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How I Animated This Video

Joel Haver0 HN recommenders · 2022–2025
6.2M views · tutorial · dated · Uploaded 2021-01-22

Animator Joel Haver explains how he makes his short films using rotoscoping and the EbSynth tool, along with the software he uses. The method is a labor-intensive, frame-by-frame process.

Cited in AI-art and video-stylization threads as an example of a manual, artist-driven alternative to AI tools, and as a demo of EbSynth.

Animation & visual effectsFilmmaking & video production

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5 comments from Hacker News

@Asooka2022 · in “We asked 100 humans to draw the DALL·E prompts”

A good example are Joel Haver's videos on youtube. He explains his process here: [VIDEO] . He produces animations by rotoscoping live footage, with only a few keyframes being done by hand and the rest by AI, using something similar to style transfer.

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@keawade2022 · in “MegaPortraits: One-Shot Megapixel Neural Head Avatars”

We've got AI assisted rotoscoping already and while it looks a bit janky at times its still a whole lot faster than doing it all by hand. [VIDEO]

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@Hamcha2022 · in “VToonify: Controllable High-Resolution Portrait Video Style Transfer”

As someone who is in touch with a lot of people acting as VTubers in order to keep privacy while being able to express themselves, I'm very happy to see this! EbSynth gave Joel Haver a trademark style[1], and I feel this might be the next step. 1. [VIDEO]

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@Cipater2023 · in “ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving”

>There's a popular youtuber named Joel Haver who films videos, then uses an AI tool to convert them into animations, so they can be magically put into a space or fantasy setting. Hang on, AI tool? Joel Haver converts every frame manually. His method is the literal opposite of using an AI tool. It's incredibly painstaking. [VIDEO]

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@wonger_2025 · in “Ask HN: How to generate flipbook-style animations from video?”

Looks like rotoscoping: [LINK] . The closest you would get is maybe an edge detection filter. Or AI rotoscoping: [LINK] . Or maybe EbSynth, as demoed by this guy: [VIDEO] But it never looks as nice as the hand-drawn way.

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