A-doh!-be: How Homer chatted live with 'Simpsons' fans thanks to Adobe software - CNET

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As a great man once said, the answer to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle, they're on TV! That man was Homer Simpson, and this weekend he appeared in the first ever live segment on "The Simpsons".

In the episode "Simprovised", broadcast on Sunday 15 May, Homer spent 3 minutes fielding questions from fans, his animated character chatting in real time as voice actor Dan Castellaneta improvised answers. Viewers phoned in to challenge Homer with such hot-button questions as whether he prefers Lenny or Carl, or Chicago or New York pizza.

The live animation was possible thanks to Adobe Character Animator, a feature in Adobe's After Effects CC software. Adobe gave Fox and "The Simpsons" team early access to the upcoming version of Character Animator, which syncs the lip moments of the voice actor and the animated character.

To create the effect, the animator creates a layered character in Photoshop CC or Illustrator CC software and then simply acts out the character's movement in front of a webcam. Their facial expressions are then instantly converted into animated form.

For more "Simpsons" excitement to embiggen your mind, check out Frinkiac, the search engine for Simpsons quotes or the 360-degree video that features 500 episodes of the 27-year-old show at once.

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