Auto-placed rigging for easy manipulation of vector graphics? Heck yeah! (I was already a big fan of Illustrator’s Puppet Warp in a pinch, and this looks highly complementary.)

[YouTube]

Right?! Check out Gris:

[YouTube]

Sure, why not? Seems nice enough.

I remain kinda sad, though:

• Illustrator broke its Photoshop-style ability to Shift-cycle among tools years ago & will never fix it, because LOL nothing matters.
• We’ve never gotten (and presumably never will get) settings sync that enables frictionless sharing of bold, imaginative reshapings of Adobe app UIs—because, LOL… you know.

But, anyway, rock on with this.

[YouTube] [Via]

Aww—check out today’s doodle:

The team writes,

Today’s stop-motion, animated video Doodle celebrating Mister Rogers was created in collaboration with Fred Rogers Productions, The Fred Rogers Center, and BixPix Entertainment. Set to the iconic opening song of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”), the Doodle aims to be a reminder of the nurturing, caring, and whimsy that made the show feel like a “television visit” between Mister Rogers and his young viewers. Everyone was welcome in this Neighborhood

Mrs. Rogers approves:

“I’m so thrilled that Google is celebrating Fred and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with this charming tribute.This stroll through the Neighborhood is delightful, and Fred’s gentle kindness is beautifully captured in the Doodle.”

Here’s a peek behind the scenes:

[YouTube]

John Oliver tries speaking truth to power in perhaps the only language—overwrought animation—our Dear Leader understands. The animation begins around 19:40, in case the embed below doesn’t start you at the right spot:

The whole segment (overview) is chillarious (chillingly hilarious). As they say, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

[YouTube]

Gonna be a hot time in the (deeply poorly conceived) virtual town tonight:

Some cool making-of details:

The results look so realistic that they could almost be stop-motion. “I built a big virtual set, I guess, is how you could describe it,” he said. “The characters are like stop-motion marionettes in a way; they have joints to the arms and the knees and all of that, and controllers.” He then used a low-budget motion-capture process — a D.I.Y. version of Hollywood’s green screens and Ping-Pong-ball suits — using the XBox Kinect and special software. “It sees you doing the motions you want the character to do, and then you can transfer that to the animation so you can transfer that onto your characters,” he said. He considered having a giant robot attack Cardboard City, and then settled on fire: that looked kind of cool, too.

[YouTube][Via]

#BobRossIsABoss—weirdly brilliant! Kottke writes,

As a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Micah Sherman and Mark Stetson produced a web series called The Bob Ross Challenge in which 13 comedians attempt to paint along with Bob Ross as he does his thing with the trees and little fluffy clouds. Here’s the first episode, featuring Aparna Nancherla:

[YouTube]