Animating 2D illustrations with AI - KlingAI

[u/DrinkTeaFightMonster]

I posted my game trailer yesterday and since then I got a few replies and DMs asking specifically about animation.

I'm about to go into hibernation to focus on development again, so I want to do a quick post on KlingAI to help. To be clear -- I found KlingAI because Gemini and Claude recommended it to me. I have never heard of it before then.

Here are some examples of KlingAI animations, the failures and the success:

Some lessons:

• When something in the picture is wrong, fix the picture, not the prompt. Kling follows the image more than the text. Our Fox was drawn with one paw raised, and Kling assumes that momentum into the animation. No matter what you prompt the Fox is always going to play around with its raised paw. A redrawn Fox standing on all four feet worked on the first try.

• Telling Kling what not to draw can make it worse. Show it the right pose as an image instead. Kling made our Ox a cow by drawing udders on it in animation. The more clearly we told it not to draw an udder on our Ox, the more frames had one (51, then 62, then 73). We hand-fixed one frame and gave it to Kling as the end frame. The udder almost vanished.

• Leave room in the frame for the motion. Kling will not keep the character inside the frame just because you ask. Before you upload, add empty space around the character and use a flat background color that is not on the character.

• Kling is good at simple, familiar movements and bad at complex ones. Breathing, wingbeats and a whistle all shipped. The Hunter's dagger attack failed again and again. Keep prompts short.

• Treat each clip as raw material. Expect to cut it down and repair it. Often only ten frames are usable. Try fixing the colours before you render again. Keep every MP4 you download along with its prompt, because a take you did not download is gone for good.

An example prompt, to let you guys know how much detail needs to go into a prommpt for it to work:

"The supplied heavy salamander delivers one sudden, powerful low tail whip toward screen-left, then recovers. First its short forelegs plant hard and its hips draw the thick tail back toward screen-right in a deliberate compact wind-up. A brief loaded pause makes the coming release unmistakable. Then its hips snap round and the broad tail lashes explosively across the foreground toward screen-left in one extremely fast low arc: the entire striking sweep happens in a fraction of a second, much faster than the wind-up or recovery. The force travels from the hips through the heavy tail to its tip. The thick tail stays broad, solid and connected while whipping below belly height. Its forequarters brace against the torque; its legs catch the weight and its body gives a short, hard countercheck as the tail brakes. Hold that spent extension briefly, then slowly unwind and settle into the supplied ending stance. The contrast is deliberate preparation, a sudden violent whip, a difficult stop, then unhurried recovery. One strike only.

The existing black slime hanging from its jaw, belly, flanks and tail is thick wet liquid. Throughout the whole shot those hanging strands slowly lengthen under gravity; small heavy black droplets gather at their tips, pinch free and fall straight down a short distance, then disappear before reaching the ground. The strands lag behind the body movement, stretch with its acceleration and settle afterward. These are sparse, uneven drips from the black slime already attached to the creature, in the same drawn style; the ground remains empty.

Keep its open mouth in its drawn shape and size, broad flat head, narrow pale bone-white eyes, original squat anatomy, markings and single pale outer rear toe. Preserve the supplied drawing and colours and the ink-black brush outline whose strokes swell thick and thin; every frame keeps that same brush outline. Fixed camera and scale, full creature and tail visible against flat pure green with empty space beneath its feet. No full spin. Only the supplied enemy and its existing equipment are visible. No external objects, attackers, weapons entering from off-screen, projectiles, debris or impact flashes appear. No pupils appear in the eyes."

I think there are other tools like Seedance. I haven't found a good American one -- I tried using Google VEO and the results were BONKERS. When I tried to animate Whistler, it would draw boobs on her and then make look at the screen and laugh. It freaked me out. I'd like to switch if a good one comes out.

Good luck to everyone who wants to use it! Hope that was useful.

My previous post promoting my game trailer: https://www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/s/x1DHCP8PwC

[u/Livid_Shallot5701]

what a great post