🎬 22B Labs · Open Source Release

The Director Makes the Film, Not the Camera

22B Studio — n8n-first Ghibli-style animation pipeline. One scenario in, the full workflow runs.

📅 April 2026 ✍️ 22B Labs ⏱ 4 min read

Most AI video tools promise "video at the push of a button." In practice, every output looks the same. Characters change between scenes, the mood is inconsistent, and you end up rebuilding everything from scratch anyway.

22B Studio starts from the opposite direction. Story first, technology second. Drop in a scenario, and n8n manages the entire pipeline: ComfyUI generates visuals, and a human reviewer approves each stage before the next begins. Open source workflow templates for Ghibli-style animation.

"The director makes the film, not the camera."
— 22B Studio design philosophy

pipeline

7-Stage Production Pipeline

Input one scenario. The pipeline runs in this order. A human reviews and approves each stage.

STEP 01

Mood Board

Set overall color palette, atmosphere, and emotional direction

↓

STEP 02

Character Sheet

Lock character consistency via IP-Adapter

↓

STEP 03

Background Concepts

Generate per-scene background styles

↓

STEP 04

Sketch Storyboard

Scene composition and flow draft

↓

STEP 05

Full Renders

SDXL + Ghibli LoRA final image generation

↓

STEP 06

Video Clips

Still images → video conversion

↓

STEP 07

Upscale + Final Assembly

Real-ESRGAN upscale → FFmpeg assembly

👤 Human review at every stage — n8n pauses after each step and waits for reviewer approval. The AI does not proceed on its own. This is the foundation of visual consistency.

principles

Design Principles

🎬n8n-first — No standalone program. n8n is the full pipeline orchestrator.
🌿Ghibli-only MVP — Not multi-style. One style done right.
📁No src/ directory — Deliverables are workflow JSONs, prompt templates, reference assets, and docs.
🧬Narrative DNA consumer — Receives narrative_payload from Shorts Engine. Story creates visuals.

stack

Requirements

🔄

n8n (required)

localhost:5678 — full pipeline orchestrator

🎨

ComfyUI (required)

localhost:8188 — SDXL + Ghibli LoRA

🎞️

FFmpeg (required)

Clip assembly and final encoding

🔍

Real-ESRGAN (required)

Final upscaling

💻

GPU 12GB+ recommended

For SDXL rendering. RTX 3080 or better.

🧩

IP-Adapter

ComfyUI extension for character consistency

getting started

Getting Started

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/sinmb79/22b-studio.git

# 2. Import n8n workflow
# n8n → Settings → Import → select JSON from n8n-workflows/

# 3. Install Ghibli LoRA in ComfyUI
# Copy LoRA file to models/loras/

# 4. Input scenario → run n8n workflow
    

💡 Start here — docs/getting-started-en.md has the full setup guide and ComfyUI configuration steps.

Get Started on GitHub

MIT License · Completely Free
n8n + ComfyUI + FFmpeg + Real-ESRGAN
Ghibli-style animation pipeline templates

🔗 View on GitHub

22B Labs · The 4th Path GitHub: sinmb79 · the4thpath.com
The 4th Path: ⟨H⊕A⟩ ↦ Ω — Human × AI → a better world.