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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