AI in the Classroom

Picture the scene – Intro to Animation!

An undergraduate class at NYU, with students sitting in a circle. One student, who we’ll call Actually, begins every sentence with “actually” (seriously). So Actually shows his storyboards for a 1-minute final film.

Then the following conversation ensues:  

Me (animation professor): “How are you planning to animate this: cutouts, hand-drawn or stop-motion?”

Actually: “I'm planning to draw the key frames and then have AI do the in-betweens.”

Me: “That doesn’t seem like a good idea, since you’re still learning how to animate. How are you going to train AI to do your in-betweens?”

Actually: “AI has gotten really good at in-betweens”

Drawing Guy: “Can’t you just draw it?”

Rules Gal: “This doesn’t seem fair … it’s like he hired a robot to do his work for him.”

Actually: “The rest of the class could get a robot. It’s all free and open-source software.”

Rules Gal: “This is SO unfair. I don’t even WANT a robot.”

Actually: "It's not a competition."

Drawing Guy: "Actually, can’t you just draw?"

Rules Gal: "Actually, I can’t believe you’re still arguing with Kalika about it. This isn’t an AI class."

Drawing Guy & Rules Gal (in stereo): "JUST DRAW the thing!!"

Actually: "I’m only using AI for the inbetweens, which don’t matter anyway."

Me: "Just the fact that you are saying 'in-betweens don’t matter anyway' tells me that you don’t understand the nuances of animation well enough to train a robot to do it the right way."

Rules Gal: "Don’t be lazy. Your robot doesn’t go to NYU, Actually. You do."

Me: "That’s it, I’m putting my foot down. As your professor, I’m deciding the policy. Moving forward, NO AI! You, Actually, get to draw your final project. Save AI for your next animated project, but not in my class."

Actually: "Fine."

Everyone: "Yay, he’s going to draw!!!"

I then showed them Joanna Quinn’s Brittania, which has some of the wildest inbetweens ever,  with a morphing bulldog that shows the story of British imperialism/colonialism. It’s equal parts hilarious and deeply disturbing.

Afterward:

Actually: “you’re right, I REALLY didn’t understand the point of in-betweens until I watched that film.”

Me: “It’s OK, sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know!”