NotebookLM can now turn your notes into anime-style videos, thanks to its latest update
A few weeks ago, Google announced a feature many had been waiting for desperately (including me): Video Overviews. The feature essentially converts any sources you upload (PDFs, YouTube videos, webpage URLs, Google Docs, etc.) into a NotebookLM Audio Overview, which most consider the tool’s best feature, paired with visuals to match the content.
Given that I use NotebookLM primarily for studying, I like to describe the Video Overviews feature as Khan Academy–like videos with an AI twist. Similar to Audio Overviews, you can add custom instructions to guide the narration or focus on specific points, which makes it perfect for summarizing complex material or creating study recaps. While the Video Overviews feature is already quite great, Google is now making it even better.
Thanks to Nano Banana, NotebookLM can now generate Video Overviews in six new styles
As announced via a post on The Keyword blog, Google is rolling out a massive update to the Video Overviews feature by bringing its latest AI image editing model (which has been making headlines too), Nano Banana, to NotebookLM. Google explains that with Nano Banana in NotebookLM, it “generates helpful, contextual, and beautiful illustrations based on the sources you upload.”
With this update, the Video Overviews feature is getting six new visual styles: Watercolor, Papercraft, Anime, Whiteboard, Retro Print, and Heritage. Once you’ve created a notebook (or opened an existing one) and populated it with the sources you’d like to generate a Video Overview from, you can hit the pencil icon on the Video Overview tile.
You’ll then find these six new visual styles under the Choose visual style header. I’m personally most excited for the Anime option since I’ve always loved anime, and watching my lecture slides in that style honestly sounds like the perfect mix of productive and fun.
If you’d rather generate the kind of Video Overviews NotebookLM has been creating by default, you can choose Classic. While there might be times when you want to generate a Video Overview in a specific format, sometimes you just might not be able to choose. In those cases, you can let NotebookLM decide for you by selecting Auto Select. As before, you can add any instructions you may have under the “What should the AI hosts focus on?” header.
NotebookLM is also getting a new Video Overview format
Another change NotebookLM introduced with this update is a new format for Video Overviews called Brief. Unlike the update above, this isn’t a visual style. Instead, it’s a shorter, more to-the-point version of a regular Video Overview, designed for when you only need quick insights rather than a full breakdown.
When you’d like a more in-depth, comprehensive overview of your sources, you can simply use the Explainer format. The good news is that the six new visual styles work with both. Both the new styles and formats will begin rolling out to NotebookLM Pro users this week, and to all users in the coming weeks.
