© TOEI ANIMATION Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.Toei Animation’s financial results (PDF) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 have provided insights into its recent investment in Preferred Networks, Inc., a Japanese firm involved in AI.
The pertinent section (slide 20) indicates that Toei Animation is looking to utilize AI in areas such as storyboarding, coloring, and “color specification,” as well as in-between animation and backgrounds.
The specific use cases mentioned include:
• Storyboarding: Leveraging AI to “generate simple layouts and shooting of the storyboards.”
• Colors: Employing AI to “specify colors and automatically correct colors.”
• In-betweens: Utilizing AI to “automatically correct line drawings and generate in-betweens.”
• Backgrounds: Using AI to “generate backgrounds from a photo.”
Toei Animation states that it aims “to co-develop new business opportunities and enhance the efficiency and quality of our production, leveraging synergies between AI and animation production technologies.”
- Used Book in Good Condition
- George Trombley (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 376 Pages - 08/22/2014 (Publication Date) - Learn From Zero (Publisher)
- Ken Fukuyama, Yuki Fukuyama (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 246 Pages - 10/11/2022 (Publication Date) - Independently published (Publisher)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Sumiko Uo (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 6 Pages - 01/01/2005 (Publication Date) - BarCharts Publishing Inc. (Publisher)
Earlier, Toei Animation’s senior director Kiichiro Yamada remarked in a statement concerning Preferred Networks, Inc.’s latest funding round that “we anticipate that Preferred Networks’ technical, developmental, and organizational strengths will play a crucial role in Japan’s future. We believe that the integration of their strengths with our established anime production expertise will generate robust synergies. Moving forward, we will work towards sustainable growth alongside Preferred Networks and aid in the overall advancement of Japan’s anime industry.”
In 2021, it was revealed that Toei Animation and Preferred Networks had “jointly conducted trials on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to streamline anime production.” This partnership led to the creation of Scenify, an AI-powered background tool that “utilizes PFN’s AI-driven image processing and segmentation technologies,” for the six-minute experimental short URVAN.
Source: Toei Animation financial report (via @catsuka)
