46 THE LIVE LIFE AvatarLabs
CLEAR WINNER The final broadcast was seen by 70,000 live viewers and was so poular the
team struggled to keep up with the comments coming in
the sync between performance dialogue and the live animation output. THE MANE EVENT Broadcast on Facebook Live in September 2017, there was every indication the event would be a one-of-a-kind opportunity for fans to interact with their favourite My Little Pony characters, in anticipation of the upcoming movie release. “We were finally creating this moment where the fans could comment and have a back and forth live with these animated characters,” says senior digital producer Fondren. “We created a script based on the story of the film, where Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie are getting ready for the Friendship Festival, and they ask the fans for suggestions about how they should do it.” The event wouldn’t be complete without the characters’ long-time voice actors, Tara Strong (Twilight Sparkle) and Andrea Libman (Pinkie Pie). In the studio, a computer was assigned to each, with Safechuck’s team using cameras feeding into Adobe Character
character really seems like it’s alive,” says Safechuck.
FANS APPRECIATE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO DIRECTLY CONNECT WITH THESE CHARACTERS THAT THEY KNOW AND LOVE Animator to capture their performance data and facial movements as they did both scripted and ad-libbed lines. Each of the animated performances was then output to a third machine running Unity, which integrated the animation with the 3D set. The footage was mixed in another computer which sent the final version out to Facebook Live. Character Animator also allowed for animation presets or cycles to be triggered with simple key commands, independent of the motion tracking. The team also employed kinematics to give the motion and bounce to details like the ponies’ manes. “You can combine all those features together and they work seamlessly, and the
THE FANS My Little Pony has a huge fan base not only among children, but also adults who grew up with the franchise, but the response to the Facebook Live event was still beyond what AvatarLabs and Lionsgate had anticipated. “People were commenting ‘How are you doing that?’ and wondering if it actually was the real actors voicing the characters,” says Fondren. “It was overwhelming – but in a good way.” The final broadcast was only 15 minutes long, but live viewers tallied 70,000 people, with an official reach of 120,000 individuals. This resulted in a flood of comments which the team struggled to keep up with. “Fans appreciate any opportunity to directly connect with these characters that they know and love. The outpouring and the attendance was something we were not expecting, even with an established brand like My Little Pony. It’s very apparent that fans are interested in this type of material. They want this and they will show up if you offer it. That’s something we’re taking note on for future executions…It’s about letting the fans have that moment of exposure to the characters.” “As an agency this was a very strong proof of concept for us,” says AvatarLabs senior digital producer Jason Steinberg. “It’s a very viable product to offer our clients. It’s such a great way of getting an animated product to market so much faster than the traditional way – and because it’s faster, it’s cheaper.”
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