Bird Karma, new short by Dreamworks

[VGmaster9]

https://www.awn.com/animationworld/new- ... marsupials

The studio had to create a pipeline for the short because it no longer had one for 2D animation, says Hermann. Despite the handmade look, the film is produced digitally, with the backgrounds painted on paper and then scanned into Adobe Photoshop. TVPaint was used for the animation, and Adobe After Effects for the rest. “Every time there was something that looked CG, we tried to a make it look more handmade,” Salazar says.

[Sloppytoons]

This looks so amazing! Wish to see more big studios continuing with hand drawn stuff like this. I love this!

[D.T. Nethery]

Here's another short clip from 'Bird Karma' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IVHio68Pnw

[BruceM]

I'm confused as to what TVP was used for in the production.
"Despite the handmade look, the film is produced digitally, with the backgrounds painted on paper and then scanned into Adobe Photoshop. TVPaint was used for the animation, and Adobe After Effects for the rest".

Can someone clarify?

[Benjamin Cerbai]

Thank you for sharing this info!

I'm confused as to what TVP was used for in the production.

It means that no paper animation has been made. It is a mix of scanned paper painted background, digital hand drawn animation in TVPaint and then compositing (and I guess camera movements) in After Effects.

[Xavier]

nice, thanks for sharing !

[o0Ampy0o]

(Referring to a clip in a previous post, not shown in these)

They did amazingly well depicting water. There are so many interesting and varied elements. Such attention to detail! Love the highlight/shadowed ripples conforming to the light conditions on the water surface, for instance. Nothing redundant and over-stylized which would have dulled things in this context. However the underwater light beams do not meet this standard. Oh well. Still one of the, if not the, best example(s) of fine animation produced by Dreamworks.

(from my perspective/based upon my preferences/my opinion)

[VGmaster9]

(Referring to a clip in a previous post, not shown in these)

They did amazingly well depicting water. There are so many interesting and varied elements. Such attention to detail! Love the highlight/shadowed ripples conforming to the light conditions on the water surface, for instance. Nothing redundant and over-stylized which would have dulled things in this context. However the underwater light beams do not meet this standard. Oh well. Still one of the, if not the, best example(s) of fine animation produced by Dreamworks.

(from my perspective/based upon my preferences/my opinion)

Was looking at the comments for the second video and found this reply.

Thank you Genesiz Studios!

the first minute and a half of the movie was animated 23 years ago , using plain "good old" pencil and paper.
the remaining 3 minutes and a half were animated last year on the cintiq, using a program from Dreamworks ( very similar to TV paint)

We tried as best as we could to keep the rough pencil line texture so it matches the first part.

So it looks like that this was animated with a proprietary program by Dreamworks and not TVPaint.

[o0Ampy0o]

Interesting. Regarding the AWN article, it is not clear where that TVPaint reference came from. The paragraph contains a quote by Salazar but the source for the use of After Effects, TVPaint and Photoshop is not cited. That said, I do not see anything in this that could not be done using TVPaint. The drawing/animation is stimulating to the senses and very inspiring.

I'd love to see the completed piece. I could not find it online. There was mention of it being included on the DVD of another film that did not interest me (How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World?). Frequently they don't stream the odds and ends contained on the DVD when the feature is streamed so I would have to purchase the DVD. I don't want to see it that bad. Well, maybe I do.

[D.T. Nethery]

Interesting. Regarding the AWN article, it is not clear where that TVPaint reference came from.

In the AWN article (https://www.awn.com/animationworld/new- ... marsupials) the producer of the film, Jeff Hermann, talks about their work pipeline on the short:

"The studio had to create a pipeline for the short because it no longer had one for 2D animation", says Hermann. "Despite the handmade look, the film is produced digitally, with the backgrounds painted on paper and then scanned into Adobe Photoshop. TVPaint was used for the animation, and Adobe After Effects for the rest. "

I knew they used TVPaint because I was in touch with a former colleague at Dreamworks who told me it was animated in TVPaint, because he knew of my interest in TVPaint.

I also saw that the producer , Jeff Hermann, mentioned the animators working in TVPaint in this article:

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/07/dream ... 201981594/

----

Interesting trivia: before they started animation on "Me and My Shadow" (never completed) I had a meeting with a producer at Dreamworks to discuss the viability of using TVPaint for the hand drawn portions of "Me and My Shadow". (hybrid CG/hand drawn film) I highly recommended they use TVPaint , but someone I know who worked on the film before it was shelved told me they decided to animate "Me and My Shadow" mostly with a traditional approach using pencil on paper. Then , if I recall correctly, they were going to scan the drawings and color them in Toonboom Harmony. It's been several years ago and my connection to that production was mostly by second-hand information through the traditional animation diaspora's "twilight bark" , so I don't know for sure. I've also been told that Dreamworks developed their own in-house software program specifically for doing hand drawn animation, but strangely enough, they did not use their proprietary 2D animation program for the animation on "Bird Karma" , instead choosing to use a Photoshop/TVPaint/After Effects pipeline.

Supervising Animator Rune Bennicke also used TVPaint for animating test scenes (to establish the characters) for the Dreamworks movie "Capt. Underpants" , although the final animation was CG. See: viewtopic.php?t=4956&start=480#p107649

[Xavier]

Wow, this is super duper !! Thanks David.

[o0Ampy0o]

In the AWN article (https://www.awn.com/animationworld/new- ... marsupials) the producer of the film, Jeff Hermann, talks about their work pipeline on the short:

"The studio had to create a pipeline for the short because it no longer had one for 2D animation", says Hermann. "Despite the handmade look, the film is produced digitally, with the backgrounds painted on paper and then scanned into Adobe Photoshop. TVPaint was used for the animation, and Adobe After Effects for the rest. "

Yes I read that and I do accept and thank you for your personal knowledge you added however the text you pasted here is the author's summary of gathered information. I know the article mentions TVPaint. I would like to see who in the production said TVPaint was used. The paragraph from which these words are taken contains words within quotes attributed to Salazar. Yet these words you quoted here are not part of that quoted portion of text attributed to Salazar.

The paragraph as it appears in the article:

The studio had to create a pipeline for the short because it no longer had one for 2D animation, says Hermann. Despite the handmade look, the film is produced digitally, with the backgrounds painted on paper and then scanned into Adobe Photoshop. TVPaint was used for the animation, and Adobe After Effects for the rest. “Every time there was something that looked CG, we tried to a make it look more handmade,” Salazar says.

This is the only portion of the paragraph attributed to Salazar:

“Every time there was something that looked CG, we tried to a make it look more handmade,” Salazar says.

At least this is how it appears to me. I guess I just crave seeing someone on the team saying TVPaint. Thank you again for the inside information.

[D.T. Nethery]

To me it seemed like the article on AWN was quoting the producer Jeff Hermann, but you're correct , when I pasted in the quote it seems that I interpolated the quotation marks , which are not there in the original AWN article. I still think the implication of the way that paragraph is written is that Jeff Hermann is being quoted , or it could have been Salazar , as he is quoted in the last sentence of that paragraph.

The other reference I posted , https://www.indiewire.com/2018/07/dream ... 201981594/ , does have the quotation marks attributing this to Jeff Hermann, which is very similar to what was stated in the AWN article:

“We were fortunate enough to have on staff here at DreamWorks, a number of people who are skilled in 2D pipeline,” said producer Jeffrey Hermann, who also produces the shorts program. “That allowed for us to reconstruct a 2D team to help complete the short from production design to the animators [using TVPaint] to After Effects artists. That being said, about 75 percent of the animation is all William’s."

[D.T. Nethery]

Here is the entire film , 'Bird Karma' , directed by William Salazar. TVPaint was used for the animation. (After Effects was also utilized for the lighting and compositing)

https://vimeo.com/340593835

[Xavier]

Nice !!! I'm always amazed to see what you guys can do with TVPaint ^_^