To make cartoon videos for YouTube with AI, use one template for each job: a character sheet for the cast, a story template for the episode, and a packaging template for the thumbnail and metadata. Export at YouTube’s specs, upload in YouTube Studio, then get paid on performance through Picsart Earn. No drawing or animation software is involved at any stage.
This guide covers the tools, the YouTube specifications, the five production steps and how to monetize with Earn, in that order.
Which tools to use for a YouTube cartoon
Picsart Flow can take one photo or a text prompt and build kids’ cartoons with a real storyline, sized for YouTube, Reels and Shorts. Each job below has its own Flow template.
- The cast: Create Cartoon Character Sheets for Animation Projects. A sketch or photo goes in, and consistent character art in three styles comes out, with a model sheet and three companion characters.
- Long-form episodes: Create a Kids’ Animated Detective Video Story. It builds a 30-second 16:9 mystery with its own animal cast, three scenes stitched into one video.
- Shorts: Create Animated Kids Lessons with Your Own Teacher. Your character and a topic become a 45-second vertical lesson with voiceover, plus a script, caption and tags.
- Songs: Create a Cartoon Kids Song Video. It writes rhyming lyrics and builds a short 3-scene music video with audio.
- The upload package: Create a Cartoon Adventure with a Superhero Theme. It returns an animated short with music, a thumbnail, and a YouTube-ready title, description and tags.
- Upload and audience settings: YouTube Studio, where every video gets its made for kids setting.
- Monetization: Picsart Earn for YouTube, which pays on verified engagement for videos on your channel. More on that below.
The Cartoon & Kids category has more community templates for varying the format once the first series works.
YouTube specifications for cartoon videos
Here is what YouTube expects for each format.
| What to check | Regular videos | Shorts |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Wide, 16:9 | Tall, 9:16 |
| Quality | Full HD (1920 x 1080) or 4K | Full-screen vertical |
| Length | Up to 15 minutes, longer once your account is verified | Up to 3 minutes |
| File type | MP4 | MP4 |
| Thumbnail | A wide JPG or PNG image | A tall image, added from YouTube Studio on a computer |
| Title | Up to 100 characters | Up to 100 characters |
Two quick tips. Skip black bars around the video, because YouTube fits the player to it on its own. And verify your YouTube account before uploading your own thumbnail.
Every step below uses a Picsart Flow template, named in the step itself. The first is Create Cartoon Character Sheets for Animation Projects.
How to make cartoon videos for YouTube in Picsart Flow
1. Build your recurring cast
Open Create Cartoon Character Sheets for Animation Projects and upload a sketch or a photo of your lead character. Pick one of the three styles it returns and keep the model sheet as the reference for every episode, so the character looks the same from upload to upload.
2. Pick a story template for the format
Choose by where the video will live. Create a Kids' Animated Detective Video Story gives a 30-second 16:9 episode for the channel page, with no uploads needed. Create Animated Kids Lessons with Your Own Teacher gives a 45-second vertical lesson for Shorts, and it takes the character from step 1.
3. Swap in your character and brief, then run
Replace the sample inputs with your own. The lesson template takes your teacher character and a topic. The detective story lets you customize the clues, so each episode carries its own mystery instead of repeating the last one.
4. Review the scenes and regenerate the weak ones
Watch every scene before you export. Look for a character drifting from the model sheet, a flat beat, or a scene that does not lead into the next. Rerun the scene that misses and keep the ones that already work.
5. Package and upload
Run Create a Cartoon Adventure with a Superhero Theme for a thumbnail plus a title, description and tags, then edit the text to fit the episode and keep the title under 100 characters. Upload in YouTube Studio and set the made for kids option.
How to monetize cartoon videos on YouTube
Cartoon videos earn through Picsart Earn, which pays for videos posted on your own channel. Two settings in YouTube Studio come first: the audience and the AI label.
Set the audience before you upload
YouTube requires every creator to mark videos as made for kids or not, a rule tied to the FTC and COPPA. Animated characters and cartoon figures are one of the factors it weighs, next to children’s songs, stories and early education. A family-friendly cartoon is not automatically made for kids. The setting changes how viewers can interact, because a made for kids video loses:
- Comments
- Cards and end screens
- Notifications
- Save to playlist and Watch Later
Answer it honestly per video or for the whole channel. A preschool song channel and a teen comedy are different businesses.
Label AI music when you post
Under YouTube’s AI disclosure rules, non-realistic animation does not need an AI label, and neither do AI-made thumbnails, scripts or titles. AI-generated music that is the main focus of a video does, which means song videos from Create a Cartoon Kids Song Video should carry the label.
Get paid with Picsart Earn
Picsart Earn lets a cartoon channel make money on YouTube without waiting for YouTube’s own thresholds. It pays for verified engagement rather than channel size, and it asks for no set number of subscribers or watch hours. The cartoons stay on your own channel, under your own name, and Earn sits alongside YouTube’s partner program instead of replacing it.
The route from brief to payout has four moves:
- Pick an opportunity in the Earn dashboard and read its brief closely.
- Make the video in Picsart.
- Upload it to your channel with every disclosure and tag the brief and YouTube call for.
- Submit the video, then follow its payout in the dashboard.
Active briefs are listed on the Earn campaigns board, so pick one that fits your cartoons and your YouTube channel. Posting alone does not guarantee a payout, since eligibility, review and reward terms differ by campaign.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The templates handle the animation, so the work is choosing a character, writing story beats and reviewing scenes. Start with a character sheet, then run a story template with your own inputs.
Start your first episode with a character sheet
Design the cast that will carry the channel in Create Cartoon Character Sheets for Animation Projects, then pick the story template that fits your first upload. Set the audience honestly, export at YouTube’s specs, and post it for a paid brief on Picsart Earn.
