators:
    Individuals on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram can produce engaging content effortlessly, with secure storage for their assets.

  • E-Learning Providers:
    Educators and institutions can create interactive video modules for online courses, leveraging AI automation and decentralized storage.

  • Marketers and Businesses:
    Enterprises can develop professional marketing videos while maintaining data ownership and privacy through Sia’s infrastructure.

  • Storytellers and Creatives:
    Writers and filmmakers can craft animated narratives or serialized content, with AI simplifying complex production tasks.

  • Developers and Contributors:
    As an open-source project, Sia Studio serves as a model for integrating Sia with AI and creative tools, encouraging further innovation.

How Does the Project Serve the Foundation’s Mission of User-Owned Data?

Sia Studio aligns with the Sia Foundation’s mission by:

  • Leveraging Decentralized Storage: All media assets (scripts, storyboards, videos, audio) are stored via Sia Renterd, ensuring creators retain ownership and control, free from centralized risks like data breaches or censorship.

  • Enhancing Security: Cryptographic methods protect assets and metadata, ensuring authenticity and integrity.

  • Empowering Users: By eliminating reliance on centralized intermediaries, Sia Studio enables creators to manage their content independently, reinforcing user-owned data principles.

Jurisdiction Compliance

  • Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on the list? No

  • Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on the list? No

Grant Specifics

Project Budget

We request $31,250 over 5 months at $6,250 monthly to design, develop, test, and deploy Sia Studio. The budget is allocated as follows:

  • Salary for UI/UX designer and a lead developer with expertise in fullstack development, and AI integration.
  • Testing, security audits, optimization, and documentation (written and video instructions).
  • Low-cost licensing for pay-as-you-go AI platforms (e.g., MiniMax, Runway ML) to streamline development.
  • Minimal domain and hosting cost for the first year to enable robust testing and demoing outside of local environment.

Timeline with Measurable Objectives and Goals

The project spans 5 months, with distinct milestones to ensure steady progress:

  • Milestone 1: Month 1 – UI/UX Design

    • Objective: Design the user interface and experience for the video creation pipeline.
    • Tasks: Create a Figma design prototype covering story writing, scene generation, narration, storyboarding, and animation workflows.
    • Deliverable: Approved UI/UX designs and prototypes.
  • Milestone 2: Month 2 – Frontend Development

    • Objective: Build the web interface for video production and asset management.
    • Tasks: Develop frontend for story input, scene editing, narration preview, storyboard visualization, animation rendering, and asset navigation. Ensure responsive design with Sia branding.
    • Deliverable: Functional web interface (frontend only).
  • Milestone 3: Month 3 – Backend Development

    • Objective: Implement backend systems and core functionality.
    • Tasks: Integrate Sia Renterd for decentralized storage and AI models for story writing, scene generation, narration, storyboarding, voice/music generation, and animation. Connect backend to frontend.
    • Deliverable: Working platform with core video creation and storage features.
  • Milestone 4: Month 4 – Feature Enhancement

    • Objective: Add advanced features to enhance usability and versatility.
    • Tasks: Implement AI personalization (e.g., style customization, audience targeting), generated media assets export feature, and security measures (e.g., authentication, access controls).
    • Deliverable: Enhanced platform with all planned features integrated.
  • Milestone 5: Month 5 – Testing, Deployment, and Demo

    • Objective: Test, refine, and launch full source code on GitHub.
    • Tasks: Conduct comprehensive testing (security audits, performance). Deploy as Open Source on GitHub with written documentation and a video instructions demonstrating the platform’s installation, features, and usage.
    • Deliverable: Fully tested Sia Studio platform with documentation and demo.

Potential Risks and Mitigations

  • Risk 1: Technical Complexity of AI Integration. Mitigation: Utilize free and pay-as-you-go AI platforms (e.g., MiniMax, Runway ML) to scale tasks, reducing hardware demands.

  • Risk 2: User Adoption Challenges. Mitigation: Provide intuitive onboarding documentation and video tutorials for local setup.

  • Risk 3: Overambitious scope for a small team. Mitigation: Leverage pre-built AI APIs and modular code to ensure a single developer can deliver within the timeline.

Development Information

  • Will All of Your Project’s Code Be Open-Source?
    Yes, all Sia Studio code will be open-source, as mandated by the Sia Foundation.

  • Leave a Link Where Code Will Be Accessible for Review:
    GitHub Repository Link

  • Do You Agree to Submit Monthly Progress Reports?
    Yes, we commit to posting monthly updates on the Sia Grants Forum.

Contact Info

Hi @DaltonicLLC, thanks again for your latest proposal to the Sia Foundation grants program. After review of your latest KYC submission and supporting documents, we unfortunately are unable to offer grants to Daltonic LLC at this time due to company policy and compliance requirements.