AnimAgents: Coordinating Multi-Stage Animation Pre-Production with Human-Multi-Agent Collaboration

2025-11-21

AI Summary

In animation pre-production, fragmented generative AI tools hinder cross-stage collaboration (conceptualization, scripting, design, storyboarding), resulting in content inconsistency and weak creative control. This paper proposes a multi-agent collaborative system tailored for animation pre-production, centered on a coordinating agent that orchestrates stage-specific agents. The system integrates stage-aware task scheduling with an element-level editable, visual dashboard to enable unified workflow orchestration and human-AI co-control. By synergizing generative AI, dynamic task orchestration, and structured information management, it significantly enhances cross-stage coherence and creative controllability. In a controlled study with 16 professional animators, the system outperformed a single-agent baseline across all metrics—collaborative coordination, narrative consistency, information management, and user satisfaction—at *p* < .01. Real-world deployment further validates its practicality and scalability.

Technology Category

• Multiagent Systems: Coordination and Collaboration
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Animation pre-production lays the foundation of an animated film by transforming initial concepts into a coherent blueprint across interdependent stages such as ideation, scripting, design, and storyboarding. While generative AI tools are increasingly adopted in this process, they remain isolated, requiring creators to juggle multiple systems without integrated workflow support. Our formative study with 12 professional creative directors and independent animators revealed key challenges in their current practice: Creators must manually coordinate fragmented outputs, manage large volumes of information, and struggle to maintain continuity and creative control between stages. Based on the insights, we present AnimAgents, a human-multi-agent collaborative system that coordinates complex, multi-stage workflows through a core agent and specialized agents, supported by dedicated boards for the four major stages of pre-production. AnimAgents enables stage-aware orchestration, stage-specific output management, and element-level refinement, providing an end-to-end workflow tailored to professional practice. In a within-subjects summative study with 16 professional creators, AnimAgents significantly outperformed a strong single-agent baseline that equipped with advanced parallel image generation in coordination, consistency, information management, and overall satisfaction (p < .01). A field deployment with 4 creators further demonstrated AnimAgents' effectiveness in real-world projects.

Problem

• Coordinating fragmented outputs across multiple animation stages
• Managing large information volumes while maintaining creative continuity
• Integrating isolated AI tools into unified pre-production workflow

Innovation

• Human-multi-agent system coordinates multi-stage workflows
• Stage-aware orchestration with specialized agents and boards
• Element-level refinement for end-to-end pre-production workflow