Tiny animation team makes entire movie without generative AI
A tiny team has completed animated feature Trash Alley Heroes without generative AI, arguing game-engine technology can also slash production costs.
As filmmakers race to use generative AI to shrink production teams and budgets, one animator is making the opposite argument after completing an entire feature with a core team of just three artists.
Trash Alley Heroes was directed, produced and largely animated by Emmy-winning filmmaker Kelly Schwarze, who says the project deliberately avoided generative AI video while still attempting to challenge the enormous cost of conventional feature animation.
Watch the trailer:
Unreal Engine replaces lengthy rendering
The comedy follows a group of talking rubbish bins attempting to save an innocent human who has been framed for a crime by a corrupt police officer.
Rather than relying on generative video, Schwarze built the film using tools including Blender and Epic Games' Unreal Engine. Real-time rendering allowed the small team to create and view finished-looking scenes much faster than a traditional animation pipeline that can require lengthy offline rendering.
Schwarze argues that independent filmmakers do not necessarily have to choose between huge studio budgets and generative AI. He believes real-time game technology can allow much smaller teams of human artists to create feature-length animation while retaining direct control over performances and imagery.
That makes Trash Alley Heroes particularly interesting as Hollywood debates whether AI is essential to dramatically reducing production costs. The film is attempting to reach a similar destination through a very different route.
The project is also being used as proof of concept for a proposed technology-focused animation studio in Las Vegas, built around smaller teams and lower overheads.
Audiences will soon be able to judge the results themselves. Trash Alley Heroes premieres at Brenden Theatres inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on 10 November, before being released worldwide on YouTube on 20 November.
