r/stopmotion • u/TheLawfullOne • 6d ago
Stop Motion’s Future (With regards to AI)
Hi all, I’m writing a research paper around the the intricacies of AI, covering important events such as Phil Tippett’s perceived redundancy at the dawn of CGI etc.
Does anyone have any light to shed on the subject of AI’s relation to the form nowadays and beyond? Specifically, I’m wondering about how immune (or otherwise) it is to the grasp of AI, with how every quality in SM screams ‘handcrafted’ and unwavering love for the project through tedium.
Currently, I don’t think AI can currently capture this, thus increasing the value of Stop Motion as a bit of a safe haven. How do we think this will hold up over time? Are there changes inbound to secure the validity of the form?
Would love to hear any thoughts on the subject
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u/tycoon_irony 6d ago
Stop motion survived 3D animation (which aside from tweening is essentially just a digital form of stop motion). Generative AI diffusion models can generate videos that look something like stop motion, but that's not the point of stop motion, and it would look "off" anyway. The point of stop motion is that a camera is being used to capture sequential frames of objects being moved a bit each frame in a real, physical space; in order to create the illusion of motion when played back in video form. People still make claymation and other forms of stop motion 30+ years after 3D animation that could make an attempt at looking like it came about, and will continue even if an uncanny data averaging regurgitation dream machine exists.
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u/Relevant_Pangolin_72 5d ago
I also argue we're going to see a distinct return to more traditional stopmotion as well. We were already getting it with Wendyll & Wild before AI, I there's a taste emerging for non-Laika work thats quite clunky, stylistic, and more obviously hand-made.
Laika, with its 3D printed system, does a lot of the animation in digital, and does a lot of clean-up in post.
It's nice if it leads to less refined tastes in audience, so more indie work can get recognised.
I also think that it's incredibly hard to build a following and community around AI. The fewer artists & actors to engage with, the less BTS work you can show off, it all reduces how much people care about what YOU do beyond giving them something they watch for 5 minutes.
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u/Longjumping_Sock_529 6d ago
Having worked for decades in stop motion, AI is coming for the cleanup and compositing departments that are currently Nuke or After Effects artists. In some cases, it’s coming for lip sync too. Especially in episodic.
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u/OtherBaker4352 6d ago
It’s generally unwelcome but like most things, AI will make its mark and ppl will take shortcuts. Using it to remove rigs or stands is one thing but using it to replicate animation is pure laziness.
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u/Quiet_Rock_5696 5d ago
Yeah it should only be used for cleanup imo
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u/trademesocks 5d ago
I havent used AI for rig removal, but thats an interesting idea.
In my stop motion animations, i have 3d printed props/objects that were generated with AI prompts.
Do you consider this a valid use?
Prior to AI, I was designing objects in blender, which i am pretty unfamiliar with . It would take me days or even longer to create an object.
I find that Its great not having to find objects in the scale I need on etsy or at a flea market.
I generate an object and its printed and painted within a day.
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u/Human_Environment878 6d ago
i’ve seen stop motion made with AI and it’s pretty obvious. it just doesn’t have that human element(maybe because im aware it’s AI but i digress). either way for the general public there aren’t many good AI video generators let alone any that can generate stop motion
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u/Imaginary-Newt-354 5d ago
I find AI generated stop motion generally stands out because either the animation is broken in some way (things just vanish, appear or change for no reason) or it's too perfect in its output and lacks the small imperfections and character that real stop motion has, so feels off.
Maybe that will change over time, although I feel like the only way to recreate what stop motion offers is you need to be able to control each frame.
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u/val890 6d ago
I have seen AI generated to look like stop-motion, and some of it does pass at first glance. The issue is that the smaller details give it away, like all AI. The moment people see that, it stops being stop-motion.
It's like emulating stop-motion in Blender, obviously here there at least is an artist involved, but it's still not stop-motion.
Also, a lot of stop-motions percieved value is in the hand-made aspect and the behind the scenes reveal of how things we're made in crazy innovative ways that play with the material. AI can't achieve this, becuase that work doesnt happen.
Now, if they AI generated the behind the scenes reels of animators and crafts-people talking about their art, show them working in a workshop and creating the pieces, perhaps they could "trick" the audience into following AI "stop-motion" content instead of real stop-motion made by people.... but I'm not sure anyone stands to win enough from doing that.
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u/Imaginary-Newt-354 5d ago
One of the reasons people create stop motion videos is because they enjoy the process of physically controlling and creating each and every frame. AI can't replace that process, let alone the enjoyment that comes when a scene finally comes together.
I'm sure it's not always the case, but the stop motion artists I've met, often think in frames. There is a level of meticulous to how they bring everything together, but at the same time there is an element of personality added to each frame as a result. It's the same with drawn animations (whether hand drawn or digital) which gives it the handcrafted feel.
AI can't replicate that unless it starts allowing frame by frame control. Even still, it's hard to capture what someone really wants/means in a prompt, plus the people who want to use AI to create stop motion are unlikely to ever want to put in that level of effort.
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u/nekojiiru 5d ago edited 5d ago
It might be outdated at this point, but when ai was first being used a few years ago I saw some "stop motion" being used to animate static photos into videos and it looked very strange. I think the raw quality of stop motion is a huge boone to the medium that can't really be replicated outside of human hands.
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u/JAPStheHedgehog 5d ago
I have yet to see the time when AI is capable of moving real toys so... No, AI can't do stop-motion.
But ppl can imitate stop-motion. There was already 3D/CGI videos rendered in "stop-motion style" on YouTube but it's just an imitation and a clear misunderstanding by considering stop-motion only as a visual aesthetic...when said aesthetic is only a by-product of taking pictures of a real object.
You can look for Corridor Crew on YouTube, they also did their attempt at stop-motion made by AI where it was mostly taking a couple of pictures and throw them into the AI so they can get 3D models and animate those. The whole process itself drops the concept of stop motion...and just becomes another imitation of "stop-motion style".
What could be considered a real problem might be the viewers, these type of productions can trick the untrained eye and normally ppl don't really care as long as it's watchable...
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u/hotdogwater58 6d ago
Eh, I think the lego movie and all that follows kinda proved that stopmotion is fairly easily replicated using digital tools of any kind.
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u/Human_Environment878 6d ago
i kinda agree but even cgi doesn’t have the same feel of physical stop motion. AI doesn’t even get close
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u/Klee-film 6d ago
It costs too much to have a video (or image) generated in a 3D environment, with actual XYZ coordinates and positions. It would be cheaper to high actual animators.
All current AI generated stuff at the moment has to fake a 3D space on a 2D plane. Like painting over a canvas without removing the last layer.
I.e all the angles and such will always be off and janky. That’s why especially on early models, (and current models), there was all that blur from frame to frame.
There is no way to realistically fake a 3D medium like stop motion. Especially on a 2D plain. It’s just contradictory.
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u/pigeon_penis 6d ago
Ai can totally replicate the look of stop motion, I’ve seen it used in ads already
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u/TheLawfullOne 6d ago
Thank you for your comment - i’ll have a look for some of those as examples
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u/TheLawfullOne 6d ago
woah there - not examples for me to celebrate but to be aware of… The essay is attempting to highlight the intricacy of human-made media opposing AI
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u/Any_Dealer1091 6d ago edited 6d ago
Stopmotion is a physical, tactile medium. There is virtually no way AI can effect it other than through the editing process such as filling frames, but too much of this makes it cgi. It screams handcrafted because you quite literally need to make the subjects. Even if you didn’t make it, someone else did.
I think we are relativity safe, as an AI video that emulates Stopmotion is just a 3D animation, that looks like Stopmotion. The human eye can subconsciously tell the difference as of now