The AI system, Craft, has now taken the first steps that mark the future of cartoons. It now produces The Flintstones scenes from text descriptions.

It was not too long ago when cartoons were just drawn on paper but now, they can be done digitally. Hence, the AI technology will soon let computers produce cartoons on their own using premade elements.

The Birth Of An AI Cartoon Creator

A team of researchers from the University of Washington, The University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence created the AI system, Craft. Its objective is to produce scenes from The Flintstones after the researchers have entered a text description.

The team had first fed Craft with 25,000 clips from the cartoon lasting three seconds each. Every clip was accompanied by descriptions of the characters, the background, and what was happening. The AI was then able to generate a Flintstones scene together by retrieving relevant characters, motions, and the background based on what it learned.

Craft Is More Or Less Successful

As an example from the video below, the AI was asked to picture Wilma and Betty seated at a dining table in the kitchen. Craft then put together a scene based on the keywords Wilma, Betty, seated, table, and kitchen. In this particular example, the machine succeeded in creating a crude scene based on the description.

However, there were many instances where the AI got the scenes completely wrong. It retrieved a wrong character, background, or pose. It also had problems in layering and placement of the elements.

The video also showcased some of Craft's most disastrous results, usually from more complex sentences.

"A brown seal in pink jeweled collar is floating in the sky while he holds a rolled up paper and blows through a blow horn," reads one of the more complex sentences that resulted in an indecipherable mess.

The Future Of AI In Animation

The Flintstones are quite a simple cartoon with static backgrounds, so the AI might have more trouble with more modern cartoons. Craft clearly has a lot more to learn, but it is a strong indication that animations might soon use artificial intelligence to push out scenes more efficiently.

It can take away some of the routine processes of drawing, which can make the release of new seasons faster. The makers can then focus on something more important: the quality of their work. However, one of its potential downsides is that it might also take away jobs in the process.