# AI as a layer, not a generator

Period: Mar 2025 · Era: 2025 · The Studio Era

A studio puts generative tools inside a traditional 2D/3D animation pipeline.

Instead of asking a model to make the film, Asteria used AI at specific steps of a normal animation process: a model trained on the artist's own drawings, generated 3D layouts, machine ink-and-paint, and in-betweens bridged from hand-picked keyframes. Twenty-plus people, one house style, and the artist stays the author.

## How it worked

1. Train a LoRA directly on the artist's hand-drawn work (Paul Flores) so every generated frame carries his line and palette.
2. Block the scenes in 3D: generative extrusion turns drawings into rough geometry, then 3D layout sets camera and staging.
3. Generative ink-and-paint and color passes replace the manual fill; style transfer keeps the whole frame on-model.
4. Generate backgrounds and their motion separately from the characters.
5. Author the first, middle and last frame of each shot by hand-picking generations, then let a video model bridge the in-betweens.
6. Composite, upscale in Topaz, and cut as you would any animated short.

## Why it mattered

It showed a studio-scale hybrid: AI as departments (layout, ink-and-paint, in-betweens) inside a human pipeline, with a named artist's style as the constraint.

## Tools of the era

- LoRA for diffusion (2022): https://github.com/cloneofsimo/lora
- Topaz Video AI (2022): https://www.topazlabs.com
- Midjourney (2022): https://midjourney.com

## Example videos and posts

- Behind the scenes: A Love Letter to Los Angeles · Paul Trillo / Asteria: https://x.com/paultrillo/status/1898110576704037288
- A Love Letter to LA: making-of · Asteria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=envMzAxCRbw

## On the timeline

- [A Love Letter to LA](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/love-letter-to-la) (2025-03-05)

## Sources

- Motionographer on A Love Letter to LA: https://motionographer.com/quickie/paul-trillo-paul-flores-a-love-letter-to-la/
- Topaz Labs: Asteria's hybrid workflows: https://www.topazlabs.com/news/asteria-is-building-the-future-of-filmmaking-with-hybrid-ai-workflows-and-topaz-video

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Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/workflows/hybrid-studio-pipeline