Netflix, WIT Studio Release ‘The Dog & The Boy’ Anime Short Featuring AI-Generated Backgrounds
From Midjourney to ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is currently pushing the boundaries of content and material creation across multiple industries—even anime, and it might’ve just taken its next big step into mainstream production.
As “an experimental initiative to help ease the anime industry’s labor shortage”, Netflix Anime Creators Base partnered with WIT Studio and AI character platform rinna to produce an anime short titled “The Dog & The Boy”, using image generation technology for all of its backgrounds.
You can check out the results for yourself in the full video below, which includes a showcase of the process at the end:
Netflix アニメ・クリエイターズ・ベース×AIキャラクターサービス開発のrinna株式会社×WIT STUDIOによる共同プロジェクトアニメ『犬と少年』のショートムービー。
人手不足のアニメ業界を補助する実験的な取り組みとして、3分間の映像全カットの背景画に画像生成技術を活用！ pic.twitter.com/2WQVZSwPsN
— Netflix Japan | ネットフリックス (@NetflixJP) January 31, 2023
RELATED: OPINION: We Had a Wildlife Biologist Analyze Pochita from Chainsaw Man
Ryotaro Makihara (Vampire in the Garden, HAL) served as director, storyboarder, key animator and art director for the short, alongside Mathias Demongeot as character designer, Taiki Sakurai (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners) as producer and Koji Tanaka (Moriarty the Patriot) as director of photography; “AINOUTA” by sasakure.UK feat. AI-code”M” serves as the backing track.
What are your thoughts on using AI tools in anime production? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Netflix Japan on Twitter
Der shy man behind @Shymander, Liam is a timezone-fluid Aussie with a distinct fondness for anime, Eurovision and creating odd stats projects despite hating math.
