Animation
AI has made animation faster to produce in volume, and it still has limits that matter on a brand job. None of them are secret: the tool makers publish them, and researchers measure them. Here is where AI animation still breaks, and what that means for a brief.
It still gets physics wrong
OpenAI’s own launch notes for its Sora video model said it “may struggle to simulate the physics of a complex scene”. The same page gave the examples: a cookie that shows no mark after a character bites it, people and animals appearing out of nowhere in busy scenes, and a chair that failed to behave like a rigid object.
The research says the problem is not one model’s. PhysVidBench, a 2025 benchmark of physical common sense, tested 12 open and proprietary text-to-video systems. The best one averaged 36.2% accuracy, and no model consistently handled everyday physical reasoning.
36.2%
The average accuracy of the best of 12 text-to-video systems on everyday physical reasoning in PhysVidBench (2025). No model handled it consistently.
In a product ad, the moments most exposed to this are the ones the ad is built around: a pour, a bite, a squeeze, a pack being opened. Plan to animate those beats with more control, or to shoot them.
It still loses the character
A brand character lives on a model sheet: proportions, colours, expressions and turnarounds that stay fixed across every cut. Generation varies by design, so holding a character on-model across a campaign is still human work: reference control, correction and review, shot by shot.
It still takes direction badly
Animation performs through timing: the pause before a reaction, the hold on a pack shot, a camera move that lands on the beat. Sora’s notes also said the model may confuse left and right and struggle with precise events over time, such as a specific camera trajectory. So direction happens around the generator, in the edit, the compositing and the frames animated by hand, not inside the prompt.
It can leave you without clear ownership
The US Copyright Office’s January 2025 report says generative AI output is protected only where a human author determined enough of the expressive elements, and that prompts alone are not enough. For a one-off social cut that may not matter. For a character the brand wants to own for years, it does. AI vs traditional production covers what that means for owned assets.
When we would not use it
We tell brands not to use AI animation when the work depends on a signature illustrator’s hand, when a character has decades of established model-sheet consistency, or when the deliverable is a single hero frame rather than a volume of cuts. Brand-safe AI production lists the wider cases, from endorsements to claims that need a real test.
Where it still wins
None of this makes AI animation the wrong tool. It is strongest where the work is volume: many cuts, many markets and many formats from one master, with people setting the concept and checking every frame that ships.
Where PUNX fits
PUNX is among the AI animation studios working in the Philippines, in 2D and 3D, from Makati. Our work includes AI content for San Miguel’s GSM Blue and for Well-B. Concept and art direction are set by people; generation, in-betweening and versioning run on an AI pipeline. If a brief sits in one of the cases above, we will say so before we quote.
FAQ
What are the disadvantages of AI in animation?
Four matter most on a brand job: it still gets physics and cause and effect wrong, it struggles to hold a character on-model across shots, it takes precise timing and camera direction badly, and purely generated output may not be protected by copyright.
Can AI animation keep a character consistent?
Not on its own. Generation varies by design, so holding a character on-model across a campaign still takes reference control, correction and review by people, shot by shot.
Is AI-generated animation protected by copyright?
According to the US Copyright Office’s January 2025 report, AI output is protected only where a human author determined enough of the expressive elements, and prompts alone are not enough. Using AI to assist, or including AI material in a larger human-made work, does not bar protection.
When should a brand not use AI animation?
When the work depends on a signature illustrator’s hand, when a character has decades of established model-sheet consistency, or when the deliverable is a single hero frame rather than a volume of cuts.
Related
AI animation studios — character, motion and animated formats
2D vs 3D animation for ads — which one fits the brief
AI vs traditional production — when to shoot it instead
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