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OK cut! Here you go. Is this good? We wanted to tell a story about our TPU's at the heart of all the work that's happening with Google AI. One of the biggest differences that stood out to me was the idea of combining puppeteering with generative AI as a way to instruct the model. This was very much so a project that leaned into that. I think it's a really good example of the technology amplifying the craft.
Our director gave us really quick initial vector sketches of the character, but we were able to use AI to render it and test out materials and lighting and put it on a 3D body really quickly. AI allows for quicker iteration, and you're able to see a final frame much faster. We're able to see what it looks like, what would have been three weeks in just a couple of hours. I've always been interested in things that mix high-fi and low-fi sensibilities. This duality is really at the heart of our production method.
First, we create an input video that captures the details of the character's performance. This could be from simple 3D animation or puppetry. Then, using Nano Banana, we apply our concept art and craft a first frame to bring that simple input video into the visual language of our film. We then bring those two things together with Gemini Omni and other experimental video models from DeepMind, allowing us to control exactly how we want that scene to work while also significantly elevating its visual style. I think my north star through this project is how you can insert something that feels very human and fallible. We leave the imperfection of shaky hands on rods.
You could really tell the way that puppet was rigged. We want to leave the evidence of those things in there. The model was able to really capture the subtleties of Laurie's movement. These kind of charming irregularities would still show up that would occur on the puppet in the kind of more refined version of the footage. It's not a proven pipeline. We were trying to create something that hasn't been done before. Which is why it's even more important to have a very strong director and creative team that we know how to funnel and channel all of that randomness into something
that's very specific. As a studio, we've always worked with amazing talent. This is an example of us using new technology, but retaining that skill and retaining those crafts. One side of the room you had fabricators and model makers. On the other side, you've got someone working on the latest technology. At its heart, it's basically a bunch of people having fun in a room, playing with puppets and moving stuff around the table. There's just something so magic about that.
