Since the summer of 2024, a universe of surreal animated characters have been surfacing on social media channels<\/a> under the title of KrumbleTV. The manic, satirical, and often absurd clips feature men, women, children and talking animals in coffee-break-sized comedy sketches with biting humor and often unnerving computer animation, each averaging two minutes.<\/p>\n The currently 100-plus KrumbleTV sketches feature audio based on online comedy lodestones from Instagram sketch comedy groups to South Park<\/em>, and star an eerie ensemble of characters animated in Unreal Engine 5 with Metahuman Animator<\/a>. With the exception of a few oddball celebrity cameos, including a manic Matthew McConnaughey and a pallid Millennium-era Michael Jackson, ninety percent of the KrumbleTV cast are based on the likeness of their creator, Russian-born video artist \u2018Dmitrii B\u2019 (Dimitrii requested anonymity for participation in the Cartoon Brew<\/em> article). <\/p>\n In person, the former drama student, currently resident in Texas, is hyper-focused, thoughtful, and articulate, and at 29-years-old much less haggard and chaotic than his KrumbleTV personae. Dmitrii gained his taste for performance studying and performing theater in Russia, and then emigrated to the States to pursue a degree in video game design. \u201cThat was my passion,\u201d he recently told Cartoon Brew.<\/em> \u201cHowever, I was never able to finish that degree. I was led more by my passion for art and I realized I cannot work on something which doesn\u2019t bring me joy. I tried visual effects. I then applied that knowledge to music videos. That was when I started trying to do something myself. And I switched to 3d just six months ago.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Dmitrii\u2019s experiments in 3d animation began in Blender, which he incorporated into Adobe Premiere and After Effects, all self-taught. \u201cI believe everyone can open Youtube and find information they need,\u201d he observed. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be passionate about it.\u201d <\/p>\n After his interests gravitated from video games to music video production, Dmitrii broadened his pallet with visual effects, which led him to 3d. \u201cIt was a new planet with a new oxygen that I didn\u2019t know how to breathe,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was scary. I opened the program to see so many buttons. I cried. I came back later, because what else I should do in my life? And so, I learned Blender to create some simple additions to my visual effects.\u201d <\/p>\n Unreal\u2019s rollout of its Metahuman digital human animation package further kindled Dmitrii\u2019s artistic instincts. \u201cIt was like a breath of wind. When Metahuman arrived it was an opportunity for me to make more advanced characters without modeling in ZBrush or Blender.\u201d<\/p>\n The modularity of the Metahuman system, tied with motion capture capabilities, enabled him to apply his experience to animation using his own likeness, adapted to a menagerie of digital 3d puppets. \u201cThe question was \u2018Who are my characters?’\u201d he said. \u201cIf I\u2019m doing episodes every two days, I need to create a character for different episodes. Or, maybe create a universal character. Then, an idea clicked in my head. I realized that people were making selfie-style comedy on their phones, doing a classic maneuver when they dress in different characters. That is what I did. I made a scan of myself, and I copied my face and projected it on different characters, with slight changes.\u201d <\/p>\n Spicing the mix, Dmitrii added a few custom celebrity characters, including a simulacrum of Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar<\/em> mode, and a character from FX Network tv show, Atlanta<\/em>, based on Donald Glover in prosthetic makeup: \u201cThere was an episode when they made a parody on Michael Jackson, Teddy Perkins, who was like a white version of Michael Jackson. A very funny, charismatic character. I also made him in 3d and people recognized him.\u201d <\/p>\n Dmitrii\u2019s taste for off-beat, satirical humor stems from his theatrical training, and his appreciation for his peers in modern media. \u201cI believe that comedy is the most complicated genre,\u201d he said, \u201cand maybe the feeling of drama and the feeling of theater helped me to understand the idea of putting emotions into plot and visuals. However, I\u2019m more about visuals than the plot. I plot with visuals, and make narrative through the environment.\u201d <\/p>\n He explained his process: \u201cMy main inspiration comes from classic tv shows I grew up on, like South Park<\/em>, and Family Guy<\/em>. When I jumped into this industry of comedy on Instagram, I realized that there are many brand new creators. Some of them are well established. But my major success I believe, has been to take those humor references, typical American edgy sense of humor, with a salty, toxic sense of humor. I grew up on that. For me, it\u2019s like listening to a song. I listen to the audio, in the same way I used to listen to music and come up with script treatments for music videos. Now, when I rewatch a South Park<\/em> or Family Guy<\/em>, I don\u2019t watch the visuals; I imagine, and the storyboard ideas come into my head. When I have the direction, and know what kind of visual jokes I will put into the video, I open my After Effects program or Premiere Pro, I make a timeline, I create the digital screen board, and make time stamps to plan how long each shot will be. At the end of that, I know how many shots I\u2019ll need. I open Unreal Engine, and I prepare the environments, either already made, or I create new ones by adjusting models or adding props. For instance, I might add T-shirt or a picture on a wall with my \u2018special thanks\u2019 to my [Patreon] supporters, adding that to the visual design.\u201d<\/p>\n Dmitrii self-captures his face and body performances simultaneously, using Sony Mocopi<\/a>, a Rokoko Smartsuit II<\/a>, and a helmet-mounted iPhone. \u201cIt\u2019s like singing in the shower,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m feeling very playful. I find it interesting to play different roles, to put myself in different situations, and experience different emotions. It\u2019s funny, and it\u2019s super exciting. I don\u2019t read through the role. It\u2019s more about the comedy and exaggerated facial emotions.\u201d <\/p>\n His camera work in Unreal is similarly uninhibited, with wild push-ins and dramatic wide-angle closeups, which Dmitrii attributes to cinematic influences: \u201cMy favorite filmmakers are Denis Villeneuve who made Dune<\/em>, or [cinematographer] Roger Deakins who shot 1917<\/em>. Villeneuve has epic scale and symmetry, which reminds me of a very modern [Stanley] Kubrick.\u201d Dmitrii then renders shots in After Effects, assembles shots to his timeline, and adds to the sound design as needed. His average turnaround, from concept to upload, takes eight hours. <\/p>\n One notable piece on Youtube, Brother May I Have Some Oats?<\/em>, is a nightmarish Animal-Farm<\/em>-like dialog between two pigs, which puts a gothic horror spin on a 2017 spoken-comedy sketch delivered by anonymous deep-voiced voiceover artist Burialgoods. Dmitrii plays the face of each argumentative hog, one with a mustache that unintentionally resembles Franklin D. Roosevelt. \u201cThe pigs are both based on me,\u201d he asserted. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean one to look like a political figure. In fact, I made a video of an election style video with a president giving a speech that felt like a more Skibidi<\/a> sense of humor. I\u2019ve distanced myself from that currently. My algorithm doesn\u2019t like it when I play with politics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n
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