What is the biggest issue facing the animation industry right now?
The temptation of artificial intelligence [AI] and its ethical use in the medium and long terms. And above all, the risk of laziness: using an AI rather than calling on an artist to develop a set or character design. In the medium term, there will be those who systematically use AI to save money and who will inevitably unbalance the market.
What is your company doing in response to this?
Leave AIs in their place as tools, for translating or preparing an administrative letter, and don’t use them to replace the imagination and experience of designers. Continue to work with artists and teams on a human scale and as locally as possible. This is an ethical choice – not to use them for anything artistic.
How are you using generative AI tools to make animated projects?
We don’t use them, apart from Deepl and ChatGPT on an occasional basis to shorten texts.
What does the popularity of Roblox tell us about young audiences and can online social platforms be effectively used to launch new animated IP?
I don’t frequent Roblox but I firmly believe that social platforms and networks are a formidable vector of innovation. However, I don’t design the content I produce with the mass movement of children towards screens and virtuality in mind. I’m always looking for a good story and themes, something that speaks deeply to children beyond the everyday – powerful stories that carry essential information to enable children to become valid, valiant and aware human beings. So I’m not very aware of how these platforms work.
Tell us about the project you are pitching at Cartoon Forum.
The Sandwolf is a 52×13′ adaptation of a Swedish novel by Åsa Lind featuring the surprising existential dialogues between Zackarina, a seven-year-old girl, and a wolf. We do not yet have a broadcaster or coproduction partner but we are planning to work with Caribara Studios.
