Ask HN: How to generate flipbook-style animations from video?

[meerab]

I’ve been seeing a lot of hand-drawn flipbook animations on YouTube/TikTok. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ub_ZmzOrh5g

The creators say they spend 3-5 days drawing this. How do I generate this animation say in Python? Any recommended models, libraries, or workflows?

I am thinking ffmpeg to extract images -> pose estimation -> Line art -> Assemble into Video

[wonger_]

Looks like rotoscoping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping.

The closest you would get is maybe an edge detection filter. Or AI rotoscoping: https://pld.reddit.com/r/vfx/comments/1h9wjdv/have_any_ai_ro.... Or maybe EbSynth, as demoed by this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq_KOmXyVDo

But it never looks as nice as the hand-drawn way.

[meerab]

Thank you! It certainly looks like Rotoscoping.

And EbSynth looks amazing! I wonder what model/tech will track the moment so well!