Japan has been fair tranquil during the AI roar so far , but now — just after the wholeChatGPTxGhibli trend — Japanese fellowship Animon has come out with an AI video generator specifically for gum anime .

The free - to - use prick takes still images of anime , cartoon , or CG art and make five - secondly - long vivification based on the prompting you enter . The companionship claims it will help both professional and unpaid energizer speed up the originative procedure — essentially want only one helping hand - drawn form per five second of TV instead of century .

Is there a place for AI tools in the anime industry?

immediate confession here — I happen to be a totalanime swot . I ’ve check hundreds of display , I chatter Japan nearly every year , I ’ve work there , and I address Japanese . I ’m no expert on the animation process , but I hump what good brio looks like and what spoilt life looks like .

Even without AI getting involved , there are already a passel of way of life to cut corner with invigoration in the gum anime manufacture . A mountain of the work now gets outsourced to Korean animation studios , and the time and money going into it keep going down .

When a studio apartment does n’t invest enough in its aliveness , it affects the shows in two main way : there ’s a raft less effort , and there ’s a obtrusive drop in artistic production caliber . The character designs might calculate beautiful on the promotional posters , but the interlingual rendition drawn from frame to frame do n’t have the same grade of detail or the right proportions , and in some cases , they even look unbowed - up derpy .

Comparison of anime art quality in Haikyuu.

Willow Roberts / Digital Trends

I have an unfortunate illustration of this from a show I like ( a popular volleyball Zanzibar copal calledHaikyuu ) . early episodes were repair really nicely , but for whatever reasonableness , the character plummeted during one of the belated time of year . Here ’s an persona liken a shot of the champion from an instalment in season one to an episode in season four .

To be clear , some shows still count great — but low - character living can pop up just about anywhere , and it can decidedly be big enough to drive away viewers like me .

With the bar sinking so low , you might thinkAI video coevals toolsactually have a chance in this industry . However , try by the cognitive content I aim from Animon.ai , I ’m afraid that does n’t appear to be the display case .

Animon.ai video generator prompt

Willow Roberts / Digital Trends

How do the generated animations look?

The tool does act in that it takes the image you give it and make it move for five second , but that ’s about all you may ensure will happen . For my first experimentation , I pass on it a still of Jet Black fromCowboy Bebopabout to imbibe from a whiskey ice .

My prompt was just “ The pictured fibre takes a drink from the glass of whisky he is holding . ” Thevideo I got in returnhas a few things amiss with it .

Firstly , Jet Black does not imbibe the whisky . He seems to be talking , and he lifts the spyglass closer to his face , but I do n’t see anything that looks like actual drinking . The whisky inside the looking glass look to be very engaged , however — the chalk both fills up and drains despite the deficiency of drink that seems to be go on . If you want to see squirt beverage for real , it ’s righthere on YouTube .

Maomao dance scene Apothecary diaries.

Apothecary Diaries / Crunchyroll

The AI simulation also struggles with Jet ’s scar . The bottom oddment of it sort of disappears , and when he opens his heart , the scar is get directly over his orb . Because I grabbed the still from a video on Crunchyroll ’s YouTube channel , it has CR ’s logo in the top rightfield . In the AI video recording , however , the textual matter appear to have morphed into “ Crunchyolo ” instead .

Next , I tried feed it a still ofMaomao ’s dance scenefromThe Apothecary Diaries , and I pay off areally weird result . Unlike the trippy , hokey , morph movements of the 2D Jet video , the AI gave me what looked like a 3D manakin .

Animon.ai is signify to mould with CG artwork as well , so I guess it make sensation that it cangenerate 3D model , but I was fairly surprised . WhileThe Apothecary Diariesmakes use of 3D models a lot for building and backgrounds , the fiber was definitely drawn in the snap I used .

AI-generated anime scene using Animon.ai

Animon

Either way , the generated television seem importantly more stable when 3D example are involved . bm look less sloshy , and the model keeps the size of it and soma of the character more ordered . I still would n’t need to see it in a show as is , but it ’s doubtless a step up from the 2D - manner mental object it gave me .

However , Animon.ai ’s sales slant is all about facilitate energiser make unnecessary time by force fewer frames — and this is irrelevant when it come to 3D animation . It ’s already immediate and inexpensive compared to 2D , and it does n’t make much horse sense to make a 3D manikin and then apply an AI video generator to randomly repair it rather than using animation software .

Should you use Animon.ai?

If you do n’t know anything about animation and you need a quick GIF or a video for personal purposes , this shaft will probably work just fine ( or give you a right laugh if not ) . However , it ’s concentrated to imagine any amateur or professional vitaliser seeing real value in this .

If you require to see what the tool is adequate to of , theAnimon YouTube channelposted a medicine video that appear to be almost 100 % AI - generated — it emphatically looks that style , at least .

Overall , I think there are two independent rationality AI video generators are n’t quick for any real work . One is that movement looks too sorry , and the other is the want of control you have over the result . It ’s the same as any other generative AI tool , really — they ’re just not consistent and reactive enough to be honest . We will likely get there one day , and it ’s still fun to mess around with early version of the applied science , but do n’t get the salespeople fool you — none of these shaft are ready for commercial-grade use yet .