Storytelling Animation Tests
We think there is an opportunity to use new facial mo-cap technology to create very efficient animation specifically for long form storytelling content. We are particularly interested in creating visuals for podcasts and other audio based storytelling mediums, that don’t typically have video. We would like to take already existing high quality stories and create new visuals, without any extra work from the original creator. We believe there is a large space online for this type of content, whether it’s a video for morning family breakfast, the watch and work crowd, or people who love a calming bedtime story.
This process is ideal for filling in this media gap, while maintaining a pipeline that can keep up with upload demands of online algorithms. Additionally these videos can be clipped into short form videos for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts, giving a path for new audiences to find these audio based formats. Below are two tests we made to show our animation techniques for long form storytelling video, take a look and let us know what you think!
Demon Reading Poe
This is our second animation test. We wanted to focus more on the mood and character performance. We switched to Blender to smooth out our pipeline. In Blender, we have more control of the animation and lip sync. We loved the editing here along with the expressiveness of the character. This test did not have a 3D background or idle animation for the character, but these are things we would like to add in, similar to the first test below.
Late Night Render
This is our first test, made in Cinema 4D. We were really pleased with the idle character animation mixed with the mo-cap facial animation as well as the enviroment. But, we thought the character could be more expressive and the scene a bit more energetic. The pipeline to import the facial mo-cap was also clunky, so we decided to try a test in Blender.