Sans Strings Studio

Sans Strings Studio is a tech-enabled entertainment studio building the future of real-time animation. At its core is F.E.L.T. (Fuzz-E Logic Toolset), a proprietary real-time digital puppetry system that lets artists perform characters live, with full emotional fidelity and minimal latency, bringing the soul of puppetry into the power of modern game engines. Where traditional pipelines are slow and expensive and fully generative AI sacrifices control and consistency, Sans Strings keeps the artist in the loop while making iteration instant. The same characters, performances and worlds can travel seamlessly from a game to a series, from short-form content to live shows, a "build once, deploy everywhere" approach that reshapes the economics of content creation.

Red River West led Sans Strings Studio's Series Seed round in March 2026, alongside a16z speedrun, whose accelerator the company graduated from after being selected from thousands of applicants. We had followed founder Sébastien Deguy for years: before Sans Strings, he built Allegorithmic and its Substance suite into a global standard for 3D texturing across games, VFX and design, acquired by Adobe in 2019. Paired with co-founder Ryan Corniel, a rare master of real-time character performance, the team offered founder-market fit at its peak. What convinced us was not only the technology but the studio vision, with multiple original IPs already in production.

Fun fact: Sébastien Deguy is an Academy Award winner. His pioneering work on Substance earned him a Scientific and Technical Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.