Loy Studio

Flag the frame. Say what you want. Flip through the takes.

Loy Studio is a set of Mac apps for making animation and games with an agent at the desk. You point at what is wrong on a frame and say what you want in plain words. New takes come back in about a minute, and you pick the one you like.

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Long Haul 2, made in Animation Studio. An original rooftop fight at dusk between Juno Rask, whose arms reach across the roof, and Ren Kestrel, who kicks. These are its wide shots, 24 frames a second, with its own score. Drag across the frames to scrub.

One round, the way it happens

This is Motion Lab, with the knight from Hidden Hearths in the middle of an overhead cut. Every round is the same three moves, and all of them are yours.

  1. Motion Lab: the knight at frame 34 of 89 with a red flag ring on his shield, the last take as an orange ghost behind him, and the row of eight takes below
    Frame 34 of 89, the shield flagged. The orange ghost is the last take.

    1Flag the frame

    Scrub to where it goes wrong and click him there. The flag keeps the frame, the bone and the point in space, and takes your note with it.

  2. The message box in Motion Lab: a flag chip for the shield at frame 34 with the note, a typed message asking for the left sole to stay flat, and the choice of eight takes
    The flag as a chip, the note, and eight takes asked for.

    2Say what you want

    Plain words in the box. The directing model turns your note and the flagged picture into a new direction for the motion model, and asks it for eight takes.

  3. Tab through the eight takes, each from its first frame.

    3Flip through the takes

    They arrive as they are made and the first one plays. Tab through them with the last take as a ghost beside the new one, keep the one you like, and export it to the game.

Measured in the app: about 11 seconds from Send to the first new take playing, about 49 seconds for all eight, and under one cent of GPU time for the round.

Four apps, built for each other

Each is a small native Mac app. They share the fighters, the takes and the loop.

Animation Studio

Direct and export a short cartoon with sound. Shots on a timeline, several characters, camera paths, painted sets, cartoon timing and exaggeration, limbs that stretch across a roof, voice and music, and an mp4 at the end. All of it from the side panel, or by asking for it.

Animation Studio: Long Haul 2 on the timeline at shot 3 of 14, Juno's arm stretched across the rooftop, and the Takes panel with the limb drawn out: where it is aimed, when it leaves, how long it stays out
Mind the Apple, the first film made in it: two knights, five shots, painted.

Motion Lab

One character on a floor. Scrub in 3D, click the frame that is wrong, type a note, and new takes arrive within the minute. A solid opponent to test blows against, and a ghost of the last take beside the new one.

Motion Lab after a round: the knight mid cut with the last take as an orange ghost, eight takes in the row with take 4 starred, and the directing model's notes on which take to watch first

loy Studio

Act a move out in front of the Mac's camera and the fighter copies you live. Fix it by dragging a hand or a foot, and the body follows. Check it for foot slide and balance, paint a Deep Canvas scene, and export the clip into the game.

loy Studio: a fighter on a grid with coloured rings on his hands and feet, a note that the left foot was moved 29 cm at frame 40, and the balance checks on the timeline below

Hidden Hearths

The game all of this is for. A valley of villages and duels, where the fighters play the moves made in the other three.

The knight's right cut against the duelist, recorded from the game.

Hear when it opens

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