In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the launch of OpenAI’s DALL-E, writer and director Chad Nelson and Native Foreign’s Nik Kleverov have teamed up with the AI co. to launch a new animated short, Critterz. The piece put DALL-E’s image generation capabilities to work creating a fanciful never-before-seen ecosystem.
“It’s been magical to watch Chad’s creativity flow from his brain, through DALL-E and onto the screen with so much heart,” said Natalie Summers, Communications and Artist Relations at OpenAI. “Critterz is a vibrant example of how artists can use AI tools to unlock ideas that were once out of reach because of budget, time or resources.”
The film is an animated science documentary turned comedy that introduces an unexplored forest inhabited by mysterious little “Critterz” with unforeseen personalities. The narrator takes viewers on an investigative journey into the isolated forest filled with never-before-seen Critterz when all of the sudden, the narrator is surprisingly interrupted by the Critterz themselves. Critterz includes the Blu the Red Spider, the lovable gruff Frank, and others set the record straight.
The novel project is produced using imagery entirely generated with DALL-E shaped by established filmmaking techniques including animation, voice over, facial performance capture, music, sound mixing and more. DALL-E’s capacity to create realistic images and stylized art from natural language description enabled the Critterz creators to producer hundreds of visuals a day for the film’s backgrounds and characters. A team of animators and designers was then brought in to translate the 2D elements into a 3D animated short.
“Filmmaking has been a passion of mine and DALL-E helped realize my creative vision,” said Nelson. “With DALL-E, now anyone can be a creator telling a new or reimagined story. Critterz is just one example of what’s possible and I hope that this inspires others storytellers and creators to do the same.”
Kleverov, who received an Emmy nomination as part of the title design team for Netflix crime drama Narcos, noted, “The production process is always evolving. Critterz is the first film to showcase how Generative AI can enhance Hollywood’s creative process, improve decision-making and ultimately help creators bring their ideas to the big screen.”
More information, behind-the-scenes content and the Critterz film are live at critterz.tv.
