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Episode 123 · Weekly show · 2h 3m

Some of the Best AI Animation We've Seen

16 June 2026 · Chris Branch (Host), Andrew Davis (Co-host)

Watch on YouTubeRead the transcript

The short version

Episode 123 was a show without a producer: Paul was away, so Chris ran the polls himself while Andrew squeezed the show between training days, and community member Marco Magario curated most of the line-up. It turned into a run of long-form AI worlds. Hal Watmough's 30-minute Beyond the Loop film for Wonder Studios opened the watching, SPECTRAL by The Butcher's Brain, a story about an inspector in a world without colour, took straight 1s, and An Artist imagined creatives shipped off to Mars once art is automated. TechHalla pushed Seedance to 311 cuts from 14 prompts for under $80, Chris showed the World Cup piece he made for MiniMax in 48 hours, and nearly every polled piece came back a 1.

The scoreboard

Every piece on AI LIVE goes to a live audience vote: 1 for awesome, 2 for okay, 3 for not for me. Here's how this week's work landed, best first.

  1. 1SPECTRALThe Butcher's Brain100
  2. 2Prince of ChaosZ Khan100
  3. 3An ArtistA_B_E_L_A_R_T100
  4. 4TechHalla's 14-prompt music videoTechHalla92
  5. 5Aida's ShadowsJSFILMZ88

Score out of 100: a 1 counts fully, a 2 counts half, a 3 counts zero. Votes are counted the way StreamYard's live poll counts them: every 1, 2 or 3 mentioned in a YouTube live chat message while that piece was on screen, one vote per person per poll (their first). LinkedIn Live comments are still to be added.

Key takeaways

  1. 01

    Long-form AI storytelling has arrived. Several pieces were 20 to 30-minute episodes, so the show dropped into five-minute chunks and even asked the chat whether to keep watching, and the audience said yes.

  2. 02

    Sound design is what separates good from great. SPECTRAL lost points only for thin foley between lines of dialogue, while Dave Clark's horror short showed how in-between sounds keep you immersed. Chris's argument: sound is 60% of the experience.

  3. 03

    Seedance changed the edit. Its ability to cut between shots inside one generation is what let TechHalla build a three-minute music video with 311 cuts from 14 prompts, for under $80.

  4. 04

    The bar for 'looks real' keeps moving. Andrew said JSFILMZ's Aida's Shadows still looked a bit AI-ish, when six months ago the same footage would have looked super real, and he'd have believed the non-AI board ad was AI.

  5. 05

    Behind-the-scenes content teaches the craft. The Beyond the Loop BTS showed a Nano Banana start frame refined with an agent rather than re-rolled, though Chris argued Prince of Chaos should have kept its BTS in a separate video.

  6. 06

    AI companies are now funding creative ideas. MiniMax sponsored Chris and Paul's World Cup piece, which went from idea to release in 48 hours before the opening ceremony.

Everything we reviewed

11 pieces, in show order. Tap any one to watch the creator's original post.

Original link coming soon

01 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 3:15

Mythos news satire (viral AI slop)

Chris opened the news with a clip he called genuinely slop, with some of the sloppiest characters to go viral on YouTube, yet it was racking up millions of impressions on X. It satirises the week's AI news: Anthropic warning that its new Mythos model was too dangerous to release, then giving it to everyone. That led into Chris's frustration at only getting five days with the model, and a wider debate about the best AI models being locked to certain countries.

02 · ▶ on the show at 20:48

The Trials (Beyond the Loop, Season 2 Episode 1)

By Hal Watmough, Wonder Studios

BAFTA winner Hal Watmough, a Curious Refuge competition winner and one of our earliest guests, directs the first film in Season 2 of Beyond the Loop, Wonder Studios' AI-native anthology. It premiered at Wonder's new London office, a converted church, so we dropped into a five-minute chunk: an extraterrestrial force summons the planet's strongest and fastest to fight to the death. Jimmy counted about 20 people in the credits. The behind the scenes showed a Nano Banana start frame refined back and forth with an agent. It's the first of six films.

“That scene reminded me of one of my favourite scenes in film, which is in Endgame when Captain America has to go fight this whole army by himself.”Andrew Davis · ▶ 30:29

Nano Banana

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

03 · ▶ on the show at 35:24

SPECTRAL

By The Butcher's Brain

Picked by Marco and watched blind, SPECTRAL is The Butcher's Brain's entry for the Dreamina AI Annecy Contest. In a town where colour was outlawed generations ago, an ageing inspector follows a tip to a hidden basement and finds something he can't bring himself to report. Andrew loved the idea at its heart, though the dialogue at the lunch table sounded off to him. Chris loved the use of colour and wanted more foley and a bolder grade, since it seemed to lean on Seedance's own audio. The chat answered with 18 straight 1s, the most of the night.

“Just give this exact thing to a sound design expert to fill in the foley sounds and a bit tighter of the dialogue, and this would be like a 10 out of 10 for me.”Chris Branch · ▶ 41:06

Seedance 2.0Dreamina

Original post →

04 · ▶ on the show at 46:20

The Boo Hag Will Get You

By Dave Clark

Dave Clark's latest, made with Seedance 2.0 and drawn from the urban folklore of the Boo Hag: a boy who won't stop watching cartoons is warned that if his room isn't clean, the Boo Hag will get him, and a creepy chant of a song carries the rest. Coming straight after SPECTRAL, it was the perfect example of the in-between sound Chris had asked for: creepy noises that keep you inside the world. Dave works across every genre, and often makes things for his son.

“Literally the audio is the thing that connects the visuals together scene-wise.”Chris Branch · ▶ 49:05

Seedance 2.0

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

Original link coming soon

05 · ▶ on the show at 50:51

World Cup nations flag reveal for MiniMax

By Chris Branch, Paul Parsons

Our own 40-second piece for the World Cup, sponsored by MiniMax and made in its hub, which gives access to Seedance, Kling and other models. Paul had the idea while photographing the White Cliffs of Dover: what if a St George's cross sat perfectly in the landscape? So each nation got an environment that reveals its flag, from Mexico, the USA and Canada to Scotland, England and Argentina, cut with fast speed ramps like a hawk's flight. It was turned around in 48 hours before the opening ceremony, and Chris made the music himself, a drum and bass remix of the official World Cup song.

“We had like a two minute slower version, but we realised the speed ramping really brings something to the dynamicness.”Chris Branch · ▶ 51:47
Audience verdictNot put to the vote
Original link coming soon

06 · ▶ on the show at 55:56

Prince of Chaos

By Z Khan

Andrew's pick: the first original sci-fi IP from Z Khan, a peaceful civilisation on a far-away planet living in harmony with nature until something threatens it. The video runs the story straight into a behind the scenes and a workflow, showing Dreamina's AI agent helping develop the lore and build scenes from sketches. Andrew loved the world-building and the distinctive look of its people. Chris gave the story a 1 but wanted the BTS as its own video, and the chat sent straight 1s.

“I think the BTS and everything should have been a separate video, truthfully.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:02:39

Dreamina

07 · ▶ on the show at 1:06:59

Aida's Shadows

By JSFILMZ

Another Marco suggestion and a first on the show for JSFILMZ, who stars in his own 18-minute crime thriller, made from a 40-page script with more than 1,600 Seedance 2.0 clips on a $2,500 budget. We dropped in 13 minutes in: a detective corners a killer who turns out to be an old academy classmate, with a chilling threat about his daughter. Chris liked the long, held shots, rare in this genre. Andrew got The Boys and The Matrix vibes and settled on a 1, though he felt it still looks a bit AI-ish. Mostly 1s, with a few 2s.

“I liked the comment that someone said about there's a lot of long form shots here, which is not typical for this genre of stuff.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:12:23

Seedance 2.0

Original post →

08 · ▶ on the show at 1:16:06

An Artist

By A_B_E_L_A_R_T

A stylised short set in a world where art, poetry and music are fully automated. A broke former tattoo artist, told there's no work left for people like him, hands his one-way ticket to Mars to his landlord to clear the debt. We paused halfway to ask the chat whether to keep going, and the answer was yes. The ending lands dark. Andrew called it depressing, dark and genius, and spotted tiny details like a character shifting a chair back. Chris praised its twist, arc and character development. Almost all 1s.

“It had a twist. It had an arc. It had the character development. It had everything you want to finish that piece.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:28:49

Original post →

Original link coming soon

09 · ▶ on the show at 1:32:58

Non-AI board ad (cinematography reference)

Not AI, and not put to the vote. Chris showed this ad, sent by Marco, as the level of cinematography and camera movement he wants from the next generation of AI video: a single wooden board becomes somewhere to sit, a tool of precision, something to strum and more. Andrew admitted that if he'd been told it was AI, he would have believed it, and Guy in the chat was sure we were tricking him.

“Isn't that the most cinematic ad you've seen in ages?”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:35:12
Audience verdictNot put to the vote
Original link coming soon

10 · ▶ on the show at 1:37:31

TechHalla's 14-prompt music video

By TechHalla

A deliberately intense palate cleanser from TechHalla, the creator Chris credits with inventing the chase prompt. He stars in his own death metal and bongos music video, built from just 14 prompts that push Seedance's in-generation cuts to the limit, then stitched together from the best 15-second clips. Andrew found the numbers on his X account: 311 cuts, and the whole three-minute video made for under $80. TechHalla builds in public and shares his workflows. Mostly 1s.

“It's death metal with bongos, man.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:42:34

Seedance 2.0

11 · ▶ on the show at 1:50:07

Black Harvest: From Embryom Chronicles

By Giulio Fulchignoni

The closer: the first five minutes of Giulio Fulchignoni's cosmic horror short, the second spin-off in his Embryom Chronicles universe, where a lone Raider crosses poisoned lands in search of a rare substance called Mireblood. The visuals were made in Invideo Agent One, with sound design by Duskosound that Chris loved. Andrew said it reminded him of a video game, and Mary in the chat saw it as the opening level where you equip and harvest. The show ended here, so there was no vote, and Chris admits the music video would have made a better closer.

“It reminded me of a video game, to be honest.”Andrew Davis · ▶ 1:56:19

invideo

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

Said live

“I come from an audio background, but I have arguments with film guys because my argument's always been that sound is 60% of what you're experiencing and 40% is the visuals.”
Chris BranchAfter An Artist▶ 1:30:54
“It's depressing. It's dark, but it's genius as well.”
Andrew DavisOn An Artist▶ 1:29:35
“I thought that it did look a bit AI-ish. And what I mean by that, six months ago, we would have been like, wow, that looks super real.”
Andrew DavisOn JSFILMZ's Aida's Shadows▶ 1:14:21
“The thing that Seedance introduced that people forgot is that before this we were just generating one scene.”
Chris BranchOn TechHalla's 311-cut music video▶ 1:42:04
“It was a thing, then it was a BTS, then it was a workflow, all bootstrapped into one five minute video.”
Chris BranchOn Prince of Chaos▶ 1:01:33
“Hopefully with AI, you're going to see a lot of ideas that the world would never have seen come to fruition.”
Andrew DavisOn why so many creatives end up in other jobs▶ 1:49:26
“We're the anti-slop, and there is going to be the slop and lots of it.”
Chris BranchOn original IP and the future of the show▶ 1:49:53

Quotes are trimmed of filler words for reading. Every timestamp opens the show at that moment.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Welcome back, and is New York really rioting?
  2. 3:15A viral AI slop satire of Anthropic's Mythos
  3. 5:05Why was Mythos only available for five days?
  4. 6:03Will the best AI models be locked to certain countries?
  5. 7:08Could Italy ban AI?
  6. 7:40Should under-16s be banned from social media?
  7. 15:00Should AI replacing your job count as redundancy?
  8. 18:39What a Waymo ride says about human versus AI intelligence
  9. 20:48Hal Watmough's The Trials, Beyond the Loop Season 2
  10. 32:29Behind the scenes of Beyond the Loop
  11. 35:24SPECTRAL by The Butcher's Brain
  12. 44:00AI companies are now sponsoring creative ideas
  13. 46:20Dave Clark's The Boo Hag Will Get You
  14. 49:47Why is there so much AI horror right now?
  15. 50:51Our World Cup nations piece for MiniMax
  16. 55:56Prince of Chaos: building a sci-fi world with Dreamina
  17. 1:02:17Should a BTS be bolted onto the film?
  18. 1:06:59Dropping into JSFILMZ's Aida's Shadows
  19. 1:14:21Does AI video still look AI-ish?
  20. 1:16:06An Artist, a short about creatives sent to Mars
  21. 1:20:57Should we keep watching? The chat decides
  22. 1:27:06An Artist's dark ending
  23. 1:30:54Is sound 60% of what you experience?
  24. 1:32:58The non-AI ad that AI cinematography should aim for
  25. 1:37:31TechHalla's 14-prompt Seedance music video
  26. 1:45:02How do you make a music video for under $80?
  27. 1:47:46Why do so many creatives end up in other jobs?
  28. 1:50:07Black Harvest, Giulio Fulchignoni's Embryom Chronicles short
  29. 1:59:03Special guests coming up and a two-week break

Questions this episode answers

What was AI LIVE Episode 123 about?

Episode 123 (16 June 2026) was a run of long-form AI worlds and some of the best AI animation the show had seen. Chris Branch and Andrew Davis hosted without producer Paul Parsons and reviewed 11 pieces, many of them suggested by community member Marco Magario, including Hal Watmough's Beyond the Loop film for Wonder Studios, the dystopian short An Artist and TechHalla's 311-cut Seedance music video. SPECTRAL by The Butcher's Brain and Prince of Chaos tied at the top of the audience vote with straight 1s, 18 for SPECTRAL and 13 for Prince of Chaos.

Which piece won the audience vote on AI LIVE Episode 123?

SPECTRAL, The Butcher's Brain's Seedance 2.0 short about an inspector in a town where colour was outlawed, tied with Z Khan's Prince of Chaos and An Artist on straight 1s: 18 votes for SPECTRAL, 13 for Prince of Chaos and 9 for An Artist, all of them 1s. TechHalla's music video followed with 5 1s and a 2, and JSFILMZ's Aida's Shadows drew 10 1s and three 2s.

How did TechHalla make a music video for under $80?

TechHalla used just 14 prompts in Seedance, pushing its ability to cut between shots inside a single generation, then picked the best 15-second clips and stitched them together. The three-minute video has 311 cuts, stars TechHalla himself, and cost under $80 to make, according to his post on X.

What is Beyond the Loop Season 2?

Beyond the Loop is Wonder Studios' AI-native film anthology. Season 2 opens with The Trials, directed by BAFTA winner Hal Watmough, which premiered at Wonder's new London office, a converted church. About 20 people are in its credits, and it is the first of six films, with Cavan the Kid expected to direct one of the others.

Does sound matter more than visuals in AI film?

Chris Branch, who comes from an audio background, argues sound is 60% of what you experience and visuals 40%, because music works on a deeper, unconscious level. On the show, SPECTRAL was marked down only for thin foley between dialogue, while Dave Clark's horror short showed how in-between sounds keep you immersed.

How can I get my AI work featured on AI LIVE?

Submit it through the form at theailiveshow.com. Every Tuesday at 4pm UK the hosts review the best submissions live on LinkedIn and YouTube, and every piece goes to a live audience vote: 1 for awesome, 2 for okay, 3 for not for me.

Show notes

Paul was away, so Chris ran the show and the polls himself, while Andrew joined between back-to-back training days. Community member Marco Magario stepped in to curate most of the line-up, and Andrew brought a pick of his own.

Before the work, a busy news segment: a viral AI slop satire of Anthropic's Mythos model, whether the best models will be locked to certain countries, the UK's social media ban for under-16s, and whether AI replacing your job should count as redundancy.

Then a night of long-form AI worlds, from Hal Watmough's Beyond the Loop episode for Wonder Studios and SPECTRAL to An Artist and TechHalla's 311-cut music video, plus the World Cup piece Chris and Paul made for MiniMax in 48 hours. Nearly every polled piece came back a 1, and the show takes a week off before returning in two weeks.

Episode
123
Format
Weekly show
Aired
16 June 2026
Runtime
2:03:50
Pieces reviewed
10
Live votes counted
59

Tools on the table

Nano BananaSeedance 2.0Dreaminainvideo

On the show

  • Chris BranchChris BranchHost
  • Andrew DavisAndrew DavisCo-host

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