Independent creator completes solo 17-minute animated episode with AI-assisted production workflow

June 2026

At a time when producing an animated series typically requires large teams, months of coordination, and substantial budgets, Frank Houbre presents Lost Garden, an independent animated dark fantasy series whose first episode was produced solo.

Running 17 minutes, this first episode was written, directed, edited, and finished by its creator using an AI-assisted production workflow.

Lost Garden unfolds in a vast underground world populated by silent knights, mysterious children, forgotten machines, and organic landscapes bathed in blue light. The story follows Lanterne, a fragile, mute knight guided by the memory of a child named Rose.

Since its release in early June, the episode has surpassed 65,000 views in just a few days, generating strong positive responses around its atmosphere, art direction, music, and narrative ambition.

The project does not rely on automatic generation. AI functions as a production tool within a human-led creative chain: writing, storyboard, staging, visual continuity, editing, sound design, and post-production.

With Lost Garden, Frank Houbre explores a new way to produce independent animation: lighter, more direct, yet always grounded in an author's vision.

Frank Houbre is also developing ScreenWeaver, a tool designed to help writers and audiovisual creators move more naturally from screenplay to scene visualization. This research into new creative workflows extends directly from the experience of Lost Garden.

"Lost Garden was not born from a magic button. It is a project written, directed, edited, and built step by step. AI allowed me to produce alone a vision that would normally have required an entire team."
— Frank Houbre

"I do not see these tools as a way to remove the human from creation. I see them as an opportunity for independent creators to finally tell stories too large for their usual means."
— Frank Houbre

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Press kit: https://lostgarden.world/fr/press
Contact: lostgarden.world@gmail.com