ComfyUI Setup

Configure Comfy Cloud, local ComfyUI, or both before generating your first image.

Ordinary Animator uses ComfyUI to generate images and video. Before running any recipe you need at least one backend configured and tested.

Choose your mode

Mode Best for
Comfy Cloud Getting started fast — no local install required, larger GPUs available, access to the latest high-end models
Local ComfyUI No usage fees, full control over your environment, access to any custom node (some custom nodes are not available on Comfy Cloud)
Both Recommended — use cloud for advanced models and heavy jobs, local for iteration and custom workflows

Installing ComfyUI locally takes some effort and requires an NVIDIA GPU. Comfy Cloud requires only an account and API key. If you can set up both, we recommend it — they complement each other well and you can switch between them at any time in the ComfyUI Settings page.

Comfy Cloud

  1. Create an account at comfy.icu if you haven't already.
  2. In your Comfy Cloud account, go to API Keys and create a new key. Copy it.
  3. In Ordinary Animator, open ComfyUI Settings (from the navigation menu).
  4. Under Cloud, enable Comfy Cloud and paste your API key.
  5. Click Test Connection — you should see a success response.

See ComfyUI Queue & Settings for the full settings reference.

Local ComfyUI

Local ComfyUI runs on your machine. Because the browser cannot talk directly to localhost, Ordinary Animator uses a Chrome extension to proxy those requests.

Chrome extension

The Chrome extension is not yet published on the Chrome Web Store — installation instructions will be updated once publishing is complete. See the Chrome Extension reference for the current interim install process.

Local ComfyUI install

A compatible local ComfyUI configuration (custom nodes and launch scripts matching Comfy Cloud) is available at github.com/alankent/comfyui-cloud-parity. See Local ComfyUI for setup instructions.

Once the extension is installed and ComfyUI is running:

  1. In Ordinary Animator, open ComfyUI Settings.
  2. Under Local, enable local ComfyUI.
  3. Click Test Connection — this confirms the extension is active and ComfyUI is reachable.

Testing both

If you have both configured, run Test Connection for each. A green response on both means you are ready to generate. You can toggle which backend is active for new jobs from the same settings page.