How to make 3D cartoon shorts for a kids' YouTube channel

Kids' channels live on bright, simple, repeatable videos: a friendly character, one little adventure, a song that sticks. Making them used to mean an animator, a voice actor and a week per episode. With Kixy Studio you describe the scene in a sentence and get a finished vertical clip with its own music.

This guide walks through the whole thing, from the first idea to a longer video you can post.

What you can make

Studio has two styles built for children:

• 3D cartoon: one scene in an animated-movie look, told in a few quick cuts, with playful music and the characters' giggles. No dialogue, so it works in any language.
• Nursery rhyme: a bright toddler cartoon set to a short, original rhyme with a repeated refrain over ukulele, xylophone and claps.

Both make vertical 9:16 video for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Reels, at any length from 5 to 30 seconds.

Step 1: Write one small idea

A good kids' short is one moment, not a whole plot. Name the characters, the place and the single thing that happens.

• Weak: "a cartoon about animals"
• Strong: "a curious toddler and a big friendly blue hippo swing on jungle vines to a sparkling waterfall"

You can also hand the whole thing to the Wizard:

For a nursery rhyme, add the words you want sung, or let Studio write an original refrain:

• "Five little ducks splash in a puddle and sing: splish, splash, quack quack, puddle time is here"

Keep the characters original. A made-up hippo is yours to build a channel on; a famous one is not.

Step 2: Pick the length and quality

Open Kixy Studio, choose 3D cartoon or Nursery rhyme, and paste your idea. Then set:

• Length: 8 seconds is the default and a good first test. Go up to 30 seconds for a full verse.
• Quality: 720p by default, or 480p to spend fewer credits while you try ideas out.

The composer shows the price in credits before you press make. At the defaults (8 seconds, 720p) a kids' cartoon is 31 credits; the same clip at 480p is 14.

Step 3: Extend the scene into a story

One clip is a scene. To turn it into an episode, use Extend on the finished video: describe what happens next, and Studio makes a new shot that starts from the last frame and joins it on. Because each shot starts from the last frame, the scene carries on where it stopped. Extend again to keep the story going.

You can also join separate finished videos into one with Combine, which costs nothing.

Step 4: Polish and export

Open the video in the editor to trim the start and end, add a headline, and export an MP4. Captions are optional for the youngest viewers; for sing-alongs, word-by-word captions help older kids follow the words.

Tips for a kids' channel

Keep a recurring cast

Children come back for characters they know. Reuse the same description ("a big friendly blue hippo with a yellow scarf") in every idea so the look stays consistent across videos.

Post a series, not one-offs

A run of ten short adventures with the same cast gives viewers a reason to subscribe. Make them in one sitting while the style is fresh.

Check the platform's rules

YouTube asks you to mark videos made for children, and that changes how they are shown. Set it honestly on every upload, and follow each platform's rules on AI-generated content.

Make your first episode today

Start with one 8-second scene at 480p to test your characters, then make it at 720p and extend it into a full adventure. Characters must be your own: the kids' styles refuse famous characters, shows, toy brands and copyrighted songs. A clip usually takes a few minutes, and it waits in your projects if you leave the page.