An animated show in Dreams is the first project on the platform to be backed by a Kickstarter campaign. “Noguchi’s Bell” is an animated series made completely in Media Molecule’s Dreams by the animation studio known as Cyber Sheep Film.
Cyber Sheep Film is a collection of people worldwide that met through Dreams. 2019 marked the group’s debut with its animated short story called “Rabbit and Boy.” The short currently sits as one of the most viewed creations in Dreams. Nearly 40,000 plays make up about seven months of playtime by the collective community. This success prompted the studio to work on its next project, a full-length animated show. Its first episode can be found on Dreams right now while the rest of the season is in production.
Media Molecule collaborates a lot with its community, highlighting the best creations and creators on the Dreams platform. The developer is doing the same with Cyber Sheep Film by allowing the creators to fund “Noguchi’s Bell” on Kickstarter. At the time of writing, the campaign has not started on the crowdfunding site. The first trailer for the series is out on the studio’s YouTube channel.
“Noguchi’s Bell” is set in a dystopian future that follows a lone samurai and his strange bell. All modeling and animation are done using standard PlayStation controllers. Even more impressive are the animation rigs that the studio has created for its characters. Animating a face requires a series of interlocking parts (65 in the old man’s face in “Noguchi’s Bell”) and smearing techniques unique to Dreams to achieve the level of smoothness Cyber Sheep Film has accomplished.
Animations on Dreams will only get better as new techniques are learned and shared throughout the community. Rigs similar to “Noguchi’s Bell” are beginning to populate the platform more as creators share their “remixable” creations. Rigs like these will only help the community create bigger and more impressive creations, not limited to animated shows. Furthermore, Media Molecule permitting Cyber Sheep to commercialize its creation is a huge step toward creators finding new ways to monetize their content through Dreams.
Source: Cyber Sheep Film