AI-driving production studio Asteria is releasing “The Odd Birds Show,” an online adult animated shorts series created by director-producer-animator Arvid Tappert. The series, which follows a dysfunctional family of birds with their own talk show, will be available across social platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. 

“The Odd Birds Show” involved a production workflow that combined traditional animation with AI tools. The process began with hand-drawn character designs which Tappert rendered as 3D assets followed by a “fine-tuning AI process.” Tappert employed VR puppeteering, motion tracking, and a combination of AI and traditional 3D animation to create characters, while still allowing for manual refinement of facial expressions and movements.

“This technology doesn’t replace animators — it’s a tool like any other for us to use,” Tappert said in a statement. “A tiny team with just a few artists can now accomplish what previously required entire departments, all while maintaining creative control and artistic quality.”

Generative AI film and animation studio Asteria was founded last fall by filmmaker and entrepreneur Bryn Mooser. Alongside research company Moonvalley, Asteria recently launched a foundational AI video model called Marey that the company says was trained on “ethically-sourced data” owned and licensed by the company. “We see the promise of AI not as efficiency for its own sake, but as the key to a new business model where creators and crew have more ownership in their projects,” said Asteria’s Nick Confalone. “The hope is that this way of working launches a ‘race-to-the-top’ across the industry as filmmakers and artists harness new technology.”