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How do youanimate a character with AIfrom a video?

by Alessandro De Vita · Leggi in italiano

TL;DR

To animate a character with AI from a video you need two things: an image of the character and a reference video of a person doing the move you want. A character animation model like Wan-Animate-2 reads the video and generates your character moving the same way. No motion capture suit, no animator drawing every frame. What decides the quality of the result comes before and after: which move to film, and what atmosphere to give it.

A jump trajectory drawn by white and yellow tracking points joined by thin lines on a black background, with a fainter red echo below it

What changed: movement now comes from a video

Until recently, getting a brand mascot to move meant one of two routes. A motion capture set, with an actor in a suit full of sensors, or an animator building the movement frame by frame. Both take time and a budget few small brands have. So most mascots stayed still, on a logo or a label.

In the last year a third route arrived. In September 2025 Alibaba’s Wan team released Wan2.2-Animate, an open model with two modes: it animates an image by copying the movement in a video, or it replaces the person in the video with the character, keeping their performance and the camera moves. In August 2026 came Wan-Animate-2, which reads the reference video directly, without an intermediate “skeleton”, and lets you change the camera viewpoint compared to the original clip. Both are under the Apache 2.0 license, so they can be used for commercial work too.

1character image
1reference video
0motion capture suits

The idea for this article came from an AI animation reel: a character on a skateboard, with an underground mood, the right music and every frame in the same style. According to the caption it was made with ComfyUI, Wan Animate, VACE and Nano Banana 2. The character was famous and didn’t belong to the creator, and that’s the point a brand can’t skip (more on it below).

How it works, step by step

The model is only one of four steps. Here’s how we use it at UAIT.AI:

Briefwho the character is and how it moves
Movementfilmed with a real person
Animationbuilt with AI
Moodlook, light, music, edit

The AI step gets the attention, but it’s the shortest one. The brief decides the character’s personality: one that jumps clumsily and one that lands clean are two different brands. The movement is filmed with care, because the model copies everything, mistakes included. And the final mood is what makes a thumb stop scrolling.

The tools sit side by side. ComfyUI is an open interface that runs on your own computer and connects models like building blocks. VACE, also from Alibaba, is an open model for creating and editing video (moving, swapping or animating elements). Google’s Nano Banana 2 is a commercial image model, useful for designing the character and keeping it the same across scenes. You pick what the job needs.

What you get, what we protect

What you get

  • a mascot or character that really moves
  • no motion capture day, no 3D studio
  • the same movement on different characters, for example one for each market

What we protect

  • whoever lends the movement has agreed to it, in writing
  • the character is yours: designed for the brand, never taken from someone else
  • no famous faces and no look-alikes of real people

This is worth being clear about. The model copies the movement and, in replacement mode, the performance of the person in the video too. That person needs to know how it will be used. And the character has to be yours: animating another brand’s mascot or a famous character can be a fun social experiment, but in a campaign it’s a rights problem.

For a small brand this changes a lot: an animated spot with a character, which used to need a studio, is now within reach of a two-person team.

Borrow the movement. Direct the mood.

4 steps to animate your first character

  1. Write who the character is in three lines. Personality, age, how it walks. If you don’t know how it moves, neither does the model.
  2. Design the character and lock it. A sheet with front, profile and a few expressions. This is the base the model has to respect.
  3. Film the movement well. Clean light, simple background, full body in frame. One clear video beats ten attempts.
  4. Give the result one mood. Same light, same palette, same music across every clip. That’s what makes it look like a campaign and not a test.

Frequently asked questions

Can you animate a character with AI from a video?

Yes. Character animation models take an image of the character and a reference video, and generate the character repeating the movement and expressions of the person in the video. There are open models, like Alibaba’s Wan-Animate-2 and Wan2.2-Animate, and commercial tools.

Do you need a motion capture suit?

No. A normal video is enough, even one shot on a phone, as long as the body is clearly visible. Wan-Animate-2 reads the video directly, without extracting a skeleton first.

Can I use these models for an ad?

Wan2.2-Animate and Wan-Animate-2 are under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows commercial use. Two things still need checking: the consent of whoever appears in the reference video, and the rights to the character. If the character isn’t yours, don’t use it in a campaign.

What's the difference between animating and replacing?

In animation the character comes to life by copying the movement in the video, on a new background. In replacement the character takes the place of the person inside the original video, with the same scene and the same camera moves.

In short

You can now animate a character with AI from a video, open models included: one image, one reference clip, and the movement passes from a person’s body to your character. That cuts the cost of animation a lot. What doesn’t change is the part that makes the result memorable: who the character is, what move it makes and what atmosphere surrounds it. And respect for the rights of whoever lends the movement.

Is your brand’s mascot still standing still?
Tell us about the character: we’ll tell you how we’d make it move, and with what mood.

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Alessandro De Vita
AI Creative Director. Runs UAIT.AI, the studio that builds campaigns with AI. LinkedIn · About

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