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Cartoon & anime

Hand-drawn anime film

Soft cel-shaded characters set in lush watercolor backgrounds, like a frame from a hand-drawn Japanese animated feature.

Sent with your prompt

Frame from a hand-drawn Japanese animated feature: characters with clean ink outlines and flat two-tone cel shading, set in lush, detailed painted backgrounds with soft watercolor and gouache texture. Natural light, gentle greens and sky blues, everyday moments, a warm nostalgic atmosphere and calm, carefully composed film framing.

Nearby styles

Images

Part of Anime

How do you make an image in a hand-painted anime look?

Describe your scene, then name the cues of the look: painted watercolor backgrounds, soft cel shading on the figures, tall summer clouds and warm light. Batch Banana runs it on Nano Banana 2.1 by default, or on any image model you pick. Use your own characters and places. You can start for free.

What makes the look

Background, figures, sky, light and scale

Keep these cues when you change the scene. Name them in your prompt, or attach a painting of your own as a reference.

  1. Background

    Painted backgrounds with watercolor and gouache texture, more detailed than the figures in front of them.

  2. Figures

    Simple shapes and clean lines with soft cel shading: one flat shadow tone per color.

  3. Sky

    Deep blue skies with tall, sunlit clouds that take up much of the frame.

  1. Light

    Warm, low sun or clear midday light, with long shadows across the grass.

  2. Scale

    Small figures in wide landscapes, doing everyday things: a meal, a walk, wind in the grass.

Category
Animation
Best subjects
Countryside, small towns, gardens, weather, animals
Frame
Wide frames such as 16:9 suit landscapes
Not on this page
Characters, logos or scenes from any film

Your photo, in hand-painted anime

Attach a photo of yourself and ask for hand-painted anime.

A phone selfie of a smiling woman with brown skin and dark curly hair in a mustard sweater, against a pale grey wall
A woman with dark curly hair in a mustard sweater as a hand-painted animated character taking a selfie in green countryside under big white clouds

One painted landscape on four models

The same prompt from the Nano Banana model guide. Compare the paint texture, the dawn light and how small each model keeps the hare.

Same prompt, every model

A gouache illustration for a children's picture book: a small brown hare in an oversized olive coat walks along a ridge of round green hills at dawn, a line of crows far off, the hare small in the lower left.

  • A gouache hare in an olive coat walking a path in the lower left of a wide landscape of green hills under a pink dawn sky
    Nano Banana 2

    10 credits

  • A loose gouache hare in a long olive coat crossing a green hillside, the sun rising behind dark hills and a line of crows above
    Nano Banana Pro

    32 credits

  • A gouache hare in an olive coat with a bundle on a stick walking a hillside path, green hills and a line of birds at dawn
    Nano Banana 2 Lite

    8 credits

  • A gouache hare in an olive coat and cap walking with a stick across rolling green hills under a pale dawn sky
    Nano Banana

    10 credits

Real runs of this prompt from the Nano Banana model guide. Credits are each model's base price per image. Nano Banana 2.1 replaced Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana, so their cards show its price.

How it works

  1. Start with a place and a moment

    Say where it happens, the season and what is going on. Quiet, everyday moments suit this look better than action.

  2. Name the cues you want

    Add the parts of the look in plain words: painted background, soft cel shading, deep blue sky. Describe what you see rather than naming a film.

  3. Keep a series consistent

    Save the images you like to a collection and give it a note that says what to match, such as the palette and the shading. The note is added to every prompt that uses the collection.

Questions about the hand-painted look

Related

Read more in the docs