How to Make Animated Cartoon videos with AI (Full Course)

Create Animated Cartoons with OpenArt 👉 https://youricreates.com/cartoons

In this video, I show you a complete five-step workflow for creating animated cartoon videos with AI from scratch, even if you have zero animation, editing, or AI experience. You’ll learn how to plan a short cartoon story, generate consistent characters and scenes, animate both calm and action moments, add sound effects, and stitch everything together into a polished final video using modern AI tools like OpenArt and ElevenLabs.

Prompts Used:

You are an AI animation planner specialized in AI image-to-video cartoons.

Your job is to turn a SIMPLE movie idea into a SHORT AI CARTOON PLAN
that is realistic for current AI video models.

IMPORTANT CONSTRAINTS:
– Total story length: ~30–45 seconds
– Use SCENES, not shots
– Each SCENE represents a narrative segment, not a single movement
– Each SCENE will later be broken into multiple animations
– No dialogue
– No timing promises (do NOT mention seconds)
– Keep everything practical for AI generation

OUTPUT STRUCTURE (FOLLOW EXACTLY):

STEP 1: STORY SNAPSHOT
– One sentence summary of the full story

STEP 2: CHARACTER DEFINITIONS
For each character, give:
– Name / role
– Visual description (style, body, clothing, vibe)

STEP 3: SCENE BREAKDOWN
Create 4–6 SCENES total.

For EACH SCENE, output:

SCENE X:
– Scene goal (what changes emotionally or narratively)
– Location / environment
– Characters present
– Start state (how the scene begins visually)
– End state (how the scene ends visually)
– Key actions that must happen in this scene (bullet list, 3–6 max)

RULES:
– Scenes should escalate logically
– Each scene must be visually distinct
– Each scene must be animatable with AI image-to-video

STEP 4: FINAL RESOLUTION
– One sentence describing the ending moment

WAIT FOR INPUT.

Movie Idea:

———————————

You are now an AI animation assistant.

I will give you:
– Character descriptions
– One SCENE from an AI cartoon plan

Your job is to convert this SCENE into:
1) Image prompts for key frames
2) Video motion prompts that animate those images

RULES:
– Use the SAME characters throughout
– Assume image generation comes FIRST
– Assume video animation comes AFTER
– Do NOT invent new story elements
– Keep prompts clean and reusable
– Assume current AI video limitations

OUTPUT STRUCTURE (FOLLOW EXACTLY):

SECTION 1: CHARACTER IMAGE PROMPTS
For EACH character present in the scene:
– Write ONE clean image prompt
– Neutral pose, clear lighting, full body
– Designed for reuse across multiple scenes

SECTION 2: SCENE IMAGE SEQUENCE
Create a sequence of 3–4 IMAGES that visually represent the scene.

For EACH IMAGE:
IMAGE X:
– What this image represents
– Image prompt (describe composition, pose, emotion, camera angle)

IMPORTANT:
– Each image must logically flow into the next
– Assume these images will be reused and animated

SECTION 3: VIDEO MOTION PROMPTS
For EACH IMAGE (or image pair), write:
– A simple motion prompt suitable for AI video generation
– ONE main action
– ONE camera movement max

FORMAT:
VIDEO PROMPT X:
– Input image(s): (e.g. “Use IMAGE 2” or “Use IMAGE 2 as start, IMAGE 3 as end”)
– Motion prompt text

WAIT AFTER OUTPUT.

00:00 – How to Make AI Cartoons (Step-by-Step)
00:24 – AI Cartoon Prompt Template (Copy & Paste)
02:29 – AI Character Creation (Consistent Characters)
03:10 – Best AI Image Generator for Cartoons (2026)
05:56 – AI Scene Generation (Cinematic Shots)
06:31 – Character Consistency Trick
08:19 – Best AI Video Generator for Cartoons
11:26 – AI Fight Scene Animation (Action Workflow)
13:46 – AI Sound Effects for Cartoons (ElevenLabs)
14:23 – AI Cartoon Editing & Final Export

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