Screenwriting : What I learned about animating my own screenplay with AI (in case you want to try it, too!) by Niki Galiano

So,  about six weeks ago, I decided to animate one of my own web series from one of my screenplays, with the help of AI. I finally finished it today (24 one-minute episodes in all), and I thought I'd share what I learned for any other screenwriters who might be interested in animating their own screenplays with AI. (I'm also including some tips and tricks for those who have never animated before.)

1. Use an art generator that lets you generate an AN UNLIMIITED amount of art (characters / backgrounds, etc..). A lot of people love Midjourney, but I don't like working on Discord because the user interface is just too busy and confusing for me. Also, I wanted an art generator that I didn't keep having to pay extra for if I needed more art. So I went with Imagine AI Art generator, which has a very simple interface and an unlimited amount of images for only $60 a year. And I'm glad I did, because sometimes I would generate dozens of images until I got the exact thing I was looking for! (But you might find one out there that is even cheaper....who knows.)

2.  For my previous stop-motion animations and hypnosis videos, I always used iMovie as my video editor/animator, but since I wanted to turn my screenplay into a web series made of one-minute shorts, I chose Canva, because iMovie can’t do a 9:16 aspect ratio, which is what you need to use for YouTube shorts. There are lots of video editors out there now, and like Canva, some of them have AI assistants to go with them. The Canva AI assistant was very helpful on a few different occasions, so I'm glad I used it..

3. For my voices, I used real voice actors for the main characters, and I also used some AI voices for the smaller characters.. (Plus, I voice acted one part and I had my dad and my brother also voice act some parts.) Real voice actors really add depth and dimension to your animated characters (not to mention humor!), but if you don't have the money to hire voice actors, you can use all AI voices for your characters. (I used Replica Studios for my AI voices, but there are many other AI voice studios out there.)  

P.S. With voices, don't be afraid to get really creative. For example, for Farfle's voice, I wanted to have the sound of a porcupine for some of his trills and warbles. (If you nave never listened to a porcupine before, I highly recommend it. They're hilarious!) Anyway,.the voice actor who did most of Farfle's lines couldn't replicate the sound of a porcupine very well, so I actually used the real sound of a real porcupine (I got it from a YouTube video) in several scenes, because I just thought it made him sound funnier. I have also used iMovie and Garage Band in the past to tweak other AI voices around a little bit.

SIMPLE ANIMATION TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER ANIMATED BEFORE

How to create characters from AI art generated images:

1. You create your characters in the art generator using prompts. Be sure you include words like “a full body image from head to toe” or else you won’t get a full person. If you need specific clothes, you can ask for those, too. (For example: a full body view, head to toe, of a white blonde female wearing jeans and a t-shirt, standing in the sand in bare feet)

2. Export the character to your computer.

3. On your computer, click "remove background." (This software is installed automatically installed all Macs, but if you don't have a Mac, you might have to install software to do this.)

4. Export the character without a background into your video editor (like to Canva, iMovie, or any other video editor.)

Important note: Be sure to write down exactly what art style you used for each character, and what the original prompt was, in case you ever have to go back and generate more poses for your character.

How to get characters and objects to move with a simple video editor:

1. Once you import your character, decide where you want him/her to move.

2. Shorten the frame to 0.2 seconds (for slow movement) or 0.1 movement (for fast movements)

3. Duplicate the frame

4. Move the character a little bit

5. Duplicate the frame

6. Continue the duplication and movement until you have moved the character to where they want to go.

Would I animate my own screenplay again? Absolutely. It was so much fun, and sooooo much more rewarding than having a screenplay sit on my hard drive for years, unseen by anyone. In fact, I have plans to try to animate more of my screenplays in the future, and hopefully, my animating skills will get better each time:

What I will do differently next time

1. Even with AI, traditional animation can be tedious (especially when you start adding sound effects and visual effects), and it still took me about a day to produce about a minute of animations on Canva…. even the very, very simplistic characters that I used (They didn't move their body parts, for example.).  And, because my characters couldn't move their body parts, I had to cut quite a few scenes out. (On the other hand, I added a lot more slapstick scenes, so I think it all evened out in the end.) Anyway, when I animate my next web-series, I'm definitely going to try to use some different AI tools that will do even more of the animation work for me, so the characters actually move their joints and talk.

For example, for close-ups of characters, I'll probably use D-Id (an AI tool that creates talking avatars). I might also use Runway Gen-2. Not sure...I need to try both of them, but based on the animation tutorials I've been watching, those two seem to have the most promise so far. .

2. The next time, I will wait to get my voice recordings from my actors until AFTER I'm done with the "rough" animation, because sometimes in the middle of animating a scene, I would think "Oh! I wish I would have thought of them saying this line!"  I didn't want to go back and ask the voice actors for more lines after they were gracious enough to do voice acting for the low amount that I could afford to pay them....so I just made do, and added in some funny slapstick bit pieces, instead. Next time, I'll record all the lines in my own voice, and put them in as a placeholder. Then when I'm done with the rough animation, I'll replace them with the real actor lines..

3. Next time, I'll also probably use a video editor that has "image enhancements" so I can get really crisp images.

4. Next time, I’ll have the AI art generator create more than 1 pose for each of the characters in the very beginning. This time, I only generated the characters in a standing pose, but next time I’ll also generate them sitting, lying down, etc.... (I might also try to figure out how to crate a "character rig" with an AI art generator....I haven't figured out how to do that yet.) .

5. The automatic generated captions on YouTube and TikTok are not very good, so when I’m all done with the animations, I need to go back and edit the captions. Next time, I’ll generate the captions with an AI tool before I upload the final animations.

I think those are the five major things I would change, but all in all, I'm so glad I just jumped in and did it, and didn’t think too hard about it before I began.

So, if any of you ever thought of producing your own screenplay with the help of AI, I will just leave you with four final words advice ---JUST  GO FOR IT. (Because trust me, somehow, it just all works out in the end.)