Using Adobe Character Animator and voice actors recording from home, Nickelodeon creates animated half-hour special hosted by Lincoln and Ronnie Anne; The Loud House SmartyPants Challenge trivia competition follows beginning May 25.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne join the virtual hosting ranks in The Loud House & The Casagrandes Hangin’ At Home virtual animated special, coming to Nickelodeon Saturday, May 23 at 8:00 pm (ET/PT). The show will feature the pair on video chat, reminiscing on classic moments from The Loud House and The Casagrandes; they’ll share helpful tips and funny anecdotes about what their families are all doing while staying home, while flashing back to previous episodes featuring their big and fun-loving families.
Much like these characters and their young fans, the Nickelodeon Animation crew are also “hangin’ at home” due to pandemic precautions. But, the studio continues to create opportunities to explore the intersection between content and technology. This special was created virtually and features original animation of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, created using Adobe Character Animator in nearly a week. Using the software, work-from-home artists were able to listen to voice over and, using keyboard shortcuts, trigger specific animations on the characters. The voice actors behind these characters recorded their lines from home, which were then matched with the animation.
Nick previously employed Character Animator for The Loud House Facebook LIVE event, The Loud House NYE special and the Rise of the TMNT virtual press junket.
The show is part of Nickelodeon’s #KidsTogether, a global, multiplatform prosocial initiative using its most popular characters and talent to engage with kids and families on tips for staying healthy and also ideas for activities to do together while in the home during COVID-19.
Following the special, fans can compete in The Loud House SmartyPants Challenge, featuring trivia questions about the series. Players will test their knowledge with over 100 questions, earn badges and get an automatically generated nickname. The challenge will air over The Loud House episodes starting Mon., May 25, through Fri., May 29, from 4:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. (ET/PT) and syncs with Nickelodeon’s Screens Up! companion app.
The Loud House animated series was recently greenlit for a fifth season and new episodes continue to air on Nickelodeon. The series also won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Animated Series and Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program in 2018.
The series debuted May 2016 on Nickelodeon and centers on 11-year-old Lincoln Loud and his ten sisters as he gives an inside look at what it takes to survive the chaos of a huge family. In addition to the series, the property also has been translated into a comic book series, which continues to roll out new stories and a podcast, Listen Out Loud. Two seasons of Listen Out Loud are currently available with a third coming soon. The series is executive produced by Michael Rubiner. Karen Malach serves as producer and Kyle Marshall is supervising producer.
A spinoff of The Loud House, The Casagrandes tells the story of 11-year-old Ronnie Anne who moves to the city with her mom and older brother to live with their big, loving family, the Casagrandes. The series showcases the culture, humor, and love that’s part of growing up in a multigenerational Mexican-American family.
The series recently received a Season 2 greenlight, which will continue to follow Ronnie Anne and her multigenerational family for more love, laughter and adventures in the big city. Premiering this fall, the Casagrande family members will find themselves in a variety of situations, including becoming a viral sensation, searching for Pancho Villa’s lost gold, celebrating Las Posadas and more.
Below is Nickelodeon's official description for The Loud House & The Casagrandes Hangin’ At Home special and The Loud House SmartyPants Challenge:
While hanging at home, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne host a half-hour special over video chat, where the pair reminisce on classic moments from The Loud House and The Casagrandes. Premiering Sat., May 23, at 8:00 P.M. (ET/PT), Lincoln and Ronnie Anne will share helpful tips and funny anecdotes about what their families are all doing while staying home, while flashing back to previous episodes featuring their big and fun-loving families.
Nickelodeon continues to create opportunities that explores the intersection between content and technology. The Loud House & The Casagrandes Hangin’ At Home special was created virtually and features original animation of Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne having a dialog about what it’s like at home. The original animation was created using Adobe Character Animator in nearly a week, where artists listened to voice over and, using keyboard shortcuts, triggered certain animations on the characters. The voice actors behind these characters recorded their lines from home, which were then matched with the animation.
The Loud House & The Casagrandes Hangin’ At Home special is part of Nickelodeon’s #KidsTogether, a global, multiplatform prosocial initiative using its most popular characters and talent to engage with kids and families on tips for staying healthy and also ideas for activities to do together while in the home during COVID-19.
Following the special, fans can compete in The Loud House SmartyPants Challenge featuring trivia questions about the series. Players will test their knowledge with over 100 questions, earn badges and get an automatically generated nickname. The challenge will air over The Loud House episodes starting Mon., May 25, through Fri., May 29, from 4:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. (ET/PT) and syncs with Nickelodeon’s Screens Up! companion app.
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From Animation World Network:
New Adobe Character Animator Public Beta Released
Latest version, now available, includes new features designed to enable accelerated workflows and real-time performance capture.
Adobe has just released a new Public Beta version of its Emmy Award-winning Adobe Character Animator software program, with a number of new features all designed to enable more accelerated traditional animation workflows, capture performances in real-time, and even livestream animation.
At a time when live-action content is challenging to produce, animation allows creation without restraints and with nothing more than our imagination, no matter what is going on outside.
According to Adobe, their Character Animator team is working hard to support aspiring and experienced animators with new features and workflows to make the animation process even more efficient. As of today, many of the new features coming later this year to Character Animator are now in public Beta. These include:
- Speech-Aware Animation uses the power of Adobe Sensei to automatically generate animation from recorded speech and includes head and eyebrow movements corresponding to a voice recording. Developed by Adobe Research and previewed at Adobe MAX in 2019 as Project SweetTalk, on mac OS this feature currently requires 10.15 or later.
- Limb IK (Inverse Kinematics) gives puppets responsive, natural leg motion for activities like running, jumping, tug-of-war, and dancing across a scene. Limb IK controls the bend directions and stretching of legs, as well as arms. For example, pin a hand in place while moving the rest of the body or make a character’s feet stick to the ground as it squats in a more realistic way.
- Timeline organization tools include the ability to filter the Timeline to focus on individual puppets, scenes, audio, or keyframes. Takes can be color-coded, hidden, or isolated, making it faster and easier to work with any part of your scene. Toggle the “Shy button” to hide or show individual rows in the Timeline.
- Lip Sync, powered by Adobe Sensei, has an improved algorithm and machine learning to deliver more accurate mouth movement for speaking parts.
- Merge Takes allows users to combine multiple Lip Sync or Trigger takes into a single row, which helps to consolidate takes and save vertical space on the Timeline.
- Pin Feet has a new Pin Feet When Standing option. This allows the user to keep their character’s feet grounded when not walking.
- Set Rest Pose now animates smoothly back to the default position when you click to recalibrate, so you can use it during a live performance without causing your character to jump abruptly.
Examples of how the new public Beta features in Character Animator are being used in prominent animated series productions
ATTN:’s Your Daily Horoscope has been a hit on Quibi. With 12 new segments each weekday, the use of the new public beta features is already making an impact. According to the show’s Supervising Director, Tim Herrold, “Our team utilizes a lot of hold takes to replicate a more pose-to-pose style that you’d find in traditional animation. This method can cause our timelines to balloon quickly but the Merge Takes feature helps us simplify them. Also, the new color coding of tracks has allowed us to make sense of complex timelines at a quick glance. The improved Lip Sync feature has saved us a lot of tedious correction work and improved our consistency across our large staff.”
The team at Nickelodeon behind The Loud House & The Casagrandes, Hangin’ At Home half-hour special virtually produced the episode using Character Animator. “In May 2020, while working remotely, the Nickelodeon team virtually created The Loud House & The Casagrandes, Hangin’ At Home special, which featured original animation of characters Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne having a dialog about what it’s like at home,” said Rob Kohr, Director of Animation and VFX, Creative & Design, at Nickelodeon. “To help make this happen remotely, we used the Character Animator beta lip-synch tool which saved our animators a ton of time by providing a much more natural lip-synch and allowing the team to work more collaboratively.”
Tooning Out the News from CBS All Access is also benefiting from the new public beta features and improvements in Character Animator. “The new Lip Sync beta hits better and more often and has made live animation passes better out of the gate,” Stephen Brooks, Director of Animation, noted.
With the use of the Timeline Organization tools, such as Snap to Playhead and Timeline Search they can focus on their workflow to make it easier to adjust tracks after they're done, especially on more complicated shots.
Improved and streamlined Replay functions have helped to build a library of reliable and well-constructed animated segments that can be reused instantly. “This has made scenes where a character turns around or plays guitar much more manageable and at a higher quality than we'd ever been able to achieve in near-live use,” he added.
Try the new public Beta features now; Character Animator is available for download via the Creative Cloud desktop application and includes an in-app library of starter puppets and tutorials. More details about the public Beta program can be found here.
Source: Adobe
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From Animation Magazine:
Adobe Previews New Character Animator Features Coming to Beta in 2020
With COVID-19 concern shuttering live-action movie, TV and commercial production this year, animation has surged to the fore — especially the potential for quick turnaround unlocked by live animation technology. Attuned to the moment, Adobe — which has opened registration for its MAX 2020 virtual (and free to attend) creativity conference — is gearing up to offer exciting new features to Creative Cloud users in a new public Beta for Character Animator.
Notable additions to the Character Animator toolbox include Speech-Aware Animation, powered by Adobe Sensei, which automatically generates animation from recorded speech and now adds intuitive head and eyebrow movements. Other new features include Lip Synch, Limb IK and timeline organization tools, among others.
Animated favorites such as The Loud House (Nickelodeon), Tooning Out the News (CBS All Access), Our Cartoon President (Showtime) and Your Daily Horoscope (Quibi) are already utilizing the Beta version to create quick-turnaround content with finesse and creative freedom.
With 12 new segments each weekday, ATTN:’s Your Daily Horoscope‘s use of the new public beta features is already making an impact.
“Our team utilizes a lot of hold takes to replicate a more pose-to-pose style that you’d find in traditional animation. This method can cause our timelines to balloon quickly but the Merge Takes feature helps us simplify them,” said supervising director Tim Herrold. “Also, the new color coding of tracks has allowed us to make sense of complex timelines at a quick glance. The improved Lip Sync feature has saved us a lot of tedious correction work and improved our consistency across our large staff.”
The team behind Nickelodeon’s The Loud House & The Casagrandes, Hangin’ At Home half-hour special remotely produced the episode using Character Animator.
“In May 2020, while working remotely, the Nickelodeon team virtually created The Loud House & The Casagrandes, Hangin’ At Home special, which featured original animation of characters Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne having a dialog about what it’s like at home. To help make this happen remotely, we used the Character Animator beta lip-synch tool which saved our animators a ton of time by providing a much more natural lip-synch and allowing the team to work more collaboratively,” said Rob Kohr, director of animation and VFX, creative & design at Nickelodeon.
Upcoming Adobe Character Animator Beta features include:
- Speech-Aware Animation uses the power of Adobe Sensei to automatically generate animation from recorded speech and includes head and eyebrow movements corresponding to a voice recording. Developed by Adobe Research and previewed at Adobe MAX in 2019 as Project SweetTalk, on Mac OS this feature currently requires 10.15 or later.
- Limb IK (Inverse Kinematics) gives puppets responsive, natural leg motion for activities like running, jumping, tug-of-war, and dancing across a scene. Limb IK controls the bend directions and stretching of legs, as well as arms (pin a hand in place while moving the rest of the body or make a character’s feet stick to the ground as it squats in a more realistic way).
- Timeline organization tools include the ability to filter the Timeline to focus on individual puppets, scenes, audio or keyframes. Takes can be color-coded, hidden, or isolated, making it faster and easier to work with any part of your scene. Toggle the “Shy button” to hide or show individual rows in the Timeline.
- Lip Sync, powered by Adobe Sensei, has an improved algorithm and machine learning to deliver more accurate mouth movement for speaking parts.
- Merge Takes allows users to combine multiple Lip Sync or Trigger takes into a single row, which helps to consolidate takes and save vertical space on the Timeline.
- Pin Feet has a new Pin Feet When Standing option. This allows the user to keep their character’s feet grounded when not walking.
- Set Rest Pose now animates smoothly back to the default position when you click to recalibrate, so you can use it during a live performance without causing your character to jump abruptly.
Learn more on the Adobe blog.
Adobe MAX 202 will take place virtually October 20-22, and will feature notable creative luminaries and celebrity speakers such as Ava DuVernay, Keanu Reeves, Tyler the Creator and Annie Leibovitz; keynotes, technology sneaks and presentations on the latest innovations across Adobe Creative Cloud; collaborative art projects and challenges; virtual networking opportunities for creatives across the globe; and of course, hundreds of live and on-demand learning sessions for all skill levels.
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Make sure to catch season three of hit The Loud House podcast, Listen Out Loud!: http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2020/05/nickelodeon-expands-podcast-slate-with.html
Subscribe to the official The Loud House & The Casagrandes YouTube channel!: https://at.nick.com/LoudCasaSubscribe
More Nick: Nickelodeon Releases The Loud House “Really Loud Music” Digital Album!
Last updated: Sunday, May 17, 2020.
Additional sources: Animation World Network, Anime Superhero Forum /@SweepShop209, Animation Magazine, Bubbleblabber, The Beat.
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