Sébastien Deguy launches puppetry firm Sans Strings Studio
Substance 3D pioneer Sébastien Deguy has launched Sans Strings Studio, a new digital puppetry firm creating content for animation and gaming.
The Allegorithmic founder and former Adobe Vice President, who announced his departure from Adobe last week, co-founded the studio with tech artist and VR creator Ryan Corniel.
Sans Strings, which has already received venture capital funding from Andreessen Horowitz, aims to create “animation with a soul” via its real-time puppeteering pipeline.
A ‘new chapter’ in the career of the Academy Award-winning 3D tools pioneer
Sébastien Deguy’s announcement last week that he was leaving Adobe opened a new chapter in the technology pioneer’s career.
Over the past two decades, the Substance 3D tools – spun out from Deguy’s PhD research – became industry staples, initially for game development, and later for animation and VFX.
Their impact on the industry was recognized by a series of awards, including the Sci-Tech Academy Award received by Deguy and other key Substance 3D developers in 2023.
In a follow-up post on LinkedIn, Deguy announced that “this time, instead of making tools, I’ll be producing content: stories, books, essays, music, animation, games — and even wine!”
Deguy – an electronic musician with a string of high-profile collaborations to his name – said that he plans to release new tracks under his Matterflow alias.
Sans Strings Studio: a new firm blending high tech and traditional craft
However, Deguy’s main focus will be as CEO of gaming and animation firm Sans Strings Studio.
The firm has posted a series of teaser videos on its YouTube channel, showing the digital puppetry pipeline developed by Deguy’s co-founder, technical artist Ryan Corniel.
A former UI/UX designer, Corniel began exploring virtual reality workflows at healthcare tech firm Penumbra, where he helped create a complete full-body VR system for physical therapists.
Since leaving Penumbra in 2023, he has translated that experience into entertainment work, posting a series of real-time puppetry experiments on his social media channels.
The video above gives a sense of the workflow, showing a puppeteer controlling both the face and body of a 3D character with a game controller, with the results rendered in real time.
A ‘real-time, fun, affordable, scalable’ animation workflow
Many of the proof-of-concept animations on the Sans Strings Studio YouTube channel feature a nostalgically Henson-esque character design style, our favorite being this spoof perfume ad.
However, the pipeline can clearly be used with a range of 3D characters, as in this clip – like the perfume ad, co-created with Robot Chicken creators Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.
Sans Strings Studio describes its aim as to “[bring] digital puppeteering to new heights” via a “real-time, fun, affordable, scalable” workflow.
The firm has already received pre-seed funding from a16z – investment giant Andreessen Horowitz – and will take part in its 12-week Speedrun incubator program later this year.
On LinkedIn, Deguy posted that he aims to “[embrace] the beautiful uncertainty and chaos that comes with creating”, concluding that, “I am taking my chance, and I am ready to rumble!”
Read Seb Deguy’s LinkedIn post announcing his plans after leaving Adobe
Visit the Sans Strings Studio website
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