It is the final day of 2024 and the world of cinema is changing drastically. CGI has been here for quite some time and AI is becoming the biggest disruptions in generations. Henry Selick who has spearheaded many of the most memorable stop motion films on the big screen said this in a recent Forbes article.
"AI is good for only two things—analyzing data for medical advances and making fake trailers for modern movies, but not much else."
He isn't alone, Del Toro had this to say concerning the new era of AI and image generation:
“Animation needs to be done by hand—it’s one of the few disciplines that is in danger by the way AI is being presented. I think AI is like Bitcoin—it’s not going to be what people think it's going to be! Unfortunately, it's not being put in the hands of the artists but bypassing the artist to be put in the hands of the bean counters, it will likely be misused before it's used correctly, if ever.”
If you'd like to read the entire article you can do so over here.
It is safe to say that the two hold the art near and dear to their hearts. There are a lot of opinions about AI. Could it be used as a tool in a positive way for stop motion film makers going forward?
As someone who is following AI very closely, I have to say I have some disagreements with both. From the perspective of two directors who have had multi-million dollar budgets, it is easy to tell stories made completely by hand. Thousands can be hire. Materials, cameras, editing equipment, sound engineers, directors of photography, musicians, voice actors are just a phone call away in this situation.
While these big directors have hundreds of opportunities in this situation, the independent with almost no budget has hundreds of hurdles. In my opinion, for the little film independent stop motion film maker, AI will definitely help in productivity. Something that is sorely needed when trying to survive as stop motion takes so long to do.
Social media is not a place that has been friendly to animators. Just visit Instagram or Twitter and you'll see copy-cats animators making videos that grab attention. You either get attention and survive, or get swiped past and are forgotten. It is the new currency and making noise has become a big priority. Stop motion takes so long to do that you don't see short films as much as you do people filming timelapse of themselves animating one or two scenes with rock music blaring. There's less and less story with any depth, nuance or purpose.
My personal belief is that AI will help free up animators to focus on say - animating a puppets performance, but leaving the backgrounds to AI. Just imagine you want to tell a story where there is a wide vista of rolling hills that go on forever. Your puppet walks along a path, overlooking these hills during sunset.
The catch is, you only have a tiny one room apartment, a table, puppet and green screen. This is only one example, but will the independent think of AI in the same way as Selick and Toro in these all too common situations? Must they forgo building an a entire miniature intricate set or not telling the story they want to tell? I don't think they will.
That said, if the budget can be met, making everything by hand is a high achievement. But only a select few have the clout and name recognition to have that level of control. Just as when CGI became a thing, we know that AI is now the new CGI. Will film makers discard it, or will they use these tools to tell stories they want to tell but couldn't do otherwise? Time will tell.
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