Puppets & AI: The Secret Behind Google's Next-Gen Characters!

>> We wanted to tell a story about our 10 years of 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 [music] much so a project that leaned into that. >> I think it's a really good example of

the technology amplifying the craft. >> 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 like a final frame much faster. We're able to see like what it looks like, what [music] would have been 3 weeks in just like a couple of hours.

>> I've [music] always been interested in things that mix high-fi and low-fi sensibilities. >> [music] >> [music] >> 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. [music] This could be from simple 3D animation or puppetry. Then using Nano Banana, we apply our

concept art and craft a first frame to [music] 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 [music] us to control exactly how we want that scene to work, while also significantly elevating its visual style. [music] >> 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 kind of shaky hands on rods. You could really tell the way that that puppet was rigged. Want to leave the evidence of those things in there. >> The model was able to [music]

really capture the subtleties of Laurie's movement. These [music] 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 [music] that hasn't been done before, which is why it's even more important to have like a very strong director and creative team that know how to funnel and channel all of that randomness into something that's very specific. [music] >> As a studio, we've always worked with

amazing talent. This is an example of us using new technology but retaining that skill [music] and retaining those crafts. One side of the room you had fabricators and model makers, and on the [music] other side you've got someone working on the latest technology. >> At its heart, [music] 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.