I created a PRO Animation with Cartoon Animator 5 & Midjourney v6

2D Animation 101
16 Jan 202417:01

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I'm going to create a professional animation without drawing.

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I don't know if this is possible because the animation can look bad.

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If that happens, I will lose $300.

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I will use MidJourney to work super fast.

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And this might not work because A.I.

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is known to make a lot of ugly mistakes.

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So if I cannot draw or paint anything and the A.I.

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screws up, I will lose money.

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I have a story in mind, and I know how I want my animation to look like.

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So let's get it started.

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I want the type of animation to be like Dungeons and Kittens.

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It has different backgrounds, characters on a journey.

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It's really cool.

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I think I can do it without drawing because with cartoon animator

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you can take characters and animate them as if they were puppets.

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The story will be “A Knight’s

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Journey”, an adventure of a night traveling through a magical world.

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The problem is that if I can't make the animation look professional,

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I will lose $300. Why?

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Because of my tendency to challenge myself.

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It all started with a call I had with someone on my team.

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Now I have an idea, why it won’t work.

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I can tell you why it won't work.

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Noooo! Because...

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Because they have this effects when there's, like, a blob is going.

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The flames.

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Like when the cat has those flames, you have to draw that.

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That's the part where I was like, “Hey, you cannot draw”.

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I think I can get something done

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without without drawing. A.I.

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is really advanced now.

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My confidence to animate without drawing comes from using the power of A.I.

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AI can help beginners who can draw or paint well.

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Before we continue, I had an interview with my mentor, Howard Wimhurst,

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a professional animator who creates amazing work, and he is strongly

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against A.I..

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The people who are behind this wave of A.I.

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apps, they seem to have no moral qualms with just trampling

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over an entire industry and an entire art form.

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They will use and abuse artists,

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and they seem to be sleeping peacefully at night with the knowledge of doing that.

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The problem is that engineers took copyrighted

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work from artists and used it to train to air.

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My friend Yulia was affected by this.

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They took all her work without her permission.

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Now anyone could create art in the same style as her.

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This enabled anyone to potentially steal customers from her.

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Luckily for her, there was some updates in engines

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like Dall-E 3 that allowed her to opt out her art.

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Also, this update doesn't allow you to create art in any copyrighted style.

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Nice.

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With her permission, I tried to create a dragon

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in her style and Dall-E didn't let me.

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And when I tried the same me me journey, their creations didn't

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look as if it was made by her.

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So I call that progress.

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I believe A.I.

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is not perfect, but it's heading in the right direction, so I'm willing to use it.

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But there's a challenge when it comes to telling a story.

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Like, when you do a close up and you show like, emotion and stuff.

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You have to have those

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eyes or the mouth like or like something like that.

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I don't think it's possible without drawing.

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I'm 100% sure that it's...

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even like the emotional expressions; that’s

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exactly something that is a challenge.

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But I think I can achieve it.

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Let's see. Let's see.

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But even though I might lose, I still want to give it my best.

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Because if I can animate without drawing, then you can do too.

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It won't matter if you can draw or not.

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Just like the evolution of people working with numbers in the past,

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mathematicians had to do everything in their head and on a piece of paper.

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Then came the calculator that helped.

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And then now computers are using spreadsheets.

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And because of this, now anyone with a computer can do

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very complicated calculations using a spreadsheet with A.I.

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Creative people who can’t draw.

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We'll be able to create cool animations.

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I have students who are book authors who want to animate their stories.

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Teachers who want to make their classes more entertaining for their students.

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So this could change the world.

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Places like Building Dreams Foundation could use this to create amazing stories.

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BDF is a foundation I joined a couple of weeks ago,

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and what they do is that they rescue kids from the streets in India,

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give them food, shoes, clothes and proper education

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so they can later make their dreams come true.

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Imagine those kids with their awesome imaginations

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creating professionally animated stories.

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It would be so awesome.

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So to really push myself, I proposed this.

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How about a challenge?

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Because I really want to go all in in this.

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I made a deal with him, and if I can animate professionally

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without drawing, I win and he will pay me $300.

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And if I lose, I will pay him $300.

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And he agreed.

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Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

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But there’s just one thing.

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Who would decide like, you win or you lose.

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Who would decide that? Me.

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That’s chating! Okay, to...

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To make it fair, let's bring judges from outside.

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I'm thinking my friends, Julio and Mundo from Alchemy.

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Your friends.

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They are brutal and honest with their feedback.

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Okay, yeah. It works.

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I need to set a standard.

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They are professional storytellers and filmmakers.

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They work with big clients like Amazon, Universal, Warner Music and IKEA.

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I'm probably digging my own grave on this one

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because they are incredibly brutal with their feedback.

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I also reached out to Howard and he agreed to see the finished result.

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In any case, Aditya and I agree.

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If I win, I get $300.

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If I lose, he gets $300.

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And my friends from Alchemy and Howard Wimshurst, we'll be the judges.

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But wait, before I start.

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Here are the parameters we set.

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I am not able to draw or paint anything.

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And if I do, I will lose $300.

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But I can use tools that don't require me to draw anything.

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This means that I can use After Effects with some elements from Mr.

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Horse Motion Array for cool animated elements like dust

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or fire or energy balls.

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And also I can get music for this story.

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I can use MidJourney,

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which will be the place where I will create most of the artwork.

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And finally I can use Freepik for extra elements I might need.

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And now time to work!

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The first step I take in producing

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an animation is having a clear idea of what I want to animate.

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In this case, my standard is set pretty damn high

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when I picked Dungeons and Kittens.

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I spent hours on YouTube exploring for different animations

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and this one is pretty cool.

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It was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki.

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I found it fascinating and I plan to use elements from these two.

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Like those flying creatures you see?

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So I have the idea.

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Now the next step is the music.

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I went to motion to write and looked for music

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that would have a clear feeling of adventure and traveling.

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After listening to several, this was the one that I picked.

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Then I worked on creating the backgrounds using MidJourney,

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just like in the animations I picked as references.

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I wanted the knight to travel through different places.

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This allowed me to visualize this story using an animatic.

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All I did was take the music and the backgrounds together and boom,

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I had a slideshow.

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Now I had to jump in and create the characters.

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With the new update in MidJourney, I was able to create really cool

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characters.

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For a character design, you can describe your character

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and that these keywords detail, character sheet, multiple poses and expressions.

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White background, character design, reference sheet.

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But still, even though I was able to keep some consistency,

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I needed to do some adjustments.

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The problem is if I have just anything I will get disqualified and lose money.

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So I had to renegotiate. Aditya.

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Yes. I do need to do some retouching.

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You were right. No.

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But you said like no drawing, right?

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So it's on you. Wait, wait, wait.

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But how about this?

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If they have no drawing skills and no painting skills, hear me out.

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If they have none of that, they should be able to do what I'm going to do.

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Because it's so easy.

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In theory, it's so easy.

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Okay, so how about this?

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Let's test it and see if like a beginner can do it.

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So now it's harder because for me to win,

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I have to pass two tests.

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One, I need a beginner to be able to do what I did.

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And if you can't, then I lose.

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If he can do it, then I win and I go to the next test.

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Test number two It has to look professional like Dungeons and Kittens.

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If the judges give me a thumbs down, I lose.

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But if I get thumbs up, I win.

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I accept and continue doing adjustments.

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I make sure that anything I do can be done by any beginner who follows my steps.

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I put the knight in a flying creature and then I change colors of the cape

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to white. All easy to do.

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So far I'm feeling confident I might be able to pull this off.

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I finished the animation and now it was time to see if I passed the two tests.

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If you want to see how this animation turned out,

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wait until the end of this video.

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Aditya, I finished the animation.

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It's done.

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And I want to show you some of the things that I did.

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And you're going to pick the one that you believe

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is the hardest to do that a beginner could not do.

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Okay, let me show you.

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Then.

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I shared the scenes I spent the most time in and he had to choose one.

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So which one do you think is the hardest?

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This one. This one. This one. Okay.

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All right.

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Now, with the challenge selected now, we had to choose a student

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who would try to do what I did.

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Let's go with Selva then. Selva. Okay.

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And so I had a call with Selva for the test.

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If he was able to do what I did, then any person

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with no drawings skills would be able to do it too.

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Question Do you have experience in digital painting before any of this?

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Ah No.

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This first time I'm doing this, yeah.

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In order for him to take this test first, he needed to spend one single day

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developing basic drawing and digital painting skills.

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You need the ability to paint a gradient from black to white,

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then a gradient from one color to another one;

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then painting a sphere with light and shadow, all very basic.

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Once he passed that he was fully qualified to do the techniques I use

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in this animation.

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This particular scene is complicated because we have a background

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and a character that doesn't belong there.

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We need to do some color correction and now he will look like he's

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part of the scene.

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We achieve that in three steps.

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Step one we add the color of the scene into the character.

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Step two, we add the shadow. Why?

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Because if you notice, he's walking on this kind of bridge

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and that is his shadow.

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So it doesn't make sense to have the legs like that.

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So we need to add shadow on him.

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So he looks like there's some kind of shadow

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projected from some building that we don't see in the scene.

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And that will be these look and these way he looks more

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part of the scene and finally, step three, we add fog. Why?

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Because if you notice, the background has a little bit of fog

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and also there's a little bit of fog in here.

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And that's why if we add a tiny bit of fog on his feet,

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now he's going to be completely part of the scene like this.

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Do you notice?

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So he tried step one and was able to do it easily.

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Perfect. You have step one?

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Yes, knew you could do it.

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I love it.

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Then I explained the next step to add a little bit of shadow.

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That one was a little bit more complicated.

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That's step two. Do you think you can do that?

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Yes, I can do it. All right, let's do it. Okay.

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So even though he would

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was a little bit hard, he was able to do it without any problems.

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That's it. That's it. Really soft.

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We're done.

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Yeah. Okay.

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Now we need a last step.

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I explained step three to add the fog.

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And then I asked, Do you think you can do that?

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Yes. Okay.

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All right. All right, let's do it.

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Then he was able to do it perfectly.

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We've got it.

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Yeah, that's good.

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Can you tell me which one was harder?

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Like painting the sphere or doing these steps?

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The sphere was a little bit harder. Right?

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Once you understand the sphere This is an easier.

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Right?

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That's exactly.

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That's exactly why I am so excited about this.

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So these was clear proof that anyone can do this.

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You might need to sit down for one day to do the gradients and the sphere,

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but really it is useful digital painting skills to have

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if you want to do animation.

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This allows you to adjust any character you get from the Internet or from A.I..

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Great. So far I have passed one of the tests.

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I managed to create an animation without drawing.

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I mean only doing small adjustments that any beginner can do.

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Now I just have to pass the second test, and that is to show it

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to professionals, my friends, and they will compare my animation

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with Dungeons and Kittens as the standard, and they will give me either

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a thumbs up or thumbs down.

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I'm feeling pretty optimistic and excited because imagine if I get thumbs up.

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That would mean that now,

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thanks to A.I., anyone can create professional animations.

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The kids are Building.

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Dreams Foundation will be able to animate awesome stories and the teachers

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will be able to create education that is super entertaining and engaging.

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These will definitely change their world.

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But if I don't make it, if they give me a thumbs down, then

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I like to think on Nelson Mandela's quote I never lose.

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I either win or I learn.

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Well, I can tell you learning when you lose hurts.

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So I really want to win.

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Thumbs up could change a lot of lives

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and thumbs down would cost me $300.

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So Howard was not willing to comment on my quality.

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He didn't want to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down.

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Instead, he had this to say.

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If I don't critique the visuals of an animation and instead critique

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the unethical practices that are being done against animators,

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if I maintained that that is my issue, that is my agenda here.

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It is not about whether you can or cannot make a static looking imagery with A.I.

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Of course you can.

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The images clearly have an esthetic value.

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Now, the thing is, you don't own those images.

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That's the major thing.

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That's does it.

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Whether it's good or bad, you don't own them.

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I will be posting the interview I had with Howard about the ethics of A.I.

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in a later video.

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So now I'm waiting on my friends from Alchemy.

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Okay.

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Finally, Julio from Alchemy had a chance to check the animation.

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Compared with Dungeons and Kittens.

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And now he's going to give me the verdict.

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I can't stop but think

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what winning would mean to a lot of people around the world.

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Okay, I can tell you

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this was not what I was expecting.

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And I can tell you it doesn't feel good at all.

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So because of that, I have a very important question

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for someone, really important.

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What do you think of the animation?

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yeah.

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This guy brings my mood back,

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so I have one thumbs down.

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Then the next one could be maybe one thumbs up.

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Okay, I'm on my way to show this animation to my cousin Mundo from Alchemy.

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I'm nervous because he's really strict, and I don't know what he's going to say

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about it. So let's see.

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He check the animation

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and then he and his dog will be giving me either a thumbs up or thumbs down.

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If I don't get this one, I will lose and I will have to start all over.

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What?

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Even the dog gave me paws down.

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I just lost $300.

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“I won!” If you're interested, you can check the animation

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in the description below.

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Subscribe if you want to see the next challenge.

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Remember, I never lose either win or I learn.