Kitty Alert!
Summer
2025
A playful edit of my cat Dennis with a tracked exclamation mark above his head. A quick experiment that turned his everyday antics into a small piece of animation.
The Idea
Dennis has a way of moving that already feels like animation. Whenever he snaps his head up it looks straight out of a cartoon, full of exaggerated timing and expression. In this photo he happened to be mid lick, which only shows how ridiculous he can look.
I wanted to play into that by adding a small animated icon above his head. It was a simple way to exaggerate what was already there and match the personality he brings on his own.
The Creation
I started by motion tracking Dennis’s head so the exclamation mark would stick to his quick movements. His sudden snaps and tilts made it tricky, but that unpredictability is exactly what makes him feel like a cartoon.
From there I refined the timing until the mark felt like part of the shot, exaggerating his personality without taking over the frame.
The Tools
I used Blender’s camera tracking to match my real footage inside virtual space. That let me line up the handheld camera movements exactly and keep the exclamation mark locked in as if it were part of the original shot.
With the tracking solved, the exclamation mark was animated directly in Blender and synced frame by frame to Dennis’s head. The result was a simple setup that made the final edit feel seamless.
The Final Product
The finished clip was posted on Instagram with the title Kitty Alert!. The exclamation mark pops right in sync with Dennis’s movements, giving him the cartoon moment he seemed to be acting out on his own.
It was a quick experiment, but it captured his personality perfectly; animated, unpredictable, and always a little ridiculous.