Animating with AI

by | Apr 23, 2026 | AI, Art, Entertainment | 47 comments

I read an article about how Bollwood is using AI to make movies now, because their unions aren’t as strong or some such and AI is gonna terk der jerbs. It wasn’t revealed until the end of the article that what they are actually doing using motion capture, the same thing Hollywood does for CGI characters. Some guy is running around on an empty soundstage in that little green suit with balls all over it, the same as in Hollywood. It’s just that instead of using under paid and overworked graphics houses that go bankrupt because the it’s a race for the bottom, they are paying to use someone’s AI video tech that is making other jobs.
This is all to say; AI left to it’s own devices really can’t interpret complex scenes and animate them. It can make a farting Trump baby for sure, but the moment you try to direct it to have the farting Trump baby to adjust his hair like it’s a wig while he farts, the AI is going to assume the hair is a monkey and have it transform and start running around; trust me, I know. But, to that end I gave the same prompt and image files to both XAI’s Grok and Google’s Veo 3.1. First the prompt, then the results.

Do not change the art style or character designs. The character in red is Gravity Man, his power is the power of gravity, as he walks his feet stick to the concrete, if he throws something it comes back to him, some things orbit around him. The character in blue is Orbit Boy, he his a Japanese midget caught in orbit around Gravity Man, he wears a business suit and glasses, he has a mustache. The style is 1940s comic book. Based on the Fleischer Superman cartoons. They are in the city fighting a mud monster. 1941-1943 Fleischer Studios Superman cartoon style, classic Fleischer animation aesthetic, bold black ink outlines with slight line flicker, vibrant limited color palette of deep blues reds and golds, high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting, dramatic noir shadows, Art Deco skyscrapers and industrial cityscapes, thick cel-painted backgrounds, rubber-hose influenced but more realistic anatomy for Superman, powerful stylized poses, pulp comic energy, 1940s cinematic lighting, hand-drawn 2D animation look, slight grain and film texture GRAVITY MAN stands in a heroic pose as ORBIT BOY whizzes around him. THE MUD MONSTER now grabs MARGO METTLESOME @330d9b35-45c0-474a-b941-46510c805304 .

MARGO METTLESOME

Help!

GRAVITY MAN

Unhand her, you menacing miscreant!

GRAVITY MAN approaches the monster, still struggling to walk. He stands in front of the monster.

GRAVITY MAN (CONT’D)

I warn you, rancorous ruffian, release her!

As GRAVITY MAN speaks, ORBIT BOY’s orbit takes him through the monster, with each rotation he passes through it, slowly chopping it down.

Google Veo 3.1

Grok Imagine

Somehow I don’t think that is how an actual animator would handle that scene. Animators, your jerbs are safe for now.

About The Author

CPRM

CPRM

Organic troll farmer.

47 Comments

  1. The Other Kevin

    I used to know a guy who was an animator for The Simpsons. His job was “layout”, so they’d give him a pre-recorded soundtrack and the basics of the scene, and he’d draw the characters as line drawings. He had a lot of leeway on how to compose the scene. After that, they’d send the file to Korea and someone cheaper would clean up and color it.

    Sounds like right now, some of those later stages could be done by AI.

  2. Not Adahn

    The second Orbit Boy is dressed more appropriately for knocking bits of mud off of a monster.

    • Not Adahn

      And about 8′ tall.

      • Threedoor

        I see no problem with that.

  3. The Late P Brooks

    Grok got a little bleedthrough from Popeye. The girl looks like Olive Oyl.

    • CPRM

      Um actually, it’s Lois Lane from the 1940s Superman shorts.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Also, Grok’s background is melting.

    • Threedoor

      $20 downtown and two apple pies from McDonald’s.

      • Gustave Lytton

        two apple pies from McDonald’s

        *looks up urban dictionary entry*

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m not going along with that plan.

    • Not Adahn

      More lottery tickets, duh.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    How should I spend my $25?

    Buy material for your 3D printer and build a ghost gun.

    • UnCivilServant

      That would only cover a spool of PLA, which wouldn’t be the best choice for that application.

  6. The Other Kevin

    The hype around AI is incredible. On YouTube and social media, you see a lot of “AI will replace all workers”, and “AI will become sentient and kill all humans.” A lot of this is AI companies driving up their value. Some people say that like any other technology such as cars and computers, we’ll just settle in and things will get better. I think a better comparison is social media, which didn’t exactly turn out as promised.

    This weekend I asked Grok a few questions. First, I asked who correctly predicted the negative effects of social media; then I asked what those same people are predicting about AI. There was some doomerism about the end of humanity, but most had concerns about people relying on it too much and becoming dumb, economic shocks from replacing workers, more addictions to slop content, and having just a few individuals in charge of everything,

    Based on your test, we *could* see some of those things, but we’re not 100% there yet.

    • Sean

      I tried to ask Grok a couple questions this morning. Each time it told me Grok was too busy, try later, or sign up for Super Grok. No.

      I assume it’s CPRM’s fault.

      • UnCivilServant

        “You do now have enough priority tokens. Click here to buy more.”

      • CPRM

        Testing out these AIs I sometimes wonder just how many 90s computers worth of compute I’m using up.

      • Rat on a train

        How many tokens for $25?

      • CPRM

        On Grok? $30 for a month is basically unlimited for the LLM. With image and video it is ‘rate’ based. and that ‘rate’ is dependent on time of day and the content of the content. NSFW uses more tokens than normal stuff. There are no hard numbers.

    • CPRM

      All of it is overhype. On the movie/TV side it will end up being no more than the CGI ‘revolution’. Hollywood didn’t implode because puppeteers and hand drawn animators lost their jobs. It imploded because nobody gives a shit about the product.

      • EvilSheldon

        Shit, there are still puppeteers and hand-drawn animators who still have comfortable jobs.

        Rocky from Project Hail Mary is the most adorable puppet since The Dark Crystal.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Mumbo jumbo

    A coalition of 21 mostly Democratic-led states and Washington, DC, immedialy sued, arguing Kennedy had skipped the legally required procedures for such a drastic policy change. Last month, Kasubhai agreed that Kennedy had overstepped his authority and issued an order temporarily blocking the declaration. “The notion that ‘I will go forward and issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it’ is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to a democratic republic that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as sacred,” the judge said at the time.

    What the fuck does that have to do with anything? More importantly, how do administrative decisions by doctors’ associations magically attain the force of law?

    • rhywun

      More importantly, how do administrative decisions by doctors’ associations magically attain the force of law?

      Because shut the fuck up, bigot.

      I wonder if the good judge can be sued by some kid who gets transed against his or her will.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    But Kasubhai’s first order wasn’t stopping the Trump administration. While the court case played out, HHS began going through the formal rule-making process, proposing a sweeping regulation that would strip federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from any hospital that provides trans youth health care, which I wrote about in depth last week. Such a regulation, if implemented, would force hospitals nationwide to cut off trans kids’ care or else face financial devastation.

    Merciful heavens! Muh gravy train!

    • rhywun

      “trans kids”

      No matter how many times you repeat the words, it doesn’t make it magically a thing that exists.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    On YouTube and social media, you see a lot of “AI will replace all workers”, and “AI will become sentient and kill all humans.”

    AI robots will come to your house and fix your toilet, and then kill you.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    What the fuck is “deed theft”?

    It’s in the 200 block of Jefferson Avenue, and is where family members, friends, and activists stood outside all day on Tuesday in an effort to protect the home. For two years, Charrington has been in a dispute over its deed, even though her family has owned the four-story brownstone for more than 60 years.

    “It’s just like, bananas,” said Charrington’s son, William McFadden, about his mother being in jail. She was declared in contempt of court by the judge in her dispute with developer 227 Group LLC.

    More than a year and a half ago, 227 Group tried to change the locks on the home. The move was captured on surveillance video, which Charrington used, in part, to fight against the developer. She and her family remain in their home.

    ——-

    Cynthia Rosa is a family friend and member of the organization People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft. She said that what they’re seeking for her friend is simple.

    You won’t find out from reading that article. Whatever it is, it’s not fair.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s using legal shenanigans to take over property that doesn’t belond to you.

  11. Derpetologist

    Trucking class let out early today. I’m on break til the 4th.

    AI will take over any task for which it is the slightly cheaper option for the same level of quality.

    My experience with AI art has taught me that it works best with telegraphic, caveman language. Using natural language confuses it. Less is more.

    There’s a story about training an AI to distinguish wolves and dogs. It was doing pretty well except it mislabeled any dog in the snow as a wolf. In the training data, every picture with a wolf had snow in the background.

    how machine learning works
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-EtmaFJieY

  12. kinnath

    My time to hang out at glibs is going to become severely restricted in the near future.

    Transitioning to a new position at megacorp. Open seating allows for non-stop collaboration through the day. Isn’t it wonderful?

    • R.J.

      Oh ,that sounds horrible.

    • bacon-magic

      Learn to fart and pick your nose.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m sure he already has those skills. Most people who were once children do.

    • kinnath

      I’m a hard core introvert.

      Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

      • UnCivilServant

        Does not compute.

        The noise, proximity of people, and lack of privacy would all be psychological stressors for me in such an environment. Even having a cube in a high-traffic spot almost broke me at one point.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Coverup!

    When it comes to public health, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, a Covid-19 vaccine was made available to Americans last year, and according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it made a significant difference in helping people avoid serious illness.

    The bad news is, the Trump administration’s political appointees at the CDC don’t want you to know about the good news. The Washington Post reported:

    A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

    The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.

    ——-

    A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to The New York Times that Bhattacharya intervened because of “concerns” about the research’s “methodology.”

    Part of the problem with this is that there was no reason to question the methodology. The other part of the problem is that Bhattacharya doesn’t exactly have a track record on the issue that inspires confidence in his credibility. In October 2020, as the pandemic continued to claim the lives of thousands of Americans per day, the public was confronted with a highly controversial joint statement called the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which, among other things, argued that public health officials should pursue a radical version of “herd immunity” by allowing Covid to spread untrammeled through the population.

    Keep the gaslights burning.

    • Gender Traitor

      What about Maddcow disease? Any news about that?

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