Meta Animated Drawings: how it works, and an offline alternative

Animated Drawings is a free research demo from Meta’s AI lab, FAIR, at sketch.metademolab.com. You upload a photo of a drawing of a person-like figure, adjust the box around it, the cutout and the joints the demo finds, and pick one of 27 motions recorded from real people. You get a short video to download or share. The demo still works in October 2026, but the drawing goes to Meta’s servers, and the open-source code behind it is no longer maintained.

How to use it, step by step

1. Open sketch.metademolab.com in a browser, tap Create your Animation and accept the terms.
2. Upload a photo of the drawing. Meta’s tips: white paper without lines, wrinkles or tears, good light without shadows, and arms and legs that don’t overlap the body.
3. Resize the box so it fits tightly around one figure.
4. Check the highlighted cutout. Fix it with the pen and the eraser, and use the eraser to separate arms or legs that are stuck together.
5. Drag the joints into place. A figure without arms works too: drag the elbow and wrist joints far away from it.
6. Pick a motion: dances, walks, jumps or funny ones such as boxing or floating. Download the video as an MP4, or share a link.

These steps follow the instructions in the demo itself.

What happens to the drawing

The drawing is uploaded and animated on Meta’s servers. According to the demo’s terms, Meta keeps the image for a short time and then deletes it, unless you agree to contribute it to research. That is optional. If you agree, the drawing can go into a public dataset for researchers, be used to train models and appear in research papers, without your name, and you can’t have it deleted afterwards.

By uploading, you also give Meta a license to use the drawing and the animation in connection with the demo. The terms say the demo is for personal, non-commercial use, isn’t open to people in Illinois or Texas, and may not be used by anyone under 18, so it’s the parent who uploads.

Does it still work?

Yes. The demo was online when we checked on 11 October 2026. When many people use it at once, it says its servers are struggling to keep up; try again a few minutes later.

Meta’s researchers showed the project in December 2021 and released the code as open source in April 2023, together with the paper “A Method for Animating Children’s Drawings of the Human Figure”. The code on GitHub (MIT license) was archived in September 2025 and is no longer maintained. You can still download it and run it on a computer with Python.

The same idea on iPhone or iPad, without uploading

Levende does the same three things, cut out, skeleton and move, but on your iPhone or iPad. It’s an independent app by Peter Theill, not made by or connected to Meta; the method was rebuilt from scratch from the published research. The differences:

• Where it runs: Meta’s demo runs in the browser and on Meta’s servers. Levende runs on the device and has no network access at all.
• Figures: Meta animates one person-like figure per drawing. In Levende, several figures dance together on a stage, and photos of a teddy, a pet or a toy can join in.
• Moves: Meta has 27 motions recorded from real people. Levende has 10 (wave, walk, jump, dance, jumping jacks, cheer, spin, kick, clap and zombie), and the figures walk to wherever you tap.
• Where they dance: Meta gives you a video. Levende has a stage with a backdrop, and AR, where the figures stand on your kitchen table, and you record your own video with music.
• Price: Both are free. Levende has no ads and no account, and its optional Supporter purchase never unlocks a feature.

Meta’s demo has more motions and is the easy pick on a computer. Levende is for when the drawings should stay at home, or when you want several figures and AR. Step by step: how to animate a drawing on iPhone or iPad.