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