Make a spooky comedy

What your kid actually makes

A 45-second animated comedy in three scenes. Your kid's monster tries to scare someone and keeps failing. Your kid draws both characters, and both star in every scene. The film ends with a poster, their first name in the credits, and a premiere.

Made in the Animation Studio. See how the Animation Studio works.

How a sitting goes

One sitting, about an hour.

1. Draw the monster and the person it can't scare, snap them in the app, and name them.
2. Tell Tek the jokes, by typing or by talking. Tek sets up a storyboard, and your kid fixes the timing panel by panel or swaps in their own drawing.
3. Choose the sound. Your kid picks who talks in each scene and gives them one line, typed or said out loud, or lets the film play with music only.
4. Shoot the three scenes. Keep the ones that land and shoot the others again.
5. Name the film, make the poster, and press play for the premiere.

What AI does — and what your kid does

Your kid draws both characters, writes the jokes, fixes the storyboard, and gives each scene its one line. Tek, the studio's assistant producer, sets up the storyboard from your kid's story and brings the drawings to life in the season's cartoon look. The AI shoots each scene and adds the title, music, and credits. It never writes the jokes.

What they're really learning

A spooky comedy has a rule: the scary thing fails three times, funnier each time. The last try works, but not the way the monster planned. Tek plans the storyboard by that rule, and your kid decides what goes wrong each time. They learn comic timing: a pattern of three, a bigger failure each time, and a twist at the end.

Good to know

• About an hour, in one sitting. You need paper, something to draw with, and a device with a camera. It runs in the browser.
• Ages 6 to 13. Your kid can talk to Tek instead of typing.
• Funny first, spooky second. Nobody gets hurt, and the monster is the joke.
• When the film premieres, you get an email. Nothing goes on the open web unless you approve a public link.
• Only your kid's first name appears in the credits. When your kid talks to Tek, the app writes down what they say and doesn't keep the recording.