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TikTok's 360 Microwave Meme and How You Can Use It For 2D Animated Character Turnarounds

360 Microwave Meme Stills from PixVerse. The center images are the original character images used to generate the turnarounds. T ikTok art drama, where wannabe artists, who have no clue about professional art practices, but are still happy to gatekeep their idea of how professional artists work, is reason enough to stay off the platform. I have no doubt there are a few insufferable professionals on there gatekeeping too. Case in point, TikTok's 360 Microwave Meme , which I discovered through a suggested video on YouTube called, The Microwave Art Drama Breaking the Art Community on TikTok by art drama showcaser, Mohammed Agbadi . Apparently TikTok's animation community is livid that using this effect on your 2D character to achieve a fully animated, 360 degree turnaround, is just the absolute lowest thing you can do. You cannot, in good conscience, call yourself an artist, or an animator, if you do this, and, even worse, post it on TikTok. In retaliation 'real' artist/...
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The Future of Animation? Using Reallusion's Cartoon Animator and Image to Video Generative AI to Animate Sequences

Animation software is already capable of auto generating tweens but will AI take it to the next level and tween entire sequences of motion? M y earlier article,  Reallusion's Cartoon Animator Versus PixVerse Image to Video and Lip Sync AI - Battle of the Talking Head Avatars , got me thinking about using generative AI for creating the 'tween' animation in between key poses. This isn't a new idea, and I have explored tweening with AI before in my article,  Five AI Generative Image to Video Tools For Animation You Can Try Free Right Now . That was almost eight months ago and the results were mixed and barely usable. However PixVerse AI is exceptional at maintaining the art style of whatever image you begin with and will also let you include an end frame, making it an ideal tool for tweening, so...  What if, in a future version of Cartoon Animator (or your preferred 2D animation software), all you had to do was create the key moments of the scene, and then the software...
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The Ultimate 2D VTuber Avatar Live Streaming Software - Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5

Anime Amee Avatar in Cartoon Animator 5 is available for free in the Reallusion Marketplace . A bout a year and a half ago I started exploring VTuber software to see if I could turn my 2D, TET avatar into a live performance character that I could use when I record my Cartoon Animator tutorial videos. I explored quite a number of applications but I couldn't really find one that I was able to adapt my avatar to. It was possible but the applications that could do it were either too basic or too complex, with poor documentation, requiring more time and expertise than I had. Since then, Reallusion introduced their Puppet Stage to Cartoon Animator 5, and as far as I'm concerned, it rocketed past the competition as the best, most featured, and easiest to use software for VTuber's who want a 2D avatar, in any art style they can dream up. You're not limited to just Anime characters anymore. What is the Puppet Stage? Puppet Stage is specifically targeted at live streamers who r...
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Reallusion's Cartoon Animator Versus PixVerse Image to Video and Lip Sync AI - Battle of the Talking Head Avatars

PixVerse's Show Muscle Effect is a real flex for other AI generative video sites. AI  generated digital avatars have improved greatly over the last 12 months, to the point where you can replace yourself with a digital, talking head, clone avatar that can say anything using your AI generated voice clone, and casual viewers wouldn't even notice. I tried cloning myself back in July of 2024 in my post,  Creating an AI Digital Avatar and Voice Clone of Myself with Free and Low Cost AI Tools . Since then, I've seen human clone channels on YouTube that I'd never guess in passing were digital humans. This is one of Hedra's better generations of video using my TET Avatar as a source. One area that has been slower to catch up is using AI to create 2D cartoon style avatars, from very specific character designs, that don't have realistic human proportions. I put my TET Avatar through Hedra , one of the best talking head avatar generators currently available, and got a compl...
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Finding Inspiration For Daily Cartoon Gags - Could Microsoft Copilot Be Your AI Creative Brainstorming Partner Too?

I don't believe for a second that this guy is a writer. He's actually a man of few words if that blank page in front of him is anything to go by! Image by Copilot and TET. T wo and a half years ago I wrote an article,  Is Your Next Design or Writing Partner an AI? A Look at Artificial Intelligence and the Creative Arts with DALL-E 2, Jasper, and Rytr . It's worth a read just to see how far and fast Artificial Intelligence is moving. Today, while I do use AI image generators to create quick illustrations for blog posts or to create quick characters and backgrounds I can use in my online courses, it's actually AI writing that I'm finding more useful in my own creative practice. Specifically, not dedicated AI writing sites like Jasper and Rytr , that I covered in my previous article, but Microsoft's Copilot, the general purpose AI built into their Edge browser. Though I've been using the Android App version of it on my phone because it's more convenient to ...
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Create Your Christmas Cards with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator - The Annual Last Minute Christmas Resource List

Do you get the feeling Red knows he's on the naughty list? T he last minute Christmas rush is pretty much upon us but it's not too late to create completely custom Christmas Cards to send to family and friends. Send them by email or take them to your local department store print on demand service if actual, physical Christmas cards is more your style. Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 is perfect for creating fun, Christmas themed cartoons, like my running joke above, with the cast of Resident Dragon , confronting Santa each year with TET's Christmas gift 'guide'. The Annual Last Minute Christmas Resource List This list is something of an annual event too, where I run through various Christmas themed products that caught my eye in Reallusion's, Cartoon Animator Marketplace this year. If creating unique holiday images (and animations of course) with Cartoon Animator is something you want to do, then save yourself a bunch of time with pre-made content you can pur...
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The Parent's Guide to Beginner and 'Next Steps' 2D and 3D Animation Software For Aspiring Younger Animators

Y ounger artists, who enjoy drawing characters and telling stories, may find themselves gravitating towards animated cartoons. While hand-drawn animation was traditionally done with pencil and paper, nowadays it is more commonly created on electronic devices like iPads and pen display monitors. This shift to digital platforms has made animation more accessible to young artists, allowing them to explore and create more ambitious projects than ever before. However, diving into the world of animation can be overwhelming due to the perceived amount of work and the steep learning curve involved in drawing every frame of an animated cartoon (even though some modern forms of animation don't require every frame to be drawn at all). This can often discourage young artists from pursuing animation. Supporting Your Child's Interest If you're a parent looking to support your child's interest in animation, here is a quick guide on where to start, their next steps, common types of dig...
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