Toonflow: An Open-Source AI Tool for Short Drama and Comic Drama 905

What is Toonflow

Toonflow is an open-source AI short drama tool developed by HBai-Ltd, released under the AGPL-3.0 license. It is an "engineered" AI short drama generation platform that focuses on script visualization and character consistency control. It can automatically convert novel text into complete short drama videos, enabling fully automated creation from text to visuals.

Unlike traditional AI video tools, Toonflow is not a simple "text-to-video" tool, but rather an industrial-grade pipeline that ensures "the protagonist doesn't lose their mind", boosting short drama production efficiency by more than 10 times.

Toonflow Core Features

• Intelligent character generation: Automatically analyzes novel text and generates character settings including appearance, personality, and identity, ensuring characters remain consistent across different shots

• Structured script generation: Based on selected novel chapters, automatically generates standardized film and television scripts containing dialogue, scene descriptions, and plot progression

• Smart storyboard creation: Generates storyboard prompts and visual designs based on the script, detailing foreground, midground, and background, character actions, props, and scene layout

• AI video composition: Integrates Sora, Doubao video generation, and Nano Banana Pro image generation technologies to automatically generate video clips with online editing support

Toonflow Technical Architecture

• Backend uses Node.js + TypeScript, frontend uses Vue 3 + TypeScript + Vite

• Supports Windows local deployment, Docker deployment, and cloud server deployment

• All scripts and assets are stored on the local hard drive to protect privacy

Toonflow Use Cases

• Short video content creation: Batch production of short drama content, suitable for short video matrix account operations

• Novel-to-video experimentation: Quickly convert text IP into video for film and television adaptation attempts

• AI literary adaptation tool: Automatically adapt novels into scripts and storyboards

• Script development and rapid prototyping: Quickly validate script ideas and generate storyboard prototypes

• Video asset generation: Provide high-quality video assets for content creators

Who It's For

• Creators doing text IP-to-video conversion

• People operating short drama matrix accounts

• Those who want to create serialized storylines

• Content creators and tech geeks with batch production needs

Who It's Not For

• Those who want to generate a Hollywood blockbuster with one click — it's just a draft tool

How to Use

Preparation

You need to prepare these AI service APIs:

• Large language model AI service API (OpenAI, Claude, local Ollama, etc.)

• Video generation service API (Sora, Doubao video service)

• Image generation model service API (Nano Banana Pro)

Installation Methods

Windows local installation:

• Download the official installer from GitHub Release or 123 Cloud Drive

• Run the installer and follow the wizard to complete installation

• Launch the program and log in with the default account (account: admin, password: admin123)

• Change the default password immediately and watch the quick-start video tutorial

Docker deployment:

# Online deployment
docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d --build
# Using Gitee source (recommended in China)
GIT=gitee docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d --build

Cloud server deployment:

• Prepare an Ubuntu 20.04+ or CentOS 7+ server

• Install Node.js 24.x and Yarn

• Use the PM2 process manager to deploy the production environment

Creation Workflow

Quick start:

1. Create a new project: Click New Project, enter basic information, and upload the novel text file

2. Character generation: Use the character generation feature to create or adjust character settings (AI automatically extracts protagonist features to generate character cards)

3. Script generation: Select key chapters, start automatic script generation, preview and modify content

4. Storyboard creation: Enter the storyboard stage, where the system automatically generates visual design plans

5. Video composition: Start video composition, monitor progress, preview and export the final product

Advanced features:

• Batch processing mode: Configure multiple chapters to process simultaneously and set up task queue management

• Team collaboration: Create team projects, assign roles, and set up multi-level review workflows

• Personalization customization: Develop custom prompt templates and configure visual style libraries

FAQ

Character inconsistency

Problem: AI-generated characters look different across different shots.

Solution: Toonflow uses a character card mechanism to automatically extract protagonist features such as hairstyle, clothing, and face shape to generate fixed character cards. If AI feature extraction is inaccurate, be sure to manually fine-tune keywords before regenerating.

Poor generation quality

Problem: Generated images may have detail issues such as broken fingers.

Solution: Use the built-in Inpaint (repaint) feature to fix local issues.

Stiff video motion

Problem: Generated videos have small motion ranges, like "animated PPT".

Explanation: Current AI video technology is limited, and generated videos are more suitable for narrative videos, not action films. It's recommended to integrate SVD or Runway APIs to improve results.

Cost issues

• API fees: You need to pay API calling fees for GPT-4 (script writing) + SDXL (image generation) + SVD/Runway (video conversion)

• Deployment cost: Requires certain technical capabilities for local deployment or server configuration

• Suggestion: First run the workflow locally and confirm you're satisfied with the results before considering renting a server to scale up.

Privacy & Security

• All data is stored on the local hard drive and will not be uploaded to third-party platforms

• When dealing with sensitive scripts, it's recommended to use a locally deployed LLM (such as Ollama) instead of cloud APIs

• Be sure to change the default password (admin/admin123) after first login

System Requirements

• Operating system: Windows 10/11 (current version), Linux/macOS coming soon

• Memory: 2GB or more available memory

• Storage: Sufficient space to store project files and generated content

Main repository: https://github.com/HBAI-Ltd/Toonflow-app

Frontend repository: https://github.com/HBAI-Ltd/Toonflow-web

Video tutorial: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1na6wB6Ea2/

Gitee mirror: https://gitee.com/HBAI-Ltd/Toonflow-app

Toonflow is an open-source AI short-drama tool aimed at professional creators, with its core value being character consistency control and full-process automation. It is more suitable for creators with a certain technical foundation who need to produce short-drama content in batches, and is not designed for ordinary users pursuing a "one-click blockbuster".

Related information:

AI Comic-Drama Production Tools

AI Comic Image Generation Tools

2026 Recommended AI Animation/Animation Production Generators

2026 Recommendation: 5 AI Comic-Drama Production Tools Reviewed

AI Novel Promotion/Teaser Text Tools