FOX

In a 1997 episode of The Simpsons, The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show, Homer gets a crash course in animation production when he's told that "very few cartoons are broadcast live. It's a terrible strain on the animators' wrists."

Add that to the list of times the long-running animated comedy appears to have predicted the future, because a live-animated episode of The Simpsons aired on American television last night.


The episode, first announced in February, was for the most part a standard one. Named Simprovised, it saw Homer try his hand at improv comedy – one of innumerable careers the family patriarch has dabbled in over 27 seasons and almost 600 episodes – while Marge helped Bart rebuild his treehouse. Homer's voice actor, Dan Castellaneta, got to test his improv skills for real though, in a three-minute segment broadcast live after the scripted and conventionally animated main part.

Castellaneta improvised the sequence, offering Homer's views on current events. American broadcaster Fox even opened up phone lines, allowing viewers to call in and speak to 'Homer' directly. What's more, Castellaneta did it twice – once for the East Coast airing, and again for the later West Coast broadcast given America's differing time zones.

The feat was accomplished with Adobe's new Character Animator software, an addition to After Effects Creative Cloud. The suite imports animators' 2D creations from Photoshop CC or Illustrator CC, and then maps, in real time, an actor's movements from a webcam. The package can pick up subtle facial movements, allowing expressions to be accurately mapped, and more exagerrated actions can be "triggered by a few simple keystrokes."


has always pushed the boundaries of what's next and what's possible in entertainment," said Van Bedient, senior strategic development manager at Adobe. "They're not afraid to take risks. When it came to putting a live segment into their wildly popular program, we couldn't imagine a better opportunity to show what's next in technology."

The idea behind Character Animator is a 21st century evolution of rotoscoping, a technique used by animators such as Walt Disney and Ralph Bakshi to capture actors' performances from film. However, that practice required tracing over individual frames, a laborious process that Character Animator does instantly. "People don't usually associate animation with speed and simplicity," added Bill Roberts, senior director of product management for Adobe. "Traditional animation takes a huge amount of time to do well. It's not easy to convey emotion and action, and if you design too fast, you risk losing all those great 'in-between' moments. Character Animator is a game changer."

Although the creators behind The Simpsons had early access to Adobe's new software, the toolset will shipping soon to consumers.