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AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI

Make short skits and real film scenes with AI as your VFX department — generated shots with Veo, Kling and Runway, green screen and AI keying, set extensions and CGI, AI dubbing into Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, and DaVinci Resolve's AI tools — while handling actors' likeness rights, NFVCB disclosure and platform labels, and budgeting a hybrid production in naira.

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About this course

Nollywood shot Makemation, Colours of Fire and Tunde Kelani's Opalaba with AI in the pipeline, the Nigeria AI Film Festival is in its third year, and a skit maker with a phone can now put himself on a Lagos-Calabar coastal highway that has not been built yet. What separates the filmmakers earning from this from the ones producing 'AI slop' is craft, story and law, and that is what this course teaches. Twelve lessons cover what the 2026 tools actually do (Google's Veo 3.1 and Flow, Kling 3.0 Omni, Runway Gen-4.5 and Aleph, Luma, open-source Wan, Wonder Tools, DaVinci Resolve 21's AI suite, Premiere's Generative Extend, ElevenLabs dubbing and Nigerian-language voice models); story and pre-visualisation with AI, including the 'cultural misplacement' problem of models trained on Global North data; the rights layer — actors' likeness and the Tilly Norwood argument, voice consent, deepfake law in Nigeria, the NFVCB's AI-disclosure position and YouTube's synthetic-content label; the AI skit pipeline; prompting cinematic shots with consistent characters and native dialogue; real green-screen craft and AI keying without green; set extensions, object removal, relighting and digital crowds; sound, ADR and dubbing into Nigerian languages; editing and finishing to YouTube and cinema specs; and producing a hybrid shoot with a naira budget, a schedule and a crew. The project is a 60-to-120-second AI-hybrid short with real footage composited into AI-made or AI-extended environments, delivered with its VFX breakdown, prompt log, consent and disclosure sheet and budget.

In September 2026 the Nigeria AI Film Festival opens its third edition at Alliance Française in Lagos; Tunde Kelani, who has made films for fifty years, is shooting Opalaba with AI in the pipeline after releasing an AI-assisted teaser; Niyi Akinmolayan's Colours of Fire drew audience reactions for its AI sequences; and Makemation, made by an AI developer turned filmmaker, toured cinemas telling an AI story rooted in Lagos. At the same time, a skit maker in Aba can put himself on a bridge that does not exist, in a rainstorm that never happened, in an afternoon. The tools are extraordinary and the temptation is to let them make the film. This course is built on a different premise: AI is a department — like camera, art or sound — that a filmmaker directs. This lesson maps the departments, the tools that matter this year, what they cost in naira, what Nollywood is doing with them, and what none of them can do.

What you'll learn

Course syllabus — 12 lessons

  1. What AI can and cannot do in film in 2026 — the tool landscape, the three jobs AI does on a set, what Nollywood is already doing, and the rule that AI is a department, not the director13 min
  2. Story first — writing and pre-visualising with AI: loglines, structure, script coverage, storyboards and animatics from image models, shot lists, and beating the cultural-misplacement problem with references14 min
  3. Rights, consent and disclosure — actors' likeness and the Tilly Norwood argument, voice consent, deepfake law in Nigeria, copyright in generated footage, NFVCB disclosure, YouTube's synthetic-content label, and the release form for the AI era15 min
  4. The AI skit pipeline on a phone — you on camera, AI for the impossible shot: script, phone plates, generated inserts, avatars and voices, CapCut assembly, captions, and what performs on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube14 min
  5. The craft of generated shots — shot language for prompts, image-to-video from your own frames, character and location consistency with references, multi-shot sequences, native dialogue and lip-sync, and budgeting credits in naira15 min
  6. Green screen and compositing — shooting a key that works on a Nigerian budget, chroma keying in DaVinci Resolve and CapCut, AI keying without green, AI-made backgrounds, and matching light, perspective and grain so the join disappears15 min
  7. CGI, VFX and set extensions with AI — Runway Aleph edits on real footage, AI rotoscoping, generative extend, crowd multiplication, digital doubles and CG characters with Wonder Tools, practical-plus-AI hybrids, and when to hire a VFX artist14 min
  8. Sound with AI — dialogue cleanup and ADR, consented AI voices, dubbing into Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Pidgin and French with ElevenLabs and Nigerian voice models, generated foley and sound design, music with rights, and loudness for YouTube and cinema14 min
  9. Editing and finishing with AI — DaVinci Resolve 21's AI suite, Premiere and CapCut, transcript editing, colour matching AI and real shots, captions, delivery formats for YouTube, cinema and streamers, and NFVCB classification13 min
  10. Producing the hybrid shoot — the naira budget line by line, what AI actually saves against a traditional scene, the schedule, the hybrid crew and the AI generalist, pipeline and file management, quality control, and the festival route14 min
  11. Money and career — selling AI VFX and hybrid production to Nollywood producers, agencies, music videos, churches and brands, pricing in naira and dollars, the portfolio reel, faceless AI channels honestly, grants and festivals, and avoiding the slop label13 min
  12. Deciding and delivering — the hybrid workflow checklist, the five risks that end careers, what to watch in tools, law and platforms, and your AI-hybrid short with its VFX breakdown12 min

Your project

Your AI-Hybrid Short

One shared link (Google Drive folder or similar, set to 'anyone with the link can view') containing the finished 60-120 second short, the before-and-after VFX breakdown, the script and shot list, the prompt log, the consent and disclosure sheet, and the budget and pipeline note.

Certificates on Skillnaija are earned, not issued for attendance: you submit this project, it is graded against a rubric, and passing issues a certificate anyone can verify. See the full project brief, rubric and free workbook →

Frequently asked questions

Is AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI free?

Yes. AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI is completely free on Skillnaija. You need a free account to open the lessons, and there is no charge for the course, the project, or the certificate.

How long does AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI take to complete?

6 weeks · ~4 hrs/week. There are 12 lessons, about 3 hours of material in total. You learn at your own pace and your progress is saved.

Do I need any experience to start AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI?

Beginner-friendly. You can start from scratch — no prior experience is assumed.

What will I learn in AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI?

You will build practical skills in AI video generation (Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Runway Gen-4.5, Luma, Wan), Cinematic prompting: shot language, camera, light, character consistency, AI skit production on a phone, Green screen shooting and chroma keying, AI keying, rotoscoping and compositing without green (Aleph, Magic Mask), Set extensions, object removal, relighting and digital crowds, AI dubbing and voice into Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Pidgin, AI sound design, ADR and music with rights, Editing and finishing in DaVinci Resolve and CapCut with AI tools, Actors' likeness rights, consent forms, NFVCB and platform disclosure, Budgeting and scheduling a hybrid AI production in naira, Selling AI VFX and film services to Nollywood, agencies and brands. Every lesson is written for a Nigerian context, with examples drawn from how the work is actually done and paid for here.

Do I get a certificate for AI Film Production: Skits, Scenes and Nollywood-Grade VFX with AI?

Yes, but it has to be earned. You complete the course project — Your AI-Hybrid Short and submit it for grading. Passing the project issues a verifiable certificate; finishing the lessons alone does not.

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