Backflip is a docu-style film, made over a period of three years where Nikita Diakur presents his progress using AI to teach a character to backflip.  The character is the 3D scanned artist and the learning process applied is based on a technique he read in an academic paper. To say its chaos is an understatatement, and something anyone in research could probably have told him when attempting to replicate a finding in a publication (which of course is why LLMs using text alone will never be 'intelligent').  It is also everything one would expect from a character rig with the physics of a double-jointed arachnid... but it sure is hugely entertaining to watch, and brilliantly edited together.  Backflip is a must watch for anyone using AIs for animation, not least because it serves as a reminder of just how tough this all was pre-mid 2023!

1:13 News updates: Half Life 2 celebrates 25 years, GTA6 release and Elden Ring DLCs
5:06 John McInnes connecting machinima to virtual production with Baad Viibes
7:43 Backflip review and discussion
16:10 Focussing on the glitch
25:57 How smart is AI really?
34:54 Narrative arc and the use of AI 

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Coast by Anno Domini Beats