Friday, 21 July 2023

How AI tools ROCK YouTube! GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS PODCAST with Neil Mossey & Solomon Jagwe E016



Solomon Jagwe is a phenomenal YouTube creator, writer, animator and filmmaker. His channels explore the tools for animation, AI and filmmaking, which help his audience to create exciting new worlds and characters. In this episode Solomon explains the highs and challenges of making videos for YouTube and running his channels.




GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS PODCAST with Neil Mossey
The place where we share tips, tricks and experiences from YouTube creators around the World. MORE EPISODES HERE!

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
With Nvidia Studio, they updated it where they have artificial intelligence in it that will take your eyeballs, right? They replace your eyeballs using artificial intelligence, and they make them focus on the screen. So, if you could, I could literally be looking over here, but the AI is making it look like I am looking at you. Like, seriously, right now I'm not using it so you're not freaked out.
[Music]
Welcome back to the Great British YouTubers podcast with me, Neil Mossey. Hello! It's the place where we share tips, tricks, and experiences from creators around the world. But very literally today, it's a special edition. We're going Stateside - Great British YouTubers podcast USA Edition. We are meeting writer, filmmaker, animator, YouTuber extraordinaire - Solomon Jagwe.
Hello.
Hello! Thank you so much for joining us on this episode because you have a number of YouTube channels. But your main channel has, I think, 644 videos, 22,000 subscribers, 3.2 million views. It's absolutely incredible. Before we go into the details of your channel, Solomon, what would you say to your 15 subscriber self? What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting out on YouTube? I probably would say, "What are you thinking?" You know, because I had no idea what I was doing. When YouTube first came out, I've been on this platform for a long time, actually. And it wasn't until the pandemic that my wife sat me down and said, "Do you know that you're sitting on a gold mine?" I was like, "What do you mean?" She said, "Come, I have a video to show you," and she showed me a video of another YouTuber who set out the cash - I saw the trend. I'm like, "You mean you can make money on YouTube?" And she's like, "Yes, look at what this guy did," and he said, "You're perfect for it." I'm like, "Oh my gosh!" So when I look at where I am now, I'm like, "Why didn't I start earlier?" You know, like, what was I thinking?
That's what I would say to myself.
Are you able to describe your channel? 
My channel has gone through an evolution. There was a time when it was dormant, me just throwing videos here and there. The early videos that I did were really just tests with me not saying much at all. Like, if I created a cool video in 3D, I'll just throw it up and then go my way. I didn't even care about subscribers at the time. It was nothing, it was just a platform to... almost like an archive, like something I can go back to, like a time capsule of sorts. Currently, the way the channel is set up is seeing how far I've come in this industry and seeing that I am an immigrant from Africa, having been able to make it to the U.S., have been made it through the defense contractor while creating video games, creating cinematics and animation, and creating films, and then creating an animated series as a one-man team. I've wanted to find a way to help other people who are on a similar path. Like, you can actually start somewhere, and I wanna show people, "This is where I was." You know, at one point in my life, I was a young African boy in a village somewhere, walking barefoot, having no idea what a computer is, to where I am now. And I want to encourage anyone who has a dream out there - the day we are living in an amazing time right now, the tools are on our fingertips right now, you can actually bring your dream to life. Yeah, that's so true, it's so true. And at the moment, Solomon, your main channel, it seems to be how-to's and tutorials in animation and animation technology. Would that be a good way of describing it? Yes, yeah, because one thing that I've always been as an artist is that I've always tried to do things a little bit differently. Like, how can I improve myself? I've never been comfortable or happy with how good I was yesterday. I'm always trying to better myself as an artist. And so, when I look around, I'm always looking around for tools that can help me tell my stories better. Like, I do a lot of facial animation and storytelling that is emotive. And so, I've always tried to find technologies out there that could help me. And when I find it and I'm able to do something really good with it, I share the showcase, and then I show the behind-the-scenes of how I brought it to life so others can learn from that as well.

One of your videos was absolutely incredible. I hope I explain it correctly, but it seems to be that you had created a script in AI, and a narrator, a human narrator, envisioned telling the story, and it was illustrated by AI. I mean, it just seemed so far ahead and yet so on the cutting edge of where we're living right now. How was that video to make?

I think, just like any artist out there right now, in the moment that we're living in, it is scary, you know, to see what AI is capable of doing, right? And you are constantly thinking of your job security, you're thinking about your style being taken by somebody else and essentially competing with you because someone can literally go into a pitching session having said, "According to the style of so and so," right? And then they present something similar or even better than yours because they're able to do multiple iterations with no effort.

When I did that video, I was like, can I actually... how far can AI really go in terms of storytelling? Can it do the facial animation? Can it do the script? Can I then take that text and then do an audio narration out of it? And I come from an environment in Africa where we grew up with storytellers around us, you know, with our grandparents who sit us down and they will tell us stories. But now we have this platform that can actually do a lot of that, right? And you can take a voice from somebody else, replace it, and so I was testing it to see how far, you know, in a way it was like, can this take my job? Can this technology take my job? And the more I think about it, I'm like, yes, we're going to be very easy to replace. And the reason I say that is because I was thinking about even, you know, the Tesla company, you know, the factories. I was watching a video, and I saw how these machines are able, they own a factory line, they're assembling the Teslas, and there was no human intervention. The only time that there was a need was when there was something that needed to be articulated and pushed into, like, a connection, like, you know, in the engine parts of it, and that's where the robots didn't have the dexterity. And so, as AI is advancing, I see more and more of that happening. And I mean, you can see the uproar right now online.

You guys are happily creating these things with midjourney, but that's on the back of artists who have come before. AI cannot create something out like in a vacuum. It needs to learn from someone, just like us as artists, we have to learn from somewhere to create. But the problem with AI is it's taking someone's hard-earned... hundreds of hours, years of learning to create that style, and then making it so easy for other people to recreate that with no effort. So someone who is like a writer doesn't really have to hire you if they would... if they want to create, like, a book cover, they can just say, "In the style of this person." The engines are getting better and better and better. In like midjourney 5.2 right now, it's crazy.

It's getting better and better and better, and after a while, I don't know if there will come, like, a time where there's a loop where it is ingesting its own what it has learned, like it has now its own database, now it's learning from that, and then you're starting to see things differently. But the offset was, it started off with a database of images that were scraped over the internet to create that. But when I created that video, it really was a test to see how far I could really go, yeah.

It's a really amazing video. I'll link to it down in the description. What is your favourite video on your channel?

Man, that's a hard one. Yeah, I think the most recent video that I've done, using the metahuman animator, of a meta human singing with me wearing a motion capture suit, I think that, to me, is a combination of all the things that I've been wanting to do over a period of time, to get convincing facial animation and be able to express something that is inside, because I really do lean on my faith a lot, and in all my videos, I always finish it with... I'm praying for you guys, you know, please stay safe and all that, because I truly believe in that, I truly believe in the spirit of love, and so that's the first time that I've really created a video and I'm like, it came out like I really wanted to, you know, so I think it is my favourite, but I also love to sculpt.

My most popular video is probably one of my favourite videos as well, being able to sculpt in real-time on an iPad Pro, that is also one of my top favourite videos, I think.
Can you tell me about your other channels? You have more than one channel, don't you? This is funny because the last time I made a mention of AI on my channel, I lost subscribers. Like, artists are really upset that I even dare to mention AI and...

No!

I was like, "Oh my gosh, yeah."

How many subscribers is it significant?

At the time, I think I lost about 10 subscribers in one of the videos, yeah, and it was jarring. I'm like, guys, I usually do these things, like, I look out there for technologies that are coming up on the market, and I share with you, but there was, like, when I say when I talked about AI, at the time, it was right in the heat of the moment, you know, where there was such an uproar, like anger in the art community. I could feel it, it was almost palpable, and I was like, "I understand, guys." So, I made a promise. I said, "Guys, I hear you. I am not gonna talk about AI in the way that, you know, where I'm experimenting with it. I'm gonna create a separate channel so that you guys who don't like AI can still enjoy the content on this channel, and for those of you who feel like you still want to know where this industry is headed, you can go to the other channel." So, I create a separate channel, and it's called Soreel RND. It really is like research and development, and it's about AI. There I unashamedly just go through and test products out there that are using AI and not worry about people saying, "Why are you creating this kind of content?" Because on YouTube, you get boxed in in a way sometimes, it's a good thing sometimes, not, but when people start expecting a certain way, and YouTube also expects it, like when they start seeing a trend on your channel, and then they recommend your content to a specific group of people, those people have a specific interest, you know? So, when that specific interest is threatened, they will leave. They are not gonna stay around because they feel like, "I don't need to be here." So, that's why I encountered that in real time, I experienced it, and I'm like, I understand, let me create something different outside of that. And then I also have another channel for Nkoza and Nankya, which is for our children's animated series.
How did that channel come about? That one actually is a product of our homeschooling journey with my wife, and so, my wife is African-American, and I am from Africa, in East Africa, Uganda. And we were trying to find a resource for our kids to learn about my culture, right? And so, the two characters that you see on the website are actually inspired by my daughter and son, and earlier on in the process, they did the voice acting. So, right now, we're going through, like, our actual situation where they've outgrown their characters because my son's voice has deepened, he's no longer playing the little boy, let's say. So, just like YouTube channels go through phases, yeah, this series has gone through phases, where even earlier on in the process, we had, like, a different type of look and feel, we've rebranded, and all our characters now match the comic book characters that we have in our three books that we've made. But it's one of my, that's my favorite project to work on, is that because I love creating content for children, and it's really a testament to my grandmother who I grew up with in the village. Because I remember in the 1979 war of Idi Amin da da, I think most people in the world relate Uganda to Idi Amin, but for me, I was a kid at the time, and I was in the war was going on, and I was in the village with my grandmother, we didn't have any sort of entertainment, and the only entertainment I had was my grandmother sitting me down in the evenings, to tell me stories of folk tales, and she would say the same story multiple ways, and that's how I learned to tell stories. And creating content for children, it's a legacy of sorts because my grandma has passed away, and I am doing my best to pass on that legacy of storytelling, African storytelling, to future generations.
It's amazing, isn't it? Because I, you know, I grew up in a time before YouTube, and the idea that we have something that is accessible for free, forever, globally, is mind-blowing. Once the channel started growing, companies started reaching out to me, and then I got access to hardware that I never could afford before, wow! And so, not everyone, like people in my audience, can afford the kind of hardware that I test, but I show them what is possible. That the next time you're thinking about going beyond the idea that you have, and you have a budget, this is the kind of quality that you can create with the hardware that's on the market right now.

So, brands reach out to you to get onto your channel?
Yes, my favorite supporter, I guess the sponsor in all of them, is... I don't know if it's okay for me to mention this, yeah? Yeah, on your channel. Puget Systems, they've been so helpful, like there was a time when I was struggling to render some of my characters in The Adventures of Nkoza and Nankya, and they put together a system with 286 gigabytes of memory, with an eight-terabyte storage, yes, you know, and I was using the Unreal Engine, I was just... I just couldn't introduce the Unreal Engine, and the Unreal Engine needs a lot of space for the projects. This system changed the way I do animation, I sped up, and it made me create my videos much faster for YouTube, like even there's a character that I created, he's a meta human, almost like a reggae star who was trying to find his way in The Metaverse, and he's trying to get gigs. He's an older guy, he's struggling because he's not getting the gigs that he's supposed to, but he goes out into the metaverse and says, "You know, performing at different events." I embody him and I talk as a YouTuber as him sharing my journey, and the first video that I did, I partnered with Reallusion and we did the "No Metahuman No Cry." That was the first video of him in his course, like his journey out in the world. And once that video became successful, I was like, "You know what, let me do a spin-off of his journey so that people can follow along." And the Unreal Engine and Epic Games changed my trajectory because I, before, I never been able to do, like, a realistic character, ready for motion capture for both the body and the face, and create a character and a personality. And I was actually invited on Purple Beach in the UK as a meta human, and I turned up, I showed up at the event as the master. The Purple Beach team invited me, and they first introduced me as Solomon Jagwe, and then they say, "He has a metahuman friend that he would like to, you know, who's been invited." So, I switched the character from what they were seeing on Zoom to the metahuman, and that was the first paid gig for my meta human, by humans paying him to actually show up as a virtual character.
My gosh, you mean you can actually make money as a digital entity, and so that changed my the way I saw video being in the Unreal Engine and the meta humans, that you can create a Persona that gains value, that I can actually start earning you money.

Absolutely brilliant. And Solomon, aside from the actual animating itself, what are the hardest parts that you find running a YouTube channel?

Being a YouTuber, and I just stumbled into it, so there are people who probably have more professional opinions and who have been doing it much longer than I am, more successful, but I think the challenge is when you have to do things yourself, you know? You have to be the crew and the cameraman, and I see like people like Mr. Beast, they're now production companies. He just has to show up in front of the screen, yeah, it has a whole team, you know, that works with him. But when you are still growing, and that is still... even though I'm at 22,000 subscribers right now, it's still relatively small compared to the bigger channels, right?

I don't make enough money to pay a team. I look forward to that, to a point where you can just... it's a business, because it has become a business, and I think the challenge that I'm encountering, and I didn't realize before, you have to see it as a business. You have to have an LLC, you have because you can't, at some point you're gonna grow, right? And you're gonna miss out on opportunities, entities for bigger companies wanting to work with you if you're not an LLC. Like, right now, I'm seeing more traction with bigger businesses wanting to work with me, because I might have an LLC, then when I just was an individual. And also, you don't want your home to be at risk, you know, should something fall out, people will take your property. So that's why it's very, very important to see this as a business as fast as quickly as possible.

And also understanding that at some point you may want to not be the business, you know? You may have to hire other people at some point. So, I've been having to read more in terms of business, of how a business operates, to understand how well I can, you know, posture myself for growth because once I get, once you get to 22,000, new opportunities open up. I remember when I used to see people getting, like, I’d see this little monetary icon on other people's channels, and then when they showed up on my channel, I'm like, "Oh, people can actually give me money by just clicking on that little button." And then now you can tag products in your videos when you have 20,000 subscribers. I never had access to that before, you know? So, then new things that are coming up, where YouTube is looking at these channels that they know they can use to get more ad money, you know? And so it's been a challenge, but I've done better of positioning myself so that channel can grow because if I stay as an individual and not as an LLC, it's not gonna grow. It's just gonna be a channel where companies really want to partner with you, but they don't know how to partner with you, and you don't want to put your home at risk if you have a family.

The other challenge has been the changing landscape of YouTube algorithms and how nothing is set in stone. It's like they're experimenting with us because they want to make money too. They're trying to figure out a way to, like, how do we help these channels get us more money.
"It’s true, they’re holding us upside down, shaking us for money! And so, and also trying to understand shorts, they say you're gonna make money from it, but then I see that there's a window upon once you upload that Short, okay, few hours had passed, yeah, and then it's put on the home and then you see it shoot up and then it's flat after that completely and then nothing happens after that, you know? I'm like okay, so that I'm I'm still getting grasp of how the Shorts work, yeah, but for me, I see there's a bigger goal out there because I want to grow the Nkoza and Nankya brand and then the YouTube channel, I just want to continue using it to inspire other people on the journey. So as this company grows, I want to continue showing people the behind the scenes of how you can run a successful company that creates content for YouTube, for merchandising, partnerships, and all that. I want people to truly grasp when you have an idea how far you can take it, how do you make toys, how do you partner with a toy maker? How does it go from a concept to the Shelf, you know?

Do you have favourite YouTube channels or influences? Yes, yeah, Marques Brownlee is one of my favourite channels because I saw a video of him when he was a little boy, you know? That video is so cool because it shows where he started and he had a little voice, he was just a boy that didn't know how to do, but he was really ahead of his time, you know? And I saw him reacting to that video, so for me, that is so heartwarming because I see my journey as a YouTuber as well. It's a compounding effect, you have to create content, you have to create videos because if you don't create videos, the channel is not gonna grow. YouTube doesn't know you, they need to know you by the content that you create, so if you are just haphazard, then they will not know who to recommend your videos to. But once you do, you do something consistently, then they'll understand what to expect from you and so that they can bring people. It's like a Marketplace, if there's a store on the corner of a market and that store has mangoes every Market Day when people come to the marketplace they know what that stall is gonna do.

When you are able to identify what Niche you have and something that you can do joyously, you know, don't do something that you don't derive joy out of, right? I derive joy in helping other people see what is possible with art and animation because I will wake up and draw, no one has to prompt me, no one, I can draw if I'm watching something, I can draw out in the world if I'm on a train, I'll draw. But I'm always drawing, thinking of how can I bring this to life. So find something that's really, really you're passionate about and you know that if you walk up and no one ever paid you a penny, you would still do that, then you'll be successful in your channel.

So true, so true. And are there any other channels that you watch regularly? I also like William Faucher, he's a like an Unreal Engine expert because I want to get into unreal engine and do the best I can with it. So he's one of those channels that I love watching. Do you have a drink there? I do, oh good, yeah. Should we have a little drink break?"
[Music]
And you too, have a drink with us, please. People will pick up on the vibes on your channel because there's been a video where I've created a video and I was really passionate about it, and someone has left a comment saying "I love you" in uppercase, you know? If you can create that kind of reaction in a person, you know you've hit a gold mine, not a landmine, because you're gone there.

It's positive.

Yes, well, a gold mine because when you create a video that changes someone's life, then you've made a video that is really impactful. And I think the video that has the most views on my channel, the one where I'm sculpting, people were blown away that you could actually sculpt on an iPad Pro, right? Like, people have had their iPads all along, but they didn't realize you could actually sculpt, and people are probably thinking, "I need to go buy a Cintiq to be able to sculpt," and they have the Apple pencils all along. So when I see the comments in that video and how people are reacting to it, I'm like, "My gosh, I didn't know you could do that."

The fact that you can do that on an iPad is amazing, and I could picture people in their living rooms somewhere sculpting away on their iPad. So, it's almost it created a movement of artists who are like, "You mean this has been sitting here all this time, and I could actually use it?" So, that was my proudest video.

Solomon, what tiny improvement would you make to make YouTube better? Something that I encountered by chance is I've always been able, I have wanted to loop a video because sometimes I find like a music video that I want to, I love playing in the background while I'm sculpting or animating and things like that, and YouTube has never really outright had a button of looping. Every other player in the world, I know, has the ability to loop, and for some reason, even now, like how you can, I go to a channel and I look at a video, and there's no loop button. It was only recently that I was on the app, and I had to go into settings that I found it. It actually is in there that you can loop a YouTube video, but it's not on the desktop version, and yet when I'm animating, I'm on the desktop. So that's one thing that I would love for them to make outright, like expose it to the front where you can loop a video. It's actually an opportunity for them to get ad revenue from constantly, you know, the same video if it's, I really like it. Yeah, so please add a loop button.

Yeah, YouTube, do that! That's a genius idea!
Maybe like a recommendation, I would like to be able to recommend my own videos to other people, you know? Like if I see a video that there should be a button on a video that says "recommend," and in there, recommend to all my subscribers. Because when you post a video, only like 10 percent is sent out to people who have notification bells turned on. But you have thousands of subscribers, but only a small, small percentage of them get notified when that video is sent out. So I want to be able to contact my subscribers, you know, like send things out to them and tell them, "Hey, guys, I think this is a really good video you should watch."

Absolutely, that's a brilliant idea.

Is there a video on your channel that you love that doesn't seem to be getting the love that it deserves?

Yes, there's a video that I did, and I thought it was really deep, and it's actually not animated at all. It's I shot it, I went to the beach with my family to Virginia Beach, and I wrote on the ground in the sand, and the waves were waving, you know, coming back and forth eventually, and I remember feeling I was feeling burnt out when we took that trip, and I wrote in the sand, and the waves eventually came and washed away all that stress. And I was trying to encourage other people that, you know, take a moment sometimes to unwind and just, life is more than this, there's life outside of a computer. You need to step away, you need to disconnect, and things like that.

I think that video was really good, but it didn't get any traction. It's so unfair. I will definitely link to it up on the screen and down in the description.

Okay, yeah, it's really good, you know, YouTube never suggested it to you, but I am suggesting it. I'm recommending it to you.

Are there things that other YouTubers do that you definitely won't do?

Yes, I am not the kind to do crazy stunts for views, you know? And I know that's a thing, and I've actually talked to a friend of mine who used to do that kind of thing, and he no longer does it because he's now in a different space. It takes a toll. The pandemic was so revealing, you know? My goodness, it showed us that we need each other more than anything. You need people, and your mental health is so crucial to your growth, you know? You're trying to fit an audience that wants more and more of that, but you as a human being, you're not wired that way. It will deplete you at some point, and I've seen multiple examples of people who are depressed, having been through that. But no, I really value content that has a lasting effect, definitely, definitely.

Solomon, can we have a bit of a gear geek-out? Because I can see in the shot now, I can see a gaming chair, and I can see a really nice microphone...
What equipment do you use for your channel? I rarely actually appear in my videos, right? I don't know if you've noticed that. I rarely appear in my videos because I want people to focus on the content and not me. And even down the road, I want that content to be timeless because we are all gonna get older at some point. We grow hair, you lose hair, and things like that, maybe you have a pimple every now and then, like this one right here. I don't really shoot myself with footage, but every now and then, I'll get my phone and then start to record whatever I'm working on or even mount my phone on top of a tripod and record myself like drawing or sculpting, like the video that I did, but the one that has the iPad Pro.

For the phone itself, I'm using a Samsung S22 Ultra. It has a beautiful camera and it does a really good job. But when I need to show something here, then I shoot with my iPhone 10 to be able to record my Samsung phone. So it's like I go back and forth, depending on which one is right, and this one has a lot of space, and it's still doing its job. You know, I have not upgraded to a new iPhone yet because it does, and it took me a long time to upgrade to the 22.

In terms of gear, again, I had to upgrade my sound because people complained, and I go back and watch some of my videos, and I cringe because I can hear the audio, like, "Ah, come on, Solomon!" And so I invested in a much better mic, and also I use Nvidia Studio, which has a denoiser, and then I get much better audio as a result. And of course, this little guy right here makes a big difference because every now and then, if I'm too close, I don't want popping sounds and things like that.

The microphone and the computers are really what my content is about, and when I need to shoot outside, then I use my S22 Ultra.

I have two computers that I use. One is the Threadripper from Puget Systems that I do all the animation on, then I'm streaming it onto this machine, and this is the machine that I record on using OBS Studio, right? So really what it's doing is capturing this screen, and then I'm putting the screen through a little adapter, I pass it through OBS, and then I'm able to record whatever I am seeing on this another side.

Then I have this microphone connected to this computer. So that's incredible. So you're effectively streaming and recording, and you record the stream rather than stream it live?

Yes, I record the stream. So when I'm recording the stream, I'm really recording a production of what is being done on this particular computer. So you get way better quality, and you have the ability to change the transfer rate. When you're streaming, you want something less because on YouTube, you don't want things stuttering and things like that. But because I know this particular video is going to end up in Adobe Premiere, I just crank it up all the way.

I recommend that setup because it's technical, but I have a video that I actually recorded that shows the whole process. I had to repeat myself multiple times because it's kind of like wires, like this is connecting to this into this and into this and into that, and then now you see me. And also, there's a new update that came out, talk about artificial intelligence. So for the longest time, when I would stream as a YouTuber as a metahuman, I'd have trouble maintaining eye contact.

And in the Unreal Engine, it's only recently in 5.2 that they introduced the ability to lock the eye to something. With Nvidia Studio, they updated it where they have artificial intelligence in it that will take your eyeballs, right? They replace your eyeballs using artificial intelligence, and they make them focus on the screen. So if I could, I could literally be looking over here, but the AI is making it look like I am looking at you. Like, seriously, right now I'm not using it, so you know, freaked out. But when I'm streaming, it automatically takes away that hassle. And that's the thing about AI, you know? There are some things where it is so applicable, and it really takes away the tedious things that you as a YouTuber used to not be able to do, and you will blink. And when you blink, it disables the AI. The moment you open, then the eyes get replaced. Right? So it's crazy.







That's incredible! Oh, Solomon, you seem really prolific on your channels. Do you have a video idea that you really want to make that you haven't made yet?

Yes, my channel, I want to do more short films, from beginning to end, because I've been learning the Unreal Engine. It wasn't until this new update from Epic Games with a meta-human animator that now I feel like, you know what, the technology has finally caught up to my dream. Because I've been wanting something that I don't have to struggle so much when it comes to facial animation, and I can actually truly act out this story and it's captured authentically captured. So that when the performance is shown on the screen and you can see... when the two videos I just posted of the meta-human animator, the lip movement, the eyes, the expression, you know, is way, way better than we've been able to do in the past. And actually create content that matches up to what you see in video games and even better.

It used to be that those studios were creating that kind of quality facial animation, but now anyone can do it. It's actually free, and it blows my mind that Epic Games is still offering it as a free product. In the coming few months, I'm gonna be doing more short films so I can actually tell the story and also inspire other people, to show them... I took a song by a gospel artist, I lip-synced to it. I wore a motion capture suit, I wore a head-mounted camera rig. I didn't even have to care about it, and all I did was just record, press record, and I acted it out. I did the actual session, then uploaded it to YouTube. And one person commented and said, "My gosh, I'm now inspired to pursue my faith-based animation after seeing this."

And that's it right there. It's like now people seeing what's possible and saying, "This has actually helped me finally decide, you know, I'm gonna do it." That, to me, the goal is if I can help other people see what is possible and bring those ideas to life, I am a happy camper.

Solomon, thank you so much for sharing all these details about your channel. Where are the best social places to see your work?

Yeah, so you can find me on Twitter as Solomon Jagwe. I think I go by Soreel, S-O-R-E-E-L, and then I'm on Instagram, Solomon Jagwe. I'm on Facebook as The Art of Solomon Jagwe, and my website is sowl.com. You can find me on YouTube, Solomon Jagwe, as well.

It's really inspiring, and I can't wait to see what you do with the technology next. Solomon, I hate doing this, but would you mind posing for a thumbnail with me? [Music] The things we do for YouTube. We have to! And thank you for joining us. Hitting the thumbs up button helps others to find the show, and obviously, if you can subscribe, you'll get to see more brilliant advice from YouTubers. Like these episodes here, we'll see you on the next episode of the Great British YouTubers podcast. [Music]

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