Sony Japan has removed an animated advertisement from its Youtube account after it was revealed that the ad contained re-traced animation from the work of other artists.
The director of the spot, Kevin Bao, has also been let go by Eallin Animation, a production company for which he has produced work. (Eallin confirmed to Cartoon Brew that they were not involved in the production of the Playstation spot.) Eallin released the following statement this afternoon on Twitter:
We had no knowledge that the work produced by Kevin Bao was plagiarized. We have ceased with immediate effect any representation of Kevin Boa’s [sic] work and have contacted Kevin for a response.
UPDATE: Eallin, the company that yesterday released a statement saying that they have “ceased with immediate effect any representation” of Bao’s work, has released a second contradictory statement that now claims Bao hasn’t worked with them since 2017. They did not clarify why Bao’s work remained on their site, even though he’d been gone for two years.