Abstract
My honors thesis covers various aspects of animation and techniques used by animators to lessen time spent on a project, a brief summary of how AI functions and processes inputs, and finally a simple cross comparison of hand made animation and AI generated products of varying type. Animation with a fast-approaching deadline often requires animation tricks to be able to get the product out in time. I listed a few of the most prominent animation techniques and gave a brief overview of the evolution of 2D animation as it grew towards an easier workflow. 2D animation, even then, takes a major amount of effort and time to properly be produced, so AI may be capable to assist in the process, but with the readily accessible AI software out there, it is unlikely to be utilized in this field effectively. The outputted AI generations are intriguing but overall unacceptable animations due to various errors that can easily be spotted if put under any scrutiny. The conclusion can easily be made that AI generated animation should not be utilized for any major part of the animation industry, as the mistakes made by the software could easily be misinterpreted by viewers, producers, and possibly even those tasked with cleaning up the generated clips.
Semester/Year of Award
Spring 5-4-2026
Mentor
Charlie Campbell
Mentor Department Affiliation
Art and Design
Access Options
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Scholars
Degree Level
Bachelors
Department
Art and Design
Presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rO7DEYwH6Fip0aog2Ft5gD3YF4QFSeK9KRiGWj5K9tg/edit?usp=drive_link
Recommended Citation
scarambone, leilani, "Handmade VS AI, a 2D Animator’s Perspective" (2026). Honors Theses. 1145.
https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/1145
A small clip of Tom and Jerry, starting with a pan over a single image of a dirty tabletop before stopping and focusing on tom shaking a sock out for money.
Defect - STS2 - Example.gif (4135 kB)
A standing robot with periodically glitchy movements in a cycle. It breaks this idle animation with 3 strike animations that reposition the parts of its 2D model instead of creating any majorly new frames.
Robot Walk Cycle.gif (345 kB)
My own Animated walk cycle of a robot. It is incomplete, simply being a wireframe walk cycle.
AI output - walk cycle gif input.gif (4000 kB)
An AI generated walk cycle that utilized a pre-existing framework. The bright chrome blue seems to attempt to make the figure seem 3D in an alien sense.
Black Gemstone Eye.png (2417 kB)
A fully illustrated gemstone eye with 5 lines leading to its off-center pupil.
AI output - eye spin image input.gif (6031 kB)
An AI generated gemstone of some variety spining in place. It creates and alters the original image in unwanted ways.
AI output - walk cycle text input 1.gif (4825 kB)
An AI generated attempt at a walk cycle. It is clearly not a walk cycle, as it is a clip art person more making a jumping-jack motion.
AI Output - Walk cycle Text input 2.gif (7563 kB)
An AI generated walk cycle in a simple clip-art style. the legs can be seen rotating around the body, glitching periodically.
Animatic.mp4 (15379 kB)
