Nathan Little, a Halifax animator, spent four years hand-crafting the short films and music videos for Sydney the Song Cat using Toon Boom. With training from Sheridan College and credits on series like The Loud House, his work amassed millions of views on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. But on April 12, YouTube decided to demonetize his channel for non-authentic content.
Toon Boom and 4 years of handcrafted work 🎨
Little used Toon Boom Harmony to animate each frame manually, a slow and detailed process that replicated classic 2D animation techniques. His workflow included character design, backgrounds, and lip-syncing without the help of artificial intelligence or automation. Each music video required months of work, with hundreds of individual drawings to achieve smooth movements. Despite this handcrafted production, YouTube's algorithms flagged his content as non-authentic.
The algorithm confuses sweat with artificial intelligence 🤖
Apparently, for YouTube, spending four years drawing by hand is not authentic, but a 10-minute video with recycled clips and a robotic voice deserves monetization. Little now wonders if he should animate with his feet for the algorithm to consider him more human. Meanwhile, his singing cat Sydney is on strike until YouTube learns to distinguish between real art and machine-generated content.