The AI ​​behind the viral World Cup videos: Morphic, the platform that creates anime versions of Messi, Mbappé and Haaland

Videos created with artificial intelligence They are another of the rages of the World Cup. By simply logging into TikTok, Instagram or X, users can see Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé or Cristiano Ronaldo transformed into anime characters. Behind these productions is Morphica free platform capable of generating cinematographic scenes, without the need for animation knowledge.

Although they look like scenes taken from a Japanese blockbuster, the clips where the main figures of the 2026 World Cup appear as a celestial being from football, a dictator, a Viking warrior or a pharaoh from Ancient Egypt, were actually created with the power of artificial intelligence.

The phenomenon exploded a few weeks before the World Cup, when thousands of users began to reinterpret footballers, teams and historical moments with anime aesthetics, mixing sport, mythology and artificial intelligence.

Argentina vs Egypt was something else for real pic.twitter.com/ETxInGrDxZ

— UraharaStudio (@UraharaStudio) July 7, 2026

The platform behind this viral fury, whose videos serve as a preview and post of the main matches of the 2026 World Cup, has the capacity to generate images and videos directly from the web browser.

Unlike other services focused solely on produce a clip from textalso allows you to take images as a reference and animate them with camera movements, facial expressions, lighting and cinematic effects.

Its operation is similar to that of tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Midjourney: the user types a prompt (a detailed description of the scene you want to create) and artificial intelligence is responsible for generating the result. The more specific the indication, the better the results usually are..

For example, in addition to the character, it is possible to describe the type of lighting, the camera movement, the weather, the speed of the scene and even the desired visual style.

2016 — Lionel Messi retires from Argentina, broken.
2022 — he wins the World Cup.

This is the conversation between them — made with @morphic pic.twitter.com/tz0AVYW2t9

— Yash Rajput (Diablo) (@DiabloNemesis) July 3, 2026

Morphic is characterized by incorporating templates and workflows to recreate very popular styles, such as those of japanese anime that went viral on social networks, in addition to offering tools to maintain the consistency of a character between different scenes, apply the same artistic style or convert a static image into a short animated sequence.

41 years.
One boy from Madeira.
A million reasons to dream.
Thank you, Cristiano Ronaldo. pic.twitter.com/T6VNrq1Ujc

— Yash Rajput (Diablo) (@DiabloNemesis) July 6, 2026

This explains why so many videos about the main figures of the World Cup maintain a uniform aesthetic: characters with similar features throughout the sequence, cinematic lighting, particle effects, smooth camera movements and animation reminiscent of productions from Japanese studios.

All that dancing, and Brazil still lost 2-0 to Haaland. pic.twitter.com/jMi6HmicWq

— Yash Rajput (Diablo) (@DiabloNemesis) July 5, 2026

Although it may not seem like it, the process to create this type of clips is usually quite simple. First, an image of the main character is created—or uploaded. Afterwards, a description is written indicating what should happen in the video: if the protagonist opens his eyes, turns his head, walks, smiles or if the camera should zoom in slowly.

The artificial intelligence interprets this information and generates a clip of a few seconds, although the user can try again as many times as they want by modifying the prompt until they obtain the desired result.

i made this entire short world cup anime with one AI tool.

Mbappe vs Haaland vs Messi🐐

an entire One Piece-style football war — made with @morphic pic.twitter.com/KlLAQFiMhH

— Yash Rajput (Diablo) (@DiabloNemesis) June 27, 2026

In many cases, creators produce several independent scenes and then stitch them together in a video editor (Adobe Premier about Capcutwhich has its web version and for mobile devices. That’s enough to build a trailer or a complete series.

Precisely, the reason why this platform gained popularity is that most of the work is done by writing instructions in natural language.

If Spain Vs Belgium World Cup was an anime 🇪🇸🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/3qVgrt693Y

— TechieSA (@TechieBySA) July 8, 2026

You don’t need to know professional animation programs or 3D modeling. The challenge lies more in learning to write good prompts than in mastering editing tools.

Even so, the best results are usually combine multiple applications: an AI to generate the images, Morphic to animate them and a video editor to add music, sound effects, narration and titles.

Lamine will have his night. pic.twitter.com/RIuEV6Gm2R

— Yash Rajput (Diablo) (@DiabloNemesis) July 2, 2026

Since the emergence of generative artificial intelligence Three years ago, artificial intelligence mutated into various forms of entertainment.

Producing animated clips, for example, previously required advanced knowledge of illustration, video editing and even sound. Today, an original idea, some reference images and a well-written prompt are enough to obtain a result that, in a matter of hours, can scroll through millions of screens.