AI-Powered Animated Short Film 'Dear Upstairs Neighbors' Debuts at Sundance Using Custom Google DeepMind Technology

Jan 28, 2026
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Summary

Groundbreaking AI-animated short film 'Dear Upstairs Neighbors' premieres at Sundance, utilizing custom Google DeepMind technology that transforms rough animator sketches into polished painterly scenes through fine-tuned Veo and Imagen models, marking a revolutionary collaboration between human creativity and artificial intelligence in filmmaking.

Key Points

  • Animated short film 'Dear Upstairs Neighbors' premieres at Sundance Film Festival, showcasing collaboration between animators and Google DeepMind researchers using AI tools
  • Production team fine-tunes custom Veo and Imagen models on specific artwork to achieve consistent character designs and unique painterly visual styles throughout the film
  • Video-to-video workflows allow animators to create rough animations that AI transforms into stylized final shots, with localized refinement tools enabling precise editing of specific regions

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