Amazon MGM Studios has commissioned three animated series built entirely by way of ai-assisted production workflows and will be available for viewing on Prime Video. In fact, it is being reported that these three series will represent the first time a major US Studio has structured an entire production slate around generative ai tools.
According to announcements from the company as well as reports from industry publications this week, the series are “Cupcake & Friends,” “Love, Diana Music Hunters,” and “punky duck.” they are being produced through Project Nara – amazon’s own proprietary ai production platform which runs on AWS infrastructure. Project Nara uses third party ai models alongside amazon trained models utilizing the library of intellectual property belonging to Amazon MGM.
Collaborative workspace
As amazon describes itself, Project Nara functions as what can best be described as an end-to-end collaborative workspace where ai production agents directly connects with professional animation tools including Maya, Blender, and Unreal Engine according to Animation Magazine. Project Nara provides solutions to many of the technical limitations that have prevented prior attempts at implementing generative ai in narrative content such as maintaining character consistency and cross-shot continuity.
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Tracking mechanisms for provenance In addition to providing features that protect IP rights, Amazon also implemented provenance tracking features within Project Nara. However, there was no additional detail provided regarding how this tracking mechanism works or specifically what safeguards were implemented to ensure creators and rights holders.
Industry positioning These three series also serve as one of the first projects developed under amazon’s newly announced GenAI creator’s fund. Introduced during amazon’s AI on the Lot event on may 27th., the genai creator’s fund provides funding specifically designed for film and animation projects that leverage artificial intelligence. As part of their initiative to use ai-based technology, amazon has positioned the fund as a means to reduce production timelines, maintain human creativity and support lead roles for humans.
Amazon emphasizes human creativity leading the process with ai supporting production workflows. This approach is intended to address concerns like displacement caused by ai while presenting it as a way to accelerate productions.
The approval for development of these series' indicates that amazon is testing whether ai-powered production systems can produce quality material at scale. Since Project Nara exists as a closed system which uses owned IP for both training and production, amazon has total control over all components of production & distribution. A move that could potentially change how original animation is developed by streaming platforms moving forward.