Animated Drawings

Published by Dusan Belic on July 10, 2023

Animated Drawings by Meta

Categories Art & Creative Design Image Generation & Editing

Brings children's drawings to live by animating characters to move around

Animated Drawings is a demo tool created by Meta AI Research, presenting an innovative application designed to bring children’s imaginative drawings to life. By leveraging artificial intelligence, it can animate characters depicted in children’s artwork, enabling them to move around dynamically.

This unique capability opens up a new dimension for creative expression, allowing young artists to see their creations interact within an animated environment. It stands as a significant advancement in merging the worlds of AI technology with children’s pure, uninhibited creativity, providing them with an engaging and magical experience that transcends traditional static art.

In order to use Animated Drawings, you’ll need to upload an image of your or your child’s drawing, and the AI tech will take it from there — creating an animation out of that drawing. It’s that simple, yet the results can be nothing short of stunning. Check it out.

Animated Drawings Homepage

Categories Art & Creative Design Image Generation & Editing

Video Overview ▶️

What are the key features? ⭐

Animation: Turn your drawings into interactive animations, bringing static images to life.
Easy to use: A simple and intuitive interface makes it accessible for users of all ages and skill levels.
Customizable movements: Adjust and customize the movements of your animated characters to fit your vision.
Web-based platform: No need for downloads or installations as everything is accessible directly through the web browser.
Shareable creations: Easily share your animated drawings with friends and family via links or social media.

Who is it for? 🤔

Animated Drawings targets a broad audience, including educators, students, artists, and anyone else who may want to bring their drawings to life. It is designed for both beginners and experienced users looking for a simple yet powerful tool to create animations without needing advanced technical skills.

Examples of what you can use it for 💭

Enhance learning by animating educational drawings and diagrams for more engaging lessons
Bring your stories to life by animating characters and scenes from your narratives
Experiment with digital art by creating and animating unique characters and illustrations
Create eye-catching animated content to share on social media platforms
Make presentations more dynamic and engaging by incorporating animated drawings

Pros & Cons ⚖️

You can customize the movements of your characters
Animating drawings was never this easy
Good for different use cases

For specific requests, you may need to use the old-fashioned tools

FAQs 💬

What kind of drawings work best with Animated Drawings?

Drawings of a single human-like character in a clear standing pose where arms and legs don't heavily overlap the body. Simple stick figures, cartoons, and children's sketches usually give the best results.

Can I use photographs or realistic portraits?

No, the tool is designed specifically for hand-drawn sketches or illustrations, not photos of real people or highly detailed paintings.

Do I need to draw digitally or can I use paper sketches?

You can use paper sketches. Just take a well-lit photo of the drawing on plain white paper and upload that photo.

Is the tool completely free to use?

Yes, it's a free research demo provided by Meta FAIR with no account or payment required.

How long does it take to create an animation?

The whole process usually takes less than a minute or two once you upload a suitable drawing and confirm the skeleton points.

What kinds of movements or animations can it create?

It applies basic fun motions such as waving, dancing, walking in place, or simple bouncing, using motion capture data mapped to the detected figure.

Can I animate multiple characters in one drawing?

No, the tool currently works with drawings that contain only one character.

Is my uploaded drawing stored or shared?

Meta's demo follows standard privacy policies; uploads are processed for the demo and not used for training without explicit opt-in (check the terms linked on the site for full details).

Why might the animation look strange or not work perfectly?

Very abstract, messy, or overlapping drawings can confuse the AI's joint detection, so results vary depending on how clear the limbs and body are.

Who created this tool and why?

Meta's FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) team built it to explore how AI can analyze and animate amateur drawings, and they released it as a fun public experiment to inspire creativity.