ToonComposer - Tencent open source generative AI animation tool

What is ToonComposer?

ToonComposer is a generative AI animation production tool jointly launched by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tencent PCG ARC Lab and Peking University. Through generative post keyframe technology, it integrates intermediate frame generation and coloring into an automated process, requiring only one sketch and one coloring reference frame to generate a complete cartoon video, which can save up to 70% of manual labor. With precise sketch keyframe control, artists can guide animation through sparse keyframe sketches at any position in the timeline, maintaining high precision and quality when dealing with complex actions.ToonComposer supports region control, allowing creators to selectively leave blank areas in the sketch to be intelligently filled by the model.

Features of ToonComposer

• Post-generative keyframes: ToonComposer operates at the post keyframe stage, leveraging generative AI technology to integrate intermediate frame generation and colorization into an automated process that requires only one sketch and one colorization reference frame to generate a complete cartoon video, saving up to 70% of manual labor.
• Precise sketch keyframe control: Artists can direct animation anywhere in the timeline with sparse keyframe sketches, and handle complex movements with a high degree of precision and quality comparable to traditional hand-crafted processes.
• Area control: Creators can optionally leave blank areas in their sketches, mark them with the brush tool, and ToonComposer intelligently fills in these blank areas based on context or cue words, reducing manual drawing effort.
• Multi-mode inputSupport for generating animations from text, sketches or images, for example, by entering descriptive text to generate animation scripts with multiple sub-scenes, providing flexible options for creation.
• Style Conversion and Customization: Built-in a variety of cartoon style templates, can be switched with one key, support for custom styles to meet different creative needs.
• Dynamic editing of split-screen: Users can drag and drop split-screen cards to adjust the order and modify action and shot parameters for intuitive dynamic editing.
• Automatic refinement of animation details: Auto-completes and colors intermediate frames to generate coherent cartoon videos, ensuring smooth and complete animation.

Core Benefits of ToonComposer

• Significant savings in manual laborThe new generation AI technology automates the intermediate frame generation and coloring process, requiring only one sketch and one coloring reference frame to generate a complete cartoon video, which saves up to 70% of manual labor compared to the traditional animation production process, and greatly improves production efficiency.
• High precision animation control: Providing precise sketch keyframe control, artists can guide animation through sparse keyframe sketches at any position in the timeline, even when dealing with complex movements, maintaining high precision and quality results comparable to traditional hand-crafted processes.
• Intelligent Region Filling: With support for area control, creators can selectively leave blank areas in their sketches, mark them with the brush tool, and ToonComposer intelligently fills in these blank areas based on context or cue words, further minimizing the need for hand-drawing.
• Flexible input methods: Support for generating animations from text, sketches, or images provides creators with flexible input options, such as entering descriptive text to generate animation scripts with multiple sub-scenes.
• Rich style templatesMore than 20 common cartoon style templates are built-in, which can be switched by users with one click and support customized styles to meet different scenarios and creative needs.
• Dynamic split-screen editing: Users can intuitively adjust the order of the subplot, modify the action and lens parameters by dragging and dropping the subplot cards to realize dynamic editing of the animation, making the animation production process more flexible and convenient.
• Coherent animation generationThe ability to automatically fill in intermediate frames and complete coloring, and ultimately generate a coherent cartoon video, ensures the smoothness and integrity of the animation, and allows creators to focus on creative expression without worrying about the technical details.

What is ToonComposer's official website?

• Project website:: https://lg-li.github.io/project/tooncomposer/
• GitHub repository:: https://github.com/TencentARC/ToonComposer
• HuggingFace Model Library:: https://huggingface.co/TencentARC/ToonComposer
• arXiv Technical Paper:: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.10881
• Online Experience Demo:: https://huggingface.co/spaces/TencentARC/ToonComposer

Who ToonComposer is for

• Animation creators: ToonComposer dramatically simplifies the animation production process and reduces manual labor, making it ideal for creators who need to generate animated content quickly and help them realize their ideas more efficiently.
• educatorToonComposer: ToonComposer can be used to create vivid educational animations that help students understand complex concepts in a more intuitive way and enhance teaching and learning.
• Marketing & Advertising Team: Ideal for teams that need to quickly generate animated creative prototypes for advertisement production and quickly present creative effects.
• game developer: Aids game development by quickly generating character and scene animations for prototyping and improving development efficiency.
• Animation enthusiasts: For hobbyists who are interested in animation but lack the specialized skills or time, ToonComposer provides an easy-to-use tool that makes it easy for them to try their hand at animation as well.

Types of animations for which ToonComposer is suitable

• 2D Cartoon AnimationToonComposer: With generative AI technology, ToonComposer is ideal for 2D cartoon animation, as it can quickly generate intermediate frames and complete colorization.
• animated short: For creators who need to produce short animations quickly, ToonComposer provides an automated process from sketches to full animations, generating animation scripts and transitions quickly for short, sharp animations.
• Educational animation: ToonComposer creates vivid educational animations that help students understand complex concepts more intuitively. Its easy-to-use interface and ability to generate animations quickly make it ideal for animation in education.
• Marketing and Advertising Animation: In marketing and advertising, ToonComposer quickly generates animated creative prototypes that are suitable for animating ads, quickly rendering creative effects, and helping teams quickly iterate and optimize ad content.
• Game Animation: ToonComposer can assist game development by quickly generating character and scene animations for game prototyping and rapid iteration, improving the efficiency of game development.
• Online & Live Animation: ToonComposer supports real-time animation generation, suitable for online cartoon production and live animation scenes, can respond to user input in real time to generate coherent animation effects.
• Experimental animation: For creators who need to quickly experiment with different animation styles and effects, ToonComposer offers a rich set of style templates and customization features for making experimental animations and exploring new forms of animation expression.