Animation and Video Life

W hile generative AI has increasingly made inroads into the visual entertainment industry, puppetry, and puppet making has one thing that keeps it relevant, the human component, both in the creative choices of design, and how each puppet is brought to life, according to Daniel Byrne, Creative Director of  Puppets Magic Studio, who I had the opportunity to interview recently. ---o ---o--- o--- TET: Hi Daniel, tell me a little bit about Puppets Magic Studio? Where is it based and what does the studio do? We're a UK-based puppetry studio that designs and fabricates bespoke puppets for film, television and live performance. We work on everything from TV commercials and short films to stage productions.  Every project is different, so our work often combines traditional craftsmanship with modern design techniques to bring characters to life in the most effective way for the production. TET: When did you realize you could turn Puppet making into a career? Your website suggests you ...

Characters From an Animated Short, featured in a two part behind the scenes video by Latent Space . R ecently, I've been exploring how to create a 2D animation workflow that allows me to animate with my own art and characters, while incorporating generative AI into the process to do the 'heavy lifting' (basically all the traditionally time consuming stuff like the animation itself). If you've seen my previous post,  Reallusion's Cartoon Animator Versus PixVerse Image to Video and Lip Sync AI - Battle of the Talking Head Avatars , you may have noticed I used green screen (a.k.a. Chroma keying) with my AI output. This was something I did because, if you want to animate a particularly long scene, especially with lip sync, you need to string a number of generations together. This is easier to do with characters if they don't have any background in the generation - which may not stay as consistent as the character across generations. To cut a long story short, YouTub...

Aaron Blaise. A aron Blaise, acclaimed animator and director of Brother Bear, released a video  on his Art of Aaron Blaise YouTube channel sharing his thoughts on AI generative art and animation and why AI can't actually compete with lived, human experience. Specifically why it can't compete with YOUR lived human experience. I think he makes some really great points that echo my own thinking and reflect why I didn't even blink at the implications of AI generative art when it first started becoming a thing. Watch his video below. Speaking to the video, Aaron talks about the process of being immersed in the creation of art, why that experience is important, and why that can never be replaced by a machine. He goes so far as to say he will always hand draw his animation because that personal act of doing, of creating, is what connects him to the work. To me I think it's all relative and individual preference. I find hand drawing animation tedious. If I could get a machine ...

Z ack in Time is an independent, 2D animated series about a biracial 13-year-old  teen, who has trouble fitting in at his new school, until he finds a time-traveling watch developed by a secret government agency.  Created by Christian Haynes, who I featured in December of 2021 , and produced by Imhapie , the production has now launched a Kickstarter  (which runs until October 25th, 2024) to fund the development of the series pilot episode, as well as a full series, which is ready to produce. Why You Should Support Zack in Time Zack In Time is more than just another 2D animated series hoping to be successful, and is worth your consideration on two levels. Not only does the series hope to tell a fun and authentic story, showcasing unique characters but also, behind the scenes, the producers hope it continues to be a launching pad for young artists' careers.  A Relatable Story that Promotes Diversity and Representation The story of Zack in Time reflects the struggl...

Straight Outta Oregon: Old Man Puppet Design. P uppetry is, perhaps, one of the original forms of character animation. In many ways we've come full circle with both 2D and 3D computer based animation making use of digital 'puppet rigs' in order to animate characters more efficiently and allowing computers to do more of the grunt work of 'tweening'. In this feature interview I take a look over the fence into modern, real world, puppet design and creation with Zack Buchman, the Creative Director and founder of Furry Puppet Studio , based in SoHo, New York. The studio, specializes in designing and fabricating custom puppets for the entertainment industry. TET: Hi Zack, tell me a little bit about Furry Puppet Studio? What does the studio do?  Zack Buchman. Creative Director and Founder Furry Puppet Studio. We design and produce custom puppets primarily for clients across various industries like television, advertising, and the music industry.  Alongside conceptualizing...

The Resident Dragon Team visit Santa to discuss their Christmas Lists. O ne of the great strengths of Reallusion's Cartoon Animator is you can create short, message based, animations within hours. Especially if you save yourself time by not creating all the artwork yourself and simply purchase ready made characters, props, and scenes from the Reallusion Content Store or Marketplace . With Christmas fast approaching I thought I'd highlight some of the best 2D holiday assets available, from Reallusion Marketplace Developers, that you may like to use in your own seasonal animated messages.  Note that I'm not affiliated with any of the developers listed and I did not approach any for permission to include them here. These packs are just what caught my eye and offer just that little bit extra. Be sure to check each highlighted developer's store as many have a whole range of Christmas themed content and would love your patronage. Santa & Prancer by Clay Triche Santa ...

Before you get all excited and start yelling 'Fight! Fight!' that's not what's happening here. There is no long running feud coming to a head at this moment with an 'Animation-off' (if that's even a thing?). Garry Pye , Cartoon Animator Content Legend, and Reallusion's 2D Community Manager, recorded an excellent hour long webinar (excluding question time) called, Bring 2D Characters to Life with Cartoon Animator  where he demonstrates how he goes about detail animating character faces for more dynamic performance. Click to go to Garry's Webinar replay . His demo animation, featuring his character, Jane Danger, showcases how he uses many Cartoon Animator features to breathe life into a 2D animated character. What you'll notice from Garry's webinar is that he manually key frames almost everything. He doesn't even use Cartoon Animator's automatic lip syncing feature for close up animation. Garry makes multiple passes through his animatio...

Harrison Killian sculpting a character head for his animated short, Rider on the Storm. Residing on a mountaintop in Liberty, located in the Catskill Mountains of New York, and primarily self-taught, Harrison Killian is a musician, sculptor, animator, and the founder of Grateful Motion Studios  which is currently producing an independent animated short film, ‘Rider On The Storm.’  The film uses Harrison's, groundbreaking, animation technique that fuses the artistry of stop-motion with the precision of CGI, creating imagery that blurs the line between reality and animation, leaving audiences questioning if what they saw was animated or real. 'Rider On The Storm' is culled from a feature-length screenplay written by Harrison that received high industry scores, landing it on the Red List on Coverfly . Written to evoke emotions and inspire imaginations, the story is about a boy named Rider who is orphaned at seven and endures a childhood of bullying by other orphans and abuse...

Series Creation Tip: If this is your first attempt at a series start small with two to four main characters and two or three sets that you can reuse each episode. My new series in development, Resident Dragon has four characters and is set in a suburban home. Recently I was asked if a solo animator could make a feature film? The short answer is 'YES'. Logically, with enough time, you can achieve anything. The very next question I was asked is how long do I think it would take and could it be done within a year? My initial answer was, it depends on the skill of the creator, noting that a Disney feature film takes a minimum of (I'm only guesstimating here) three to five years, based on when a movie is announced to when it actually gets released, with thousands of people working on it. Which implies that a single person trying to do the same thing may take the best part of a lifetime to make just one animated feature film. However is this really the case? Let's be clear, ...