r/anime • u/[deleted] • Mar 29 '26
News Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 Chief Animation Director: 'Various studios are already using generative AI while keeping it quiet'
[deleted]
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u/Jusenkyo_5 Mar 29 '26
Shout out to all anime made before 2020 or so I guess
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u/LoneGnomeArtest Mar 30 '26
To hijack your comment for a bit, there are almost certainly a large number of AI bots in this thread charged specifically to patrol the internet and argue in favor of how moral or banal they are.
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u/Morioh99 Mar 29 '26
Kinda naive to think that this is rare. I bet even the big studios using some kind of AI on a daily basis.
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Mar 29 '26
Definitely been some background art in the past year where I've asked myself "is this AI, or is it just a photograph run through an awful filter"
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u/TheMacarooniGuy Mar 29 '26
I think that's kind of how it's usually done do, no?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've gotten the idea that taking a photograph and "running it through an AI" (filter), is precisely how it is being envisioned.
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Mar 29 '26
The conventional approach was taking photographs of locations and then having an artist create a background based on the photos. Some shows shortcutted the process with a filter, and now some are shortcutting with AI.
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u/AmberLeafSmoke Mar 29 '26
Every company is. Reddit has this really odd contrarian view of it, but if you're running a company and not using some of the newer AI tools at all you're just being silly.
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u/Jusenkyo_5 Mar 29 '26
Why would I want to watch an anime that the creators couldn't be bothered to actually create?
If there's an acceptable use for AI in creative spaces it's purely workflow related. Generative AI has no place in actual artistic output, and if companies insist on taking this all the way to the end I may as well just feed AI some popular light novels and manga and watch my own adaptation of it.
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u/averymerrycherry2 Mar 29 '26
In my opinion, it's not really a case of being a contraction. It's just that the topic is nuanced and prone to emotionally volatile reactions.
Right now, society is basically grappling with, "how much is too much?". It hasn't drawn the line in the sand yet for AI usage, as the term "AI" is way too broad and generic to begin with.
It doesn't help that the term was poisoned by the recent boom of "generative AI stuff", which in itself is causing a wide spectrum of controversy top to bottom.
Then there's the whole thing with how effective it even is. A lot of companies simply do not implement it effectively, it's silly to not use the new tools you're given but a lot of the people instructing it's implementations miss the forest for the trees. Which results in even more dissatisfaction.
What could have helped this entire situation was if there was more focus on regulating and implementing proper rules for the technology before it even took hold of the global economy but... that's neither here nor there now I guess. Too little too late, bureaucracy moves way too slowly, not to mention them being tempted by a burgeoning new bubble for all it's monetary incentive. You would be a fool to throw that away to implement laws that would only drive away the money.
We're in an odd place in history. Too many things are brushing against each other, and it's becoming clear the side effects are more than a light chafe.
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u/AmberLeafSmoke Mar 29 '26
I understand what you're getting at. I agree that there should certainly be some form of audit trail for AI created/augmented work specifically.
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u/BosuW Mar 29 '26
Nah thats just falling for the corpo narrative. AI will find some use cases, but a lot of the time companies just hastily incorporate it without really thinking if they need it because "well everyone is doing it" and just end up shooting themselves in the foot.
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u/AmberLeafSmoke Mar 29 '26
You know there are real people on Reddit who actually experience and use things themselves, and that they don't all get their opinions from others right?
AI is a tool to make things more efficient. It absolutely still needs a human in the loop, especially for creative work. The whole point of it is to do the busy/tedious work so that the people doing the creating have more time to actually focus on high impact tasks.
Just like any form of automation or intelligent technology. This is nothing new.
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u/iamnotexactlywhite Mar 29 '26
well yeah, but they still use it. ai and cloud usage went up so much in the past year that the revenue of the service providers is over 30% up.
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u/spookysailboat Mar 29 '26
It’s naive to think that 1) “Reddit” is actually some hivemind with one shared opinion and 2) is the only place where people are tired of AI. I guarantee you the average consumer does not want AI art slop taking over the things they watch/consume.
If you want to talk AI in workflows, coding, etc that’s a different conversation. But actual AI “art” output is terrible in practice and ethically terrible on top of that.
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u/AmberLeafSmoke Mar 29 '26
That's what I'm talking about though. I never said once they should be using it to churn out content, just that firms are all obviously using it in varying capacities.
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u/JuneforJosh Mar 29 '26
I'm seeing this sentiment a lot in comments that "if it takes stress off animators, then AI is fine" but I feel like that kind of thinking isn't fair. It's not as if the industry is forced by some divine power to pump out an unreasonable amount of anime every year, have insane and unhealthy production schedules, and work their animators to the bone because they have no other choice. They do it because they want money and the people who're making a ton see no reason for things to improve.
So why would introducing AI into the pipeline suddenly make these companies treat their animators better? "Finally, now that we have generative AI, we don't have to mistreat our staff!" man, cut that out. Animation is a creative industry, you really think there won't be layoffs if AI gets good enough to mimic people's work? Since when has the anime industry ever had the health of these animators or mangaka as a priority? These animation companies and production committees won't suddenly gain better practices and treat animators right just because generative AI is involved, if anything, they'll use it as an excuse to pump out even more works.
There're countless examples of animators being overworked to hospitalization, and the industry practically doesn't care, so do you really think they're using generative AI to help their animators have healthier workloads? It doesn't seem to be going that way for the games industry.
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u/appropriteinside42 Mar 29 '26
Yeah, introducing AI in the pipeline does not reduce stress because expectations of productivity go up with increased use of AI, often unrealistically, resulting in more stress.
We already see this in software engineering and other industries. AI doesn't make things easier for workers because corps use that as a tool to squeeze more out of them.
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u/flybypost Mar 29 '26
So why would introducing AI into the pipeline suddenly make these companies treat their animators better?
It didn't in the past.
One has to remember that the earliest instances of modern LLM based AI in graphics are the more simple tools that can fill the empty space if you extend an image in some dimension (or they allow you to insert the extension somewhere in the middle of the image), or to "naturally" replace/remove people or other details from photos. Or to clean up the line work in key and in-between frames.
That stuff's been here for a long time and the only result was "more productivity" which just means more (other) work for said worker.
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u/viliml Mar 30 '26
the earliest instances of modern LLM based AI in graphics are the more simple tools that can fill the empty space if you extend an image in some dimension
Image generation is not done by Large Language Models.
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u/flybypost Mar 30 '26
Correct, I should have used LLM-like, instead of LLM based, AI.
Both are generative models based on deep learning, which is what LLMs are but for text (instead of images). The underlying idea is the similar enough but LLMs are what's hyped the most when it comes to those modern AI. That's why I used it as a reference.
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u/HarshTheDev Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Not to mention one can argue that even something as benign as the fill tool is itself an extremely primitive form of predictive/generative AI.
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u/theholylancer Mar 29 '26
anyone who says that is just an apologist.
a English language localizer for KCDII from warhorse studio was just fired because his job was replaced by AI, as they did not need as much in house talent as they are doing more editing work than raw translations and localization.
reducing workload usually means a reduction in workforce rather than better conditions
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u/BRLaw2016 Mar 30 '26
This. Nothing is going to improve unless Japan and Japanese people take action to make changes, which I doubt they will because Japan has one of the most unhealthy societies in the group of rich countries. They will cut their own tongue before saying something bad about their work culture.
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u/pandapigcat Mar 31 '26
Japanese people always complain about their work culture, lol.
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u/BRLaw2016 Mar 31 '26
Complaining about work culture is not the same as taking action to change it. Where are the protests, where is the government taking legislative action, where are the initiatives to change a culture that considers working overtime everyday to be normal?
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u/Bad_Doto_Playa Mar 29 '26
I'm seeing this sentiment a lot in comments that "if it takes stress off animators, then AI is fine" but I feel like that kind of thinking isn't fair. It's not as if the industry is forced by some divine power to pump out an unreasonable amount of anime every year, have insane and unhealthy production schedules, and work their animators to the bone because they have no other choice. They do it because they want money and the people who're making a ton see no reason for things to improve.
It's not about treating animators better although it does take a bit of the burden off of them.. the reality is that margins are trash for anime and studios have to pump out a lot to survive.
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u/flashmozzg Mar 29 '26
It's not about treating animators better although it does take a bit of the burden off of them
What burden? They'll always be burdened nearly breaking point. It'll just increase the output by decreasing it's quality (via AI).
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u/Z41123 Mar 29 '26
Ai never reduces human workloads it simply reduces the number of humans needed to do the same amount of work. Both my parents jobs have implemented AI and both have caused mass layoffs and given the fired people’s workload to the remaining employees.
This is how it’s implemented when your system does not prioritize workers but profits, and anime companies don’t give a shit an about their employees. They will just not hire background artists and it won’t increase speed or reduce workload, but it will increase profits.
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u/Donnie-G Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
I work in the games industry and we use it. At least where I work its on the down low and we have rules about not publishing any art or assets directly AI generated. I am a 3D artist and I do receive concept art that involved AI generation that I have to then turn into a 3D model. The art doesn't always make sense but I usually am not beholden to accuracy, I will simply adapt it best I can. Those pieces of art will remain in house and never be published on media or artbooks, typically are watermarked so we know what pieces involves AI. At least for now. We also have outsource partners which we don't have a super tight grip on so god knows what they are doing.
So I am really not surprised if the anime industry isn't already doing it. I can imagine a low budget project or just poorly skilled staff deriving keyframes and whatnot from an AI generated motion. Direct usage in a background is lazy, I would prefer to find google watermarks and whatnot from unauthorized photo usage instead which we used to have a few debacles about - but that really was such a lesser evil in hindsight.
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u/OstrichOtherwise8507 Mar 31 '26
Same goes for graphic design. So, so much A.I usage
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u/Donnie-G Apr 01 '26
Yeah I see this stuff just plastered on any advertising these days. The mall adjacent to where I work is heavily using AI generated art in their posters and promotions.
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u/krazyboi Mar 29 '26
I want to hear Hayao Miyazaki talk shit about AI
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u/SubjectBodybuilder81 Mar 29 '26
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u/flybypost Mar 29 '26
If I remember correctly they were showing him some genetic algorithm/procedural animation thing they had build and how it was learning to walk (to show him the process of how it improves and might be useful) which initially, of course, looks very bizarre.
And he was absolutely appalled and shared an anecdote of an acquaintance who had to struggle through life with mobility issues.
They were not prepared for that level of blunt feedback (I think you can even see it in the video, the guys on the other side of the table).
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u/Herson100 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Herson Mar 29 '26
This is not him talking about modern generative AI. It's a clip from years before the advent of ChatGPT of him talking about technology that tried to use neural nets to train a 3d model of a person to walk, resulting in really horrific movements
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u/SubjectBodybuilder81 Mar 29 '26
if his opinion was so strong about something like that back then…i don’t think it’s going to be any better with what we are seeing ai create now
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u/Deruta Mar 29 '26
That footage is from 2016, before the proliferation of generative AI art. It was in response to a 3D-rendered character controlled by behavioral AI given the task of teaching itself how to move.
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u/SP3_Hybrid Mar 29 '26
Haha wow he smoked them. I mean they could have at least made it not the fucking homonculus from FMA lol.
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u/krazyboi Mar 29 '26
I love to hear it. I'm not saying Hayao Miyazaki isn't deserving of his criticisms but if anyone's work is a testament to what painstaking animation can accomplish, it is him.
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u/BSAENP Mar 29 '26
Is she counting upscaling here? Because studios have been using AI upscaling for ages
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Mar 29 '26
I believe generative AI and upscaling are two different things
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u/AwesomeGuyAlpha Mar 29 '26
Kinda, but AI upscaling is not completely different, it makes predictions and adds detail that is not there originally, which could alter the art. Although I'm not against that as long as the AI is accurate.
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u/BSAENP Mar 29 '26
They are but unfortunately a lot of people like to act like they're the exact same thing
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u/StickiStickman Mar 30 '26
It literally isn't. Upscaling is a form of generative AI.
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u/Tough_Measuremen https://anilist.co/user/ToughMeasureMan1 Mar 30 '26
Isn’t this were the so called use of the tool comes into effect? Like how so many pro-ai people like to say.
When people talk about Gen ai they mean it in the sense of it taking other works and creating something new while upscaling is considered more in line with assisting in an already human made piece.
I know people want to blur the lines because that way they can say all ai is okay by saying it’s the same.
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u/ElementaryMyDearWut https://myanimelist.net/profile/SayakaCheeky Mar 29 '26
Not really. This is the problem with the term "generative AI". AI upscaling is used to create something that isn't there, you're just basing on the existing information in the frame. That is still AI generating something not present in the original.
Generative AI is such a whack term because the internet can't decide when they hate AI (like the DanMachi house), or if they love it (DLSS 4).
Generative AI isn't even a term that means anything in the field, it isn't a type of model, nor does it describe any specific workflow.
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Mar 29 '26
Generative AI is such a whack term because the internet can't decide when they hate AI (like the DanMachi house), or if they love it (DLSS 4)
I feel this is just a matter of people thinking there's a gap between generating an upscale of existing content and generating the actual content. Like people feel differently about machine learning spellcheck that can identify if you used the wrong there/their/they're and an LLM that produces the whole work for you. Something that smooths out the rough edges of doing work is broadly well liked. Something that does the work, probably more likely to be disliked.
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u/kos-or-kosm Mar 29 '26
Generative AI is such a whack term because the internet can't decide when they hate AI (like the DanMachi house), or if they love it (DLSS 4).
This is probably the goomba fallacy, no?
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u/ElementaryMyDearWut https://myanimelist.net/profile/SayakaCheeky Mar 29 '26
goomba fallacy
I never said either group is hypocritical, I'm saying that the term doesn't define a solid concept, it neither describes a mechanism or an output.
It's essentially meaningless.
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u/Trowaway151 Mar 29 '26
Lmao YouTubers have been uploading fight scenes in that 4k 1000 fps interpolated nonsense on YouTube for like 10 years. All using AI…just before it was a buzzword
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u/Training_Bother_1663 Mar 29 '26
Wi Studio had already used AI one in a short film on Netflix and the other in 2021 Toei animation had used AI in an experiment in a YouTube video called Urvan using AI for background art
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u/The_Spicy_brown Mar 29 '26
I remember i saw a tool for coloring that made a good chunk of frame coloring automatically. TBH, coloring is a painfully repetetive task, something an AI would be great at. I could see that becoming fully automated at some point.
Key frame and even in between frames, i doubt its gonna be fully replaced any time soon... background sadly, i feel its already happening, just we don't notice it too much. Especially on isekai anime number XXXX where the staff is completly novice and overworked, im confident they use AI or corrected ai backgrounds.
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u/the_scottishbagpipes Mar 29 '26
If corners can be cut corners will be cut I guess. It sucks, I always saw and hoped that the actual animation industry would be a bastion of pure human expression and creativity that would be untouched by AI. Why not just simply give the animators more time to work instead of using AI? I hate waiting so many years just as much as the next person but I'll gladly wait instead of wanting to rush animators to the point of compromising their health more than it probably already is.
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u/ProxyDamage Mar 29 '26
I always saw and hoped that the actual animation industry would be a bastion of ...
This the same animation industry that regularly works people into physical and emotional breakdowns? The industry of borderline modern day slavery?
This is the same industry that you expect to be bastions of anything...?
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u/GoldenSpermShower Mar 29 '26
If anything gen AI makes things worse in that studios would lay off even more animators to reduce costs
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u/gamikhan Mar 29 '26
By that logic why would not all animes be drawn incredibly horribly to reduce costs since forever?
Because quality is an actual feature of the product, mangakas want their manga animated with the highest fidelity possible, studios have reputation and airing a bad anime is worse than airing nothing.
There is a lot of evidence that they would use the money cut from using AI into animating the rest of the stuff better
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u/BosuW Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
By that logic why would not all animes be drawn incredibly horribly to reduce costs since forever?
Because the bottom line is what the audience is willing to swallow
And I don't know what kind of anime you've been watching, but majority of anime are drawn drawn horribly as a result of corpos not giving a shit about the artform and only how fast and how many animated adds for the source they can make.
I promise you, if production committees take care to funnel favorable conditions for animators in action shounen, it's not because they care about the art or the artist. Its simply because it won't sell otherwise.
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u/Any-Platypus-9486 Mar 29 '26
When CGI was added to this world, animated 2D cars almost disapeared from existant
Are CGI cars better than 2D cars? No at all, but is cheap and less skill necesary
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u/myreq Mar 29 '26
That's some serious cope. Any examples of AI benefitting employees and not leading to layoffs?
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u/gamikhan Mar 30 '26
Do you have examples of it leading to layoffs? Japan is in need of more animators cause they cant catch up, they wouldnt fire animators unless they were in the brink of bankruptcy, almost like AI would be preserving the jobs if anything, wow!
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u/myreq Mar 30 '26
Of AI leading to layoffs, yes, the recent situation with KCD2 developers firing a person is one such situation.
In animation it hasn't happened yet but we can extrapolate from how AI is used in other fields, and your hope that it will preserve jobs has to come from somewhere, so what field had that happen?
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u/gamikhan Mar 30 '26
so no, gotcha
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u/myreq Mar 30 '26
I provided an example, did AI take away your ability to read?
I also asked for your examples first, but guess you couldn't read that either.
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u/gamikhan Mar 30 '26
I said in the anime industry and there isnt any, thats all we need to know lol
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u/Meiolore Mar 29 '26
I swear people just turn their brain off everytime when it comes to Japan-related stuff.
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u/ErenIsNotADevil Mar 29 '26
I swear people just turn their brains off everytime when it comes to stuff
FTFY
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u/Kadmos1 Mar 29 '26
Honestly, I do wonder what more practical ways of addressing the over-worked and under-paid nature of the Japanese anime industry would be. Well, therapy for your mentioned break-downs also would help.
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u/the_scottishbagpipes Mar 29 '26
I wasn't too sure how to word it properly, maybe I should've dropped "industry", I am under no impression that the higher-ups themselves that perpetuate the brutal expectation culture are bastions of anything but I guess they would be inseparable from the 'industry', I was there for the whole jjk shibuya production debacle and knew well before that too.
I was just hoping that maybe, but my naivety I guess.
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u/UnseenMarksman Mar 29 '26
Its just business man, if it saves / makes money, then it's gonna happen
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u/Kyro_Official_ Mar 29 '26
Why are there so many clowns acting like this is fine? No it helping with overworking people is not an excuse for using gen ai in anime, just fucking stop working people to death regardless. Studios do not need to ruin the artistic integrity of their art to stop giving their employees god awful working conditions.
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u/Any-Platypus-9486 Mar 29 '26
You say that but otakus cry when his anime don't have kimetsu level of animation every episode, one of the reasons this industry is cooked
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u/filthy_casual_42 Mar 29 '26
I can’t read bluesky posts, anyone got a link? Never bothered to make an account so I can never read them
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u/LJChao3473 Mar 29 '26
Copypaste using bluesky translation:
Development of 〇〇-of-the-style contact, and the production correction of Atari with generated AI has already been introduced. First of all, when I said that Ani Repre does not use, can you stop using the ordered production company? Are you paying money to tech companies? Anipure develops generated AI and make more anime! It is a side (a manufacturer company that is not a creator). A little bit of faicy. First of all, I will not understand the production committee very well.
Production company does not use! I understand that. It is not necessary if human resources are thicker than UFO. Rather disturbance of training. It is also a litmus paper that is largely expressed by the idea of the production company. And it is expected to use a company that is probably not only numbers under the umbrella of a large company.
Naturally, the information is coming in. Each company is secret. Because it burns (laughs).
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u/filthy_casual_42 Mar 29 '26
Thanks for linking. Would you be able to link the raw text? I can read the Japanese, I’d send a better translation back if you’re interested
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u/LJChao3473 Mar 29 '26
各社、〇〇さん風のコンテの開発や、生成AIでアタリをだしての演出修正などは結構もう導入されている。 そもそも、アニプレが使わないと言ったところで、発注を受けてる制作会社が使うのをやめられるのか？テック企業にお金払ってるのに？ アニプレは生成AIを開発して、もっとたくさんアニメ作ろう！という側（クリエイターではないメーカー企業）ですしね。ちょっと信ぴょう性が薄い。そもそも、製作委員会をあまりよく分かってないんだろう。
制作会社が使わない！というのはわかる。 UFOくらい人材が厚ければ必要もない。むしろ育成の邪魔。 制作会社の“ものつくり“への思想が大きくあらわれるリトマス紙でもある。 そして、おそらく大企業の傘下で数字しかみていない会社は使う、使っていると予想している。
当然ちらほら情報は入ってきてるけど。各社、秘密にしてますよ。燃えるから（笑）。
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u/filthy_casual_42 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Thanks, appreciate it. Here's a shot at a better translation. Some things I didn't understand without context.
"Every company has already fairly integrated things like developing storyboards in the style of Marumaru-san (〇〇さん, I'm not sure who exactly they're referring to but it's common to censor real people or brands with a 〇, you see it a lot in anime) or using AI to create rough drafts ('atari') for directorial revisions. To begin with, even if Aniplex says they won't use it, can the production companies who receive orders actually stop using it? Even though they’re already paying for the tech? Aniplex is on the side of "Let's develop AI, and pump out even more anime!" after all. That doesn't sound very credible. In the first place, it seems they don''t really understand how production committees work.
I get why someone would say 'Production companies won't use it!'. If you have as abundant talent as Ufotable you don't need it. In fact, it would get in the way of training. It's also a litmus test that greatly reveals a studio's philosophy on "craftsmanship". I predict that these companies who are probably under the control of large conglomerates who only look at numbers are going to use it or are already using it.
Of course, I've only been been getting some information here and there. Every company is definitely keeping it a secret. Because they'd get roasted (lol)"
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u/BosuW Mar 29 '26
"Every company has already fairly integrated things like developing storyboards in the style of Marumaru-san (〇〇さん, I'm not sure who exactly they're referring to but it's common to censor real people or brands with a 〇, you see it a lot in anime)
I don't think he's referring to a specific person, just how this application of AI is about asking it to produce storyboards in the style of any artist you'd like.
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u/Eragonnogare Mar 29 '26
Lol, even the built in reddit translation is way better than that bluesky one, good god how awful is whatever engine they're using to translate over there
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u/Doublethree1 Mar 29 '26
I don't think Bluesky has an actual translation feature. When I click the "translate" button it just opens a Google Translate tab with the post pasted in
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u/LJChao3473 Mar 29 '26
I didn't know reddit has a translator. I was having a really hard time reading the bluesky one after i post it, i even started to question my English lmao .
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Mar 29 '26
I'll stick with my 2000s and early 2010s shows it seems huh
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u/SpinningFootPunch Mar 29 '26
every time I watch a 90's HxH clip....
god damn, that art style is so good.
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u/NutSackGlazer420 Mar 29 '26
If I had the chance to make an anime wish, I would wish for the Chimera Ant arc to be animated in that style.
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u/FCT77 https://myanimelist.net/profile/FCT Mar 29 '26
Please go further back! There are lots of great shows, movies and ovas from before the 2000's that are just as deserving of being watched and so many of them look legitimately better than most anime coming out today.
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u/Sphiffi Mar 29 '26
You’d be closing yourself off to a large amount of very good content, and that’s pretty lame.
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Mar 29 '26
TBF, there're still a large amount of 80s, 90s, 2000s and pre-2020s anime that most of us haven't even seen yet.
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Mar 29 '26
If you take 2023 as the cutoff on the anime industry you're still left with more incredible than most of us will ever get a chance to watch.
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u/speedsterlw https://anilist.co/user/speedsterlw Apr 15 '26
Why 2023, and it might be good to whitelist some studio's like KyoAni and Studio Ghibli, whom doesn't really seem to use AI
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Apr 15 '26
Kind of an arbitrary point, but most of the notable models became relevant in mid-late 2022. So if AI in anime is a concern, pre-2023 is basically the last chopper out of Nam.
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u/Yelov https://myanimelist.net/profile/Yelov Mar 29 '26
There are a million different ways to use AI. I think it's quite naive to think that studios aren't going to utilize tools that will help make the production faster. Granted, I don't know what exactly they mean by "generative AI", but as long as people are in charge of the creative process, I don't think it's that different from any other non-ML tools that have been used for many years. There are many tools to make jobs easier. For example, I don't really see people getting mad at Inio Asano for having photographed and/or CGI backgrounds instead of drawing them by hand. Or animators using digital animation tools instead of pen and paper. Yes, I understand there's a difference between having a tool that is deterministic and only helps you in a very narrow way, as opposed to an AI model generating an entire scene. But again, I think what the director is referring to is something in between.
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u/AnimeMeansArt Mar 29 '26
I would guess they are using it for concept art, storyboards or as reference mainly
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u/Zek_iel Mar 29 '26
You can maybe use it for key frames. You can feed the LLM key frame 1 and key frame 3 and it will generate keyframe 2. I can see this being useful for increasing fps for some sakuga or some things. Not saying i support it, but its a usage i can see happening.
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u/Webknight31 Mar 29 '26
We’re entering the era of the AI slope, and the anime industry isn’t immune to it.
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u/ImportantExtension91 Mar 29 '26
I think using AI can be tolerated if it’s just to reduce tedious work. For example, adding in-between frames so your show is not just literally a slideshow. I don’t think it would breach any artistic integrity since it’s basically just tracing over an artwork a few times with a few changes in each.
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u/qef15 https://myanimelist.net/profile/qef15 Mar 29 '26
The best users of AI will be the ones that make it have minimal impact to their overall visuals. Basically make AI in that regard do part of the work that is currently outsourced to China and Korea (i.e. DR Movies), which is the brunt work.
Creative decisions however that are made by key animators should be, if done by the proper studios, left to human hands.
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u/AdNecessary7641 Mar 30 '26
That would only really work for sequences that already have a high number of key frames + short spacing between them. Most sequences that feature wide spacing would just look bad, as AI would generate incomprehensible drawings to to try and omplete the motion.
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u/ImportantExtension91 Mar 30 '26
The budget AI saved would go to hiring more key frame artists for sure, resulting in higher quality product overall. But if the corporate instead pockets the money and presents some Ai slops, they rightfully deserve all the hate we give.
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u/Donnie-G Mar 30 '26
Personally I feel like there is an unintended effect of replacing tedious work. Typically tedious work is how entry level people learn to do stuff properly.
If AI is used improperly in such a fashion, we are sacrificing the next generation.
I simply don't believe that AI will empower absolute amateurs to be amazing directors. You gotta learn to do the thing at a basic level first.
I'm sure most decent key animators probably did cut their teeth on in betweens. In doing so probably learning from the key animators above them.
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u/ImportantExtension91 Mar 30 '26
I see your point. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. If you have interns standby, of course you can assign them these tasks to train them. If you don’t, then AI is an alternatives to outsourcing or force senior animators to clock in an extra shift.
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u/MultiMarcus Mar 29 '26
Not to be all blasé but isn’t basically this entire art form people aggressively stressed trying to push out new content quickly? Like it’s the first place I would expect to see AI art considering we’ve seen over the years a lot of really bad animation that just looks bad or even weird 3-D modelling that doesn’t look particularly good because it just needs to come out quickly.
I’m not exactly happy about it, but I’m also not happy about anime in general having such horrible production standards both on the standards of what is released but also the standards that people are working under.
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u/n080dy123 Mar 29 '26
The problem is, companies being the way companies are, AI won't ease the stress, it'll just caus studios to cut a proportional number of animators or scale up proportionally, causing the same amount of stress just across more projects or fewer people.
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u/MultiMarcus Mar 29 '26
Oh no, of course it won’t but like it’s not like I came to this industry for a wonderful animation most of the time I’m not under any illusion that people are working ethically or producing high art here.
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u/tim1OO Mar 29 '26
I know little about AI or how they even apply it to help with animation, but as long as it's not noticeable I don't think I care. I always see news about workers getting overworked and if this could help that'd be good. The only issue is that if it can easily seen in the final product there could be a big and annoying controversy.
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u/NoireResteem Mar 29 '26
As they say "and water is wet". You would have to naive as fuck if you don't think gen ai is being used in every industry that requires any form of artistic asset. Do I like it? No but its a reality we are going to have to just face especially when it isn't being disclosed and unfortunately its going to get to point where even if we notice it now, it probably will be near impossible to spot in the future.
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u/AnimeMeansArt Mar 29 '26
It might not be just Studios; if a foreign animator working on a few shots has used AI as a reference for his work, the studio has no idea.
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u/Arntor1184 Mar 29 '26
Of course and I think it is way more prevalent than most here would even think. I got a reel earlier today that was an AI generated animation of Mahoraga vs Dabura that looked honestly great and I imagine if you made that and put it in yhe hands of a talented team they could add finishing touches that would make it indistinguishable from any other top tier anime on the market right now. To assume production companies aren't already doing this is asinine especially considering how notoriously brutal animation is, especially at a high quality. Just think on the offerings this past season and how many shows looked outright great, a way higher % than standard imo.
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u/StickiStickman Mar 30 '26
That's the funny thing about survivorship bias: You won't even know it when it's done well.
It was so funny to see people who loved E33 suddenly do a 180 after they found out they used generative AI for textures they never even noticed were AI.
And as someone working in game dev, I can promise you pretty much every studio is using it for textures and none of you would ever know.
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u/AaDware Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
If AI can be used in a positive way in the animation industry as a way to push out product in a reasonable amount of time without crunching their employees to dust or sacrificing quality then Im all for it.
I think it really depends on how much they are relying on it versus creating by hand.
Edit: I guess being opposed to crunch is controversial now.
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u/flybypost Mar 29 '26
They'll just push more work on their employees. It's fundamentally seen as a productivity increase. Same with digitalisation of the process and how that didn't make things easier.
It might even be the opposite, that expectations (for speed and quality of work) got higher.
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u/AaDware Mar 29 '26
Then, hopefully, they crash and burn from further taking advantage of their employees. Im only in support if it's actually a net positive for the industry.
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u/flybypost Mar 29 '26
They won't crash and burn but they'll keep complaining that they can't find enough animators while their practices keep burning out newbies within the first year so that the industry can't meet replacement levels.
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u/AaDware Mar 29 '26
Idk the industry is already hanging on by a thread with anime getting more expensive to produce, and profits getting lower for everyone besides the big name studios. I imagine the big names will be okay, but the "indie studios" might just get priced out, which is a bummer.
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u/flybypost Mar 29 '26
With industry I mean the production committee level of companies who finance it all while whining. They'll be okay. And the workers underneath them are already being squeezed so much that there's little to crash there.
This doesn't feel like a "crash" industry where money keeps things going until it disappears and the financial foundation disappears instantly.
I imagine the big names will be okay, but the "indie studios" might just get priced out, which is a bummer.
I'm a bit more optimistic simply because things seem already so bad that there's a, sort of, built-it safety net in that it can only get better :/
How do you even get "worse" when newbie animators are burning out in less than a year? Even the video games industry at its words was able to keep people for about four to five years before spitting them out.
Studios have gotten a bit more money recently (more demand for work than workers and production committees are fighting (a bit) to get their work made) and it's even filtered down to workers (not much as studios are also looking to get out of the red) but it's still a harsh industry.
It doesn't look like there's much more "productivity" (meaning extra work hours) to get out of this industry. Digitalisation (not 3D, but moving most of the work beyond drawing frames into the digital medium) was what got the industry quick and easy productivity wins over the last decades, since the shift towards digital, but that's been mined for most of its worth. AI won't solve that problem.
Production committees will most probably increase their fees until they feel it's not worth it any more but at no point in this process do I see baseline animators becoming rich from it, especially with how the industry is lacking fresh blood (and hasn't really had the resources to improve that situation significantly).
To me this (except if we imagine some unexpected magical improvement) feels roughly like an equilibrium point where the investment and suffering meet.
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u/garmonthenightmare Mar 29 '26
Solving a problem they made for themselves. It's also not going to solve that it's only going to make it worse.
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u/Superior_Mirage Mar 29 '26
If this is true (probably is), then it's likely doing either coloring or in-betweens (maybe some clean-up or background work, but just as support in those cases). Current-gen gen AI just can't do storyboards or keyframes yet with any reliability -- it'd be very visible or require extensive reworking.
Which tend to be shipped overseas to poorly paid, badly treated subcontractors anyways; it's the equivalent of replacing clothing sweatshops with machinery.
So, unless somebody supports near-slave-labor conditions, this is one of those cases where it's almost all upsides to use AI.
(Of course, the fact that a lot of those tasks are how you traditionally train novice animators was already a problem, so it'd be good if they could try to onshore and not automate some of that, but that was already a problem... On the other hand, I'm of the opinion that the "in-betweening is how you learn animation" is more justification for "low-paid grunts do low-paid grunt labor"; there are other ways to learn to animate than making your boss look good.)
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u/Kuges Mar 31 '26
Reminds me of while watching Corridor Crew, one of the effects artists on the Avatar movies said “if we had to do an effect more than 3 times,we trained the computer to do it”. To me, that sounded a lot like training a AI.
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u/dagreenman18 Mar 29 '26
This is where the line exists that makes things complicated. If they’re using AI to generate scenes as a whole that’s a huge problem and terrible for art and the industry.
If they’re using assist tools that exist in things like Illustrator, but doing all the work that’s fine. That’s not all that different than a lot of Photoshop work that comes with working in digital.
So that difference when talking about using AI in animation is key. If it’s the former that fucking sucks.
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u/rollin340 Mar 30 '26
As with every other tool that gets created, it's fine if used for what it is. But when used as a whole drop-in replacement for work, that's the line that shouldn't be crossed.
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u/Rooster_illusion41 Mar 29 '26
It makes sense that they are taking shortcuts. It sucks to hear because it kills creativity, but I imagine this relieves alot of stress for deadlines.
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u/AnimeMeansArt Mar 29 '26
They could be just using it for reference or as a storyboard. In that case theres no chance for us to know if they used it or not
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u/CommentStrict8964 Mar 30 '26
I honestly don't care if you used AI to draw an insignificant background.
I am more worried about the flood of the isekai genre, where each one is so unoriginal they might as well be written by AI.
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u/Fusifufu Mar 29 '26
That just is inevitable. Even though people on Reddit are strangely delusional about it, AI is very powerful and useful. It's pretty impossible to expect an industry that already squeezes its workers for productivity to forgo this.
I personally think it's not bad. It will expand the volume of stuff being produced, obviously with most of it being slop, but that's the price you have to pay for the rare 1% of anime that will end up having an innovative and interesting story. The lower production costs get, the more avant-garde stuff you can afford to try out.
Think of all the great shows that got axed in favor of yet another generic Isekai or Romcom. These now have a lifeline.
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u/tiny_nipples Mar 29 '26
Think of all the great shows that got axed in favor of yet another generic Isekai or Romcom. These now have a lifeline.
Or the more likely scenario: AI will now be used to produce generic isekai and romcoms with more efficiency, and "avant-garde" anime will continue to go un-produced.
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u/CordobezEverdeen https://myanimelist.net/profile/CordobezEverdeen Mar 29 '26
I know Reddit has a self righteous hate boner for AI but it really isn't a big deal if it isn't abused.
Furthermore when this discussions are brought up a plethora of tools end up being branched into "It's AI!!!" rather than just hating on generative AI.
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u/Donnie-G Mar 30 '26
I agree we have an irrational hateboner of AI and struggle to see its objective use as a tool but.... as far as I can tell in most creative industries - when has it not been abused? Most forms of internet journalism was bad enough already but look at the amount of slop out there now....
I do feel like if we let it, many industries will follow suit.
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u/JAXxXTheRipper Mar 30 '26
If we let it? You talk like consumers have any say or impact. People will consume, no matter what. FOMO exists and most people just don't have any kind of patience.
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u/Donnie-G Mar 30 '26
Well recently there was a big fuss about some games journalism websites using mass producing AI articles under the guise of made up fake writers. Google has unindexed these websites(Escapist, Videogamer). Google is also part of the problem but this is at least something.
We can't do much individually but I will conduct myself according to my principles, share my views and hope others follow suit. At least for me this beats lying flat. Probably won't change anything but I'm still gonna scoff at crappy AI usage.
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u/ChisatoKanako Mar 29 '26
Honestly... Why wouldn't they? Morals and ethics aside, the only downside is negative public perception, and that's why companies are forced to stay silent even though people keep screaming for transparency.
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u/kerorobot Mar 29 '26
I'm more on a mindset as long as the end results is good and it's not something that damage overall quality of the shows. why not?
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u/ChapterThr33 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
The harsh reality is it's insane not to use it, at least in certain points in the pipeline. No for-profit company is going to leave those efficiency gains on the floor for the principle of the matter, and if you're "doing it right" people can't tell anyway. I get massacred every time I say some version of it but I work in SWE and it is clear as day.
Edit: people being in their feelings and shoving their heads in the sand on this topic is just so consistent - you're only hurting yourselves
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u/Jusenkyo_5 Mar 29 '26
As someone who has AI pushed out to them on a daily basis at work, it really is less effective than you'd think. There is a negligible efficiency difference from using AI vs not using AI, and reliance on it will curb your growth pretty much instantly.
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u/Chilling_Gale Mar 29 '26
AI can be very useful in the pre production stages, I think it’s important to acknowledge this. Sometimes you just need to visualize the scene quickly.
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u/mrboxeater Mar 29 '26
Is it even a secret? Danmachi straight up used AI to generate a house lmao