AI Animation is Here...But Is It Any Good?

[@harveynewman]

AI is evolving fast, and tools like Sora AI, Deepseek, and ChatGPT are pushing the boundaries of animation. But does AI-generated animation capture the soul of human creativity, or are we losing something in the process? What do YOU think? Is AI a tool for animators or a threat to artistry? Drop your thoughts below! Also, have you seen Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas ad? Did it feel magical or… off? 🎅🏽Let’s discuss!

[@pingaswingas1]

I think AI might make people realize that art is about the human connection. AI can't capture a feeling, it can only mimic someone who did. In the future we're probably gonna see tons of movies, games, and TV shows with AI in them, but the ones made by the skilled artists will stand out above the rest.

[@harveynewman]

Yeah Pingas, just like watching movies from the early 2000's with really bad VFX, Star Wars specifically doesn't hold up...I reckon as you mentioned we will look back at this time and go "What where we thinking?!"

[@idabrinck-lund9744]

For 25 years I have been in the animated industry seeing my creative teams creative something with a huge heart and then it gets approved and 200 people animate in india og china. Now I have a chance of creating everything right close to home with AI. I say it is the biggest power to the creatives we have seen in decades. We are now finally able to reach magic with having to finance gigantic setups. Coca cola is just playing with the magic bringing animals and stuff they cant film sticking to their dreamy wolrd - you can say its about miney, but its also about crossing the impossible. Power to us creatives!!!

[@michal4736]

From my animator's point of view, the best way to use AI is only as a quality-of-life tool, not a crucial decision tool. AI may help with rigging and other technical stuff which is needed but...arduous (?) I would say. It would we awesome to optimize as well, in general, any stuff that is disturbing for the animator to let him 100% focus on animations. In my opinion, any tries to replace an animatorwithy an AI will fall because it's not a case of the industrial revolution where many basic stuff were totally replaced by machines. I would see AI rather as a quality of life changer.

[@harveynewman]

Yeah Micahl...completely, this is why I think the future is bright and in due time we will have tools that will save us time so we can focus on the creative aspects only to truly innovate. Just like the 9 Old Men needed to hire in in-betweeners so they could focus on the storytelling poses and on the money shots...I think AI will serve a similar purpose in the future.

[@nikhilsolanki956]

The problem will arise when a non-artist person starts doing work with the help of AGI, as commercial ad companies will prioritize quantity over quality to save money. Since these companies only care about the end result, they won't differentiate between work created manually or with AI." And lots of companies are doing fully ai generated ads. they are not hiring 3d artist and graphics designer.

[@michal4736]

@nikhilsolanki956 this is a possible scenario in a short time. Imagine that suddenly it will appear tons of non-artist content made, mostly by the AI. In this case, we will have tons of the same, low-quality content and the state where companies will need to make a better quality product to show something else than bugged trash on the market. What else? Skilled animators using AI can still be able to make better animations than casual ones.

[@3Dasha]

I think AI can help with some technical details like rigging. But I don't like when people use AI instead of imagination. It just shows lack of respect to the audience and lack of respect to art itself (especially if the companies push employees to use AI, because "it's an industry standard now").

[@harveynewman]

Couldn't agree more Dasha..pushing AI because is the new normal must be horrible and it's a recipe for standard ideas and standard products. It will be a sad world if this becomes the majority of the creative industry.

[@Animationcafe]

Hi Harvey, thanks for the video) Personally I'm not afraid of AI, yes it will fill a niche and leave some people out of work, same with mocap. But AI will not kill animation or artists or whoever.... in our studio has not yet found how to use AI except for the generation of funny pictures, most of my colleagues from other studios the same opinion. And one of my friends on the contrary found a job because he needed a designer with skills to generate pictures).

[@harveynewman]

Yeah I found the same with most studios. And I was asked the same question on a webinar recently and most studios only go as far as using image creation to perhaps inform the art department what they have in mind but no one that I’m aware is using AI assets as final in games at the moment. I think it would make for a very dull game.

[@morbid1.]

All this generic AI is the same. Soft, uncanny, lack of any direction, doesn't have any dynamic also has this wet look to it and feels like everything is made of some jelly. My friend send me some AI generated stuff to the music and honestly it was bad because you could literally do the same thing but with real life footage downloaded from YT or any other site. AI will get better and better in terms of quality look but we all know that's now how things are made. My biggest problem with AI is that it intention is to cut people for profit of those who make all the money and CREATE NOTHING. Irony is that AI could easily replace CEO and other c-level people saving most money on their salaries and stupid decision.

[@harveynewman]

100% agree, I think when people at the C level start to get replaced with an AI they will finally stop focusing on profits and focus more on getting back to making original art and products. We will get there I believe. They are afraid, but at the moment is making a lot of money and therefore there's no problem.

[@morbid1.]

@@harveynewman yeah... AI is made by people who hate art or never did any art themselves... you know what AI I need. Fucking constrain AI that will analyse a all finger positions and pencil in hand and fix the fucking clipping that I need to fix frame by frame or AI that will fix feet sliding... there is tons of things actual good AI could fix. (yes I'm looking at 700 frames of mocap that I need to add pencil to hand)