Animation and Video Life

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

H ave you ever wanted to send your friends and family fun, 2D animated, holiday messages, or just create 2D animated characters that you can make move and talk without learning difficult to master animation skills or spending hours drawing frame by frame? Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 is a professional quality, 2D animation studio software that is also very easy to produce impressive results with, even if you've never animated before, or can't draw. Don't Have Cartoon Animator 5 Download a free, 30 day trial . Easy Beginner Course I've created a completely free beginners course that teaches you my fast, easy way to rig and animate your first 2D custom character in Cartoon Animator 5 without complicated templates or any drawing skills at all. My online video course includes everything you need, including eight AI generated character sprite graphics, and four AI generated Human voice samples, so you can start learning right away. Eight AI generated character image...