Creating at the Speed of TikTok: How Triband Turns Trends into In-world Stories with Marionette

By recording simple phone performances, importing them into Marionette, and streaming the resulting animation straight to their character in Unity rigs via Marionette’s Unity plugin for instant preview, Triband was able to publish two videos at TikTok speed.

As Sandra Bertelsen, content creator and 3D artist at Triband, puts it:

“We make comedy games.”

“I think using only a sound as a way of generating ideas is one of the best ways to do it because you stay original that way.”

She also values the reliability of the workflow:

“I like having my stuff locally on my PC because I trust my PC maybe too much.”

And when it comes to features:

“It’s definitely the plugin for Unity. I’ve been really enjoying that.”

Meet Triband: The studio behind goofy comedy games

Triband is best known for offbeat hits like WHAT THE GOLF?, WHAT THE BAT?, WHAT THE CLASH and WHAT THE CAR? - games that playfully twist expectations and invite players into a world that’s as chaotic as it is charming.

“We make comedy games,” Sandra says. “It’s silly, goofy stuff — stylized, like a stylized world. Sometimes we’d like to call it the Tri-verse, because somehow they’re all kind of connected… fun, weird stuff for all age groups, really.”

Sandra’s hybrid role spans both content creation and 3D art. She’s behind Triband’s TikToks, Reels, Shorts, and live streams — translating the studio’s trademark chaos into snackable moments for fans.

“I start off my day with coffee and then I like give myself kind of a minute to settle down and create an overview… Mainly I use the first hour to two hours kind of researching what’s going on on the internet. Following trends and sounds, especially on TikTok.”

From Trends to Tri-verse

When a trend takes off, Sandra looks for ways to remix it through Triband’s world.

“It’s a challenge because it’s a trend, but you don’t want to just copy-paste,” she says. “Luckily for me, it’s a games company, so it’s pretty easy since we have our own models and art and stuff like that that keeps it original.”

Her process starts with sound — the foundation of most TikTok trends.

“I think using only a sound as a way of generating ideas is one of the best ways to do it because you stay original that way. You can convert the video into your own little thing by only using that and kind of present your take on it.”

That method allows Triband to stay timely and authentic, aligning the weird humor of their games with the rapid rhythm of online culture.

Enter Marionette: Motion Capture for the Fast Lane

To move at the speed of TikTok, Triband experimented with Marionette for motion capture, because it doesn't require a mocap suit and runs locally on your computer.,

“I recorded myself doing some of the animations that I thought would go well with this sound and then used our assets to complement that in Unity,” Sandra explains. “It was a fun day that we had recording me doing stuff on our phones and then importing it into Marionette and calibrating from that.”

In just one day, Sandra managed to create an in-world TikTok video, based on a popular trend.

“It really creates a tremendous form of freedom when you’re trying to just test things,” she says. “You can kind of just test it out with yourself — like your own body or the TikTok that you’re inspired by.”

One example is the video Sandra made for the #girlsoconfusing trend, where she was able to twist it take place in the Triband universe. She downloaded a TikTok, and used it to create an animation using Marionette and Unity.

Instant Feedback with the Unity Plugin

“It’s definitely the plugin for Unity,” Sandra says. “I’ve been really enjoying that.”

Using the Marionette Unity plugin, Sandra can stream her animation directly to her character rigs for immediate in-engine feedback.

“I made one video with a bear walking towards the camera and then doing a little spin and then walking back,” she recalls. “The fact that I could basically plug and play Marionette into Unity and then I could see the root motion and where he would touch the ground or touch a different object in real time — that’s definitely a huge upgrade that I really appreciated.”

Why Local Matters

Unlike many mocap tools, Marionette runs entirely on the user’s machine — something Sandra values both practically and philosophically.

“I think it’s a good thing to have stuff locally,” she says. “I’m also a little bit old school, not gonna lie. I like having my stuff locally on my PC because I trust my PC maybe too much. If an internet connection is not working, I can still access my stuff… it doesn’t disappear.”

Creative Control, Not Creative Compromise

In an industry increasingly swept up by AI hype, Triband’s approach is refreshingly human. The studio has always relied on handcrafted animation - every wobble, swing, and silly gesture in their games are intentionally made by an artist. That focus on the handmade isn’t going anywhere.

For Triband, using Marionette was an experiment, a way to see how motion capture could fit into their existing creative process without replacing it. And for Sandra Bertelsen, that distinction matters deeply.

“When I say that I dislike the use of AI, I think most people think of stuff like ChatGPT,” she says. “Whereas on the other hand, AI still exists in software like Marionette, for example, but you don’t really get exposed to it in the same way.”

For Sandra, AI isn’t the enemy - losing creative control is.

“Of course it needs to use AI to kind of calibrate these movements and make it right so that it is a person moving,” she explains. “But when I say that I dislike using AI, I’m talking about typing in, ‘make me an original video idea for TikTok.’ That’s what I mean.”

Sandra’s creative process is human from start to finish. Every motion, every gesture, every joke comes from her - not a prompt

“It definitely allows me to be creative in the sense that the video is mine,” she says. “It’s a video of me doing something and I’m putting it into the program, and therefore I kind of have that control of what is generated.”

Sandra’s perspective stands in quiet opposition to the idea that the future of content is just prompting. It’s a view Marionette’s founder Thore strongly shares: that technology should never erase the artist’s hand, only make it faster and freer to move.

Inspiration for Indie Creators

For Triband, Marionette isn’t just a production shortcut — it’s a creative amplifier. It lets them expand the Tri-verse beyond gameplay, bringing their characters and humor to the platforms where their players spend time every day.

For indie developers hoping to break through online, Sandra has simple advice: move fast.

"Trends exist for maybe a day and then it’s gone and then you missed out,” she says. “If an indie studio could somehow generate this content super fast so that they follow all these trends… then they can kind of narrow it down into something that is more about the game itself."

And Marionette, she believes, can make that possible.

“Tools like Marionette will be a great support for that because it’s fast — to generate something from real life or a video you downloaded and then get it into a 3D space and create that video as fast as possible.”

Triband used Marionette for testing out ideas fast with motion capture, along with a range of other tools. For now, they’re switching gears to posting more in-game content of the new updates coming to all their games, which is super exciting.

Watch the full interview with Sandra on our YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

For more fun content from the Triband, make sure to follow them on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and try all their awesome and fun games, over at https://triband.net/