Making cartoons has become 90% cheaper, thanks to AI

The tech hones storylines, generates imagery and dubs dialogue for overseas audiences

- Brooks Barnes

Just a few years ago, lip-syncing one minute of animation could take up to four hours. An animator would listen to an audio track and laboriously adjust the mouths of characters, frame by frame. But a one-minute scene now takes 15 minutes for an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to sync, including time spent by an artist to refine a few spots by hand.

Toonstar, the start-up behind StEvEn & Parker, uses AI throughout the production process — from honing storylines to generating imagery, to dubbing dialogue for overseas audiences. "By leaning into the technology, we can make full episodes 80 per cent faster and 90 per cent cheaper than industry norms," said Mr John Attanasio, a Toonstar founder.

So far, though, not much has changed. The biggest studios continue to run in much the same way that they did before OpenAI and other AI technology burst onto the scene. Human brains are still much better at creating art than virtual ones. Disney, Universal, Warner Bros and the like are also trying to sort through major concerns about how generative AI software is built, how copyright holders are compensated and how unions might react.

But one thing has become clear: No part of the entertainment business has more to lose — and gain — from AI than animation.

The US$420 billion (S$542 billion) global animation industry has long been dominated by computer-generated imagery; Walt Disney Animation hasn't released a hand-drawn film since 2011.

Even with computers, however, the process of making an animated movie remains extraordinarily expensive, requiring squadrons of artists, animators, graphic designers, 3D modellers and other craftspeople. Studios have a big incentive to find a more efficient way, and AI can already do many of those things far faster, with far fewer people.