NEWS At 5ish
An Episodic Sketch Comedy Series
Episodes
The Characters
BRUCE ANCHOR
An overly confident news anchor with a short temper and a dim wit. With little to no “on air filter” and a habit of addressing the producer directly during live broadcasts, you could say that Bruce is highly blooper prone. With a hard time staying on track during his reports, Bruce is rarely if ever a reliable source of information.
SONNY CHANCES
An incompetent, part time weather man with a British accent. Sonny is not afraid to tell his viewers what they want to hear about the weather regardless of the facts. He is an expert on delivering a weather report so vague that it would be almost impossible for him to be wrong.
WENDY NEWLY
More serious then Bruce, Wendy appears in the 4th episode as a more focused reporter. She is comfortable on air, even when things go wrong. She has the ability to not allow the mistakes of other reporters effect her. She is straight to the point and professional.
The Set
Made with the low poly assets that are built into the Muvizu animation software, The set for News At 5-ish is a simple, no frills, stylized, cartoonish, CG newsroom. The set was arranged with the concept of single shots and minimal character movement in mind. By design, you never see the full set in any single shot. This was intentional to make the episodes as simple to block out as possible. The layout makes this set perfect for close ups with a traditional, plain Jane, local news style backdrop.
All “News A5t 5ish” episodes where written and animated by Joey Johnson. All Copyrights Reserved
Production Tools
The Software Behind “News At 5-ish”
“News At 5-ish” was made with Muvizu, an older, beginner friendly animation software. It played a big role in the early days of the RealSketch Animation journey. Though moving on to more advanced tools like Blender and iClone was inevitable, It’s hard not to look back and appreciate what this little program made possible.
What Is Muvizu?
Muvizu is a 3D animation software designed to make storytelling fast, easy, and accessible—even for beginners. It offers a drag-and-drop interface where users can animate characters, set up virtual scenes, and produce short films or skits without needing to master complex 3D modeling or rigging.
Originally developed by Digimania, Muvizu became popular for its cartoon-style graphics and real-time animation tools. With pre-built characters, props, sets, and customizable animations, creators could focus on storytelling instead of technical details. Dialogue could be lip-synced automatically, and characters could be directed like actors on a virtual stage.
Although Muvizu is no longer officially supported or updated, it played an important role in the early days of indie animation and helped many creators take their first steps into the world of animated storytelling.