Nina Nikolic | KidKerrigan

Democratizing Synthiola

Client: Fabian Mosele

Service Provided: Voice acting for Prot, voice print for synthetic Prot

Democratizing Synthiola is an 18-minute experimental animated short. It dives headfirst into questions of identity, authenticity, and consent in our AI-saturated world. At its heart is Prot, a fluffy pink character. Prot creates a synthetic clone of their crush to practice asking her out. But things get complicated when feelings develop for the clone itself.

What if you could create a synthetic version of anyone?

And what happens when those lines between real and artificial start to blur?

Unconventional stories and methods

This isn’t your typical animation project. Creator Fabian Mosele crafted something truly unique by mixing frame-by-frame 2D animation with live-action footage and AI-generated visuals (Stable Diffusion, AnimateDiff, Gen-3 Alpha). The film features the Shoggoth meme-a nod to the unsettling similarities between Lovecraftian monsters and Large Language Models-and Synthiola, Fabian’s own synthetic AI persona.

I had the privilege of voicing Prot, navigating the emotional complexity of a character grappling with longing, creation, and increasingly blurred realities. It’s challenging to bring genuine vulnerability to a story that’s literally interrogating what “genuine” even means.

So far, the film is resonating with festival audiences worldwide: Chroma Art Film Festival (Miami), KOOORTS (Netherlands), Mannheimer Filmsymposium (Germany), AIxDesign Festival (Amsterdam), and Neuro Masters AI Film Festival (Moscow). It earned a Neomation award nomination at the Escape AI Awards and coverage in Animation Magazine.

FINAL PRODUCTION

Additional viewing

• ONLY AI version – Explore the generative process
• NO AI version – See the film without generative elements

A note on ethics and AI in animation

There are real concerns right now about how AI models are trained and how voice actors’ and the work of other artists is used.

Working on Democratizing Synthiola meant being part of a project that uses AI as a creative tool while the broader conversation about consent and ethics is still unfolding. What made me comfortable saying yes was Fabian’s transparency and protection. They explained exactly how AI would be used in the film. What it meant for my performance. How my voice would (and wouldn’t) be involved, along with agreements detailing my consent. And, of course, a fee that was appropriate for the work.

The film itself interrogates these very questions; what happens when we can replicate anyone, and where do we draw the line? It felt important to be part of a project that doesn’t shy away from that discomfort, but instead uses it as the foundation of the story.

I can’t speak for every AI project out there, and I’m still learning where my own boundaries are. But I can say that this one was handled with care, and I felt protected every step of the way. If you’re working on something that explores AI and you’re committed to doing it ethically, let’s talk.

Making stories like this

If your project asks difficult questions, I’m here for it. Narratives that challenge what we think we know. Maybe it explores speculative futures. Or perhaps it pushes against the grain of traditional storytelling. Either way, I bring emotional truth to characters living in worlds that don’t quite work like ours.