Animatic
What is Animatic?
An animatic is a rough video made from storyboard drawings with timing and audio, used to check that a story flows correctly before making the real thing.
At a glance
- Also known as
- Story reelLeica reelPicture reelTimed storyboard
- Used for
- Previewing pacing and timingIdentifying narrative flow problemsClient presentationProduction planning
- Common tools
- Editing softwareStoryboarding toolsAI image generatorsDigital drawing applications
- Related terms
- StoryboardPre-visualisationRough cutPitch deckShot list
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How it compares
A storyboard is a series of static drawn panels that communicates composition and narrative sequence without any timing information. An animatic takes those same panels, adds duration, motion, and audio, and assembles them into a video that communicates how the sequence will actually feel when played back. The animatic answers timing and rhythm questions that storyboards fundamentally cannot.
Think of it like…
Imagine you are putting on a school play. Before the performance, your teacher gets everyone to walk through the whole play without costumes or music, just to check that everyone knows when to come on stage, how long each part takes, and whether the story makes sense in order. That walk-through is a bit like an animatic. It is not the finished show, but it lets everyone see how the story flows from beginning to end before all the expensive and time-consuming preparation is done. If something feels too long or is in the wrong order, it is much easier to fix during the walk-through than after you have rehearsed everything for weeks. Animatics are typically experienced as genuinely revelatory by creative teams seeing a project's pacing for the first time, often exposing timing problems that were invisible in the static boards.
Pro tip
When using AI tools to generate animatic visuals, treat consistency of character and environment across panels as more important than visual polish. An animatic needs to communicate sequence and timing clearly, not look finished. Prioritise getting the shot compositions and durations right, and use that approved structure as the brief for the full AI generation stage that follows.
Types and variations
- A basic animatic assembles scanned or photographed storyboard panels with simple cuts and a scratch audio track.
- A motion animatic adds simple camera moves such as pans and zooms to the static panels to suggest cinematographic movement.
- A rough colour animatic applies flat colour to the boards to give a stronger impression of the final tonal palette.
- A polished or presentation animatic uses higher quality illustration, professional voice-over, and temporary music to serve as a client-facing communication tool during pitching.
- An AI-generated animatic uses AI image generation to rapidly produce storyboard-quality visuals that can be assembled and timed without manual illustration work.
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Try MorphicCommon use cases
- Animation studios use animatics to test the pacing and editorial rhythm of feature and series projects before committing to full frame-by-frame production.
- Advertising agencies present animatics to clients to preview campaign video concepts before the expense of live production or full animation.
- Independent filmmakers use animatics to test edit structures and timing for short films and narrative projects.
- AI filmmakers use animatic-style previews to plan and communicate the structure of complex AI-generated video projects before beginning full generation workflows.
- Music video directors use animatics to align visual concepts with song structure and timing before shoot.
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FAQs
An animatic is a preliminary video assembled from storyboard drawings with timing, basic motion, and a scratch audio track. It previews the pacing and narrative flow of a film, animation, or video before full production begins, allowing teams to identify and correct problems at low cost.
A storyboard is a series of static drawn panels showing composition and narrative sequence, while an animatic takes those panels, adds timing, motion, and audio, and assembles them into a video. The animatic answers pacing and rhythm questions that static storyboard panels cannot communicate.
Animatics allow creative teams to evaluate pacing, rhythm, and narrative flow before committing to full animation or production. Problems with timing, sequence, or duration that are invisible in a static storyboard become immediately apparent in an animatic, and are far less expensive to fix at that stage.
A leica reel is another term for an animatic, originating from the early use of Leica brand cameras to photograph storyboard panels for assembly into timed reels. The terms are used interchangeably in animation production contexts.
An animatic is typically made by scanning or photographing storyboard panels, importing them into an editing application, assigning durations to each panel, adding basic camera moves, and laying a scratch audio track underneath. AI tools can now accelerate this process by generating panels quickly and suggesting timing based on script duration.
AI tools can generate storyboard-quality visuals from text descriptions or rough sketches, interpolate motion between panels, and suggest panel timing based on script analysis. These capabilities significantly reduce the manual illustration work required to produce an animatic and make the process faster and more accessible.
Yes, animatics are widely used in advertising production to present video campaign concepts to clients before committing to live production or full animation. They give clients a much clearer sense of pacing and visual flow than a static storyboard can, reducing the risk of costly late-stage revisions.
Animatics are typically assembled at the intended playback frame rate of the finished project, usually 24 or 25 frames per second for film and broadcast contexts. Individual panels are held on screen for their intended duration rather than generating smooth animation between them, so each panel effectively occupies a set number of frames at that frame rate.
