ANIMATIC MAKER
Find out it is
eighty seconds now.
Frames in sequence with a duration on each, the voiceover beside them, and a running total. The timing problem every edit has is cheapest to solve here.
Free plan coming late 2026
Works in your browser
No account needed to view
Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
What is an animatic?
An animatic is a storyboard put in time. The frames are cut together in sequence, each held for the length that shot will actually run, usually with a scratch voiceover, temporary music, and rough sound. It sits between the storyboard, which shows what the shots are, and the finished piece, which shows what they look like. What it adds is the dimension neither of the others gives you until it is expensive: duration. In advertising it is standard practice before a shoot, in animation it is the backbone of the entire production, and in both cases it exists because timing is the thing you cannot judge from a page of drawings.
The failure it prevents is specific and extremely common. A storyboard everyone approved contains eighty seconds of material for a sixty second slot. Nobody notices, because a board shows shots and not seconds, and the difference only appears in the edit, where the choices are cutting a scene you have already paid to shoot or compressing everything until it feels rushed. In animation the same arithmetic is worse, because the cost of an unnecessary shot is not a wasted setup, it is weeks of work. The animatic is where a shot gets cut for free.
The second thing it settles is the relationship between the words and the pictures. A voiceover script and a storyboard read separately both seem fine and frequently do not fit each other: the line about the product lands two shots after the product appears, or a key phrase falls in a shot with no room for it. Laying the script against the frames with real durations is how you find out, and it is the reason an animatic is worth doing even for a piece with no complicated visuals.
Storyflow is an AI-native infinite canvas, and it holds the plan rather than rendering the video. Describe the spot and the AI lays out the frames in sequence with a suggested duration on each and the script mapped against them. Then you do the work: adjust durations, watch the running total, move the beat that arrives too late, and pin the reference for each frame beside it. When the timing works, the board is what your editor or animation team builds the actual animatic from.
HOW IT WORKS
From a board to a sequence that fits the slot.
No timeline software. Frames, durations, a script, and a running total.
01
Open a canvas
Sign up in seconds. No download. Your infinite storyboard canvas opens in the browser.
02
Describe the spot
Type what it is, how long it has to be, and what happens. The AI lays out frames in sequence with suggested durations and the script mapped against them.
03
Time it honestly
Set a real duration on each frame and read the running total. A sixty second spot with eighty seconds of material is a discovery you want now and not in the edit.
04
Hand it over
Share a view-only link with the client, the editor, or the animation team, or export the sequence as an image or PDF for the brief.
Frames, durations, script, and the running total.
Everything the timing conversation needs, before anything is shot.
AI lays out frames and suggests durations
Start from a timed sequence
Describe the spot and the AI produces frames in order with a suggested length on each. Arguing with proposed timings is far more productive than assigning them to a blank board.
See the AI storyboard generator →
A running total that contradicts the board
Catch the over-length while it is free
Every storyboard everyone approves is longer than the slot. Seeing the total against the target is the entire reason animatics exist, and it costs an afternoon rather than a reshoot.
Explore the commercial storyboard board →
The voiceover mapped against the frames
Make the words land on the right picture
Put the script beside the sequence so each line sits against the frame it plays over. The product line arriving two shots after the product is the second most common timing fault.
See the video script planner →
Reference and the shot list on the same canvas
Carry it straight into the shoot
The frames become the shot list, the durations inform the schedule, and the reference sits beside the frame it belongs to. Nothing is retyped into another tool.
Try the shot list generator →Unlimited boards. No object cap.
Open a canvas, describe the spot, and let AI lay out the frames. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Unlimited storyboards on an infinite canvas
Basic AI usage to generate frames and suggested timings
Starter templates for storyboards, shot lists, and commercials
Share view-only links with clients and editors, no account required
BUILT FOR TIMING
A storyboard shows shots. Only an animatic shows seconds.
Every approved board is longer than the slot, and the gap is discovered at the most expensive possible moment.
Duration per frame and the total
The arithmetic nobody does at board stage
A real number on every frame: Not a guess made while looking at the whole board. Read each frame and ask how long that shot actually needs to be legible, and be honest about the establishing shot everyone underestimates.
The running total against the target: Sixty seconds is sixty seconds. A board carrying eighty is not slightly long, it is a third over, and no amount of tightening in the edit recovers that without something being cut.
The shots that are quietly expensive: A three second shot requiring a crane or a location move costs the same to shoot as a thirty second one. Seeing duration next to complexity is where the cut usually becomes obvious.
Room for the end frame: The logo, the call to action, and the legal text need real seconds and are routinely assigned whatever is left over, which is how a spot ends up with a two second end card nobody can read.
Words, music, and picture in the same view
Fit the script to the sequence
Lines against the frames they play over: Read the script aloud at the pace it will actually be read and mark where each line lands. Copy that fits the page and not the picture is the most common rewrite an animatic triggers.
The beat the music has to hit: If the piece is cut to a track, mark where the change happens and check that the frame arriving there is worth arriving on.
Silence as a decision: The shots with no voiceover are choices rather than gaps. Marking them stops a nervous client filling every second with words in the next round.
AI that reads the whole board as context
Ask where the sequence is over-length
Generate frames and first-pass timings: Describe the spot and its length and the AI lays out a sequence with suggested durations, which is a much better starting point than an untimed board.
Find the timing problem: Ask which frames are over, where the script and the picture disagree, or what could be cut without losing the argument. The AI reads your whole board.
It proposes, you decide: Storyflow structures and suggests. What a shot needs in order to land is a judgment about the work, and a model asked to shorten something will always find something to cut.
Re-time without rebuilding: When the slot changes from sixty to thirty, ask what a thirty second version would drop. Frames you have placed and reference you have pinned stay where they are.
Client, editor, and animation team
Approve the timing, not just the pictures
View-only links for the client: Send a link and a client sees the sequence with the durations on it. Approving a board without timing is approving something nobody has checked will fit.
A brief the editor can cut from: The person assembling the actual animatic in an edit suite gets the frames, the order, the durations, and the script in one place rather than in three files.
Export for the meeting: Export the sequence as a high-quality image or PDF for a client presentation or an approval record.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
HOW WE COMPARE
Storyflow vs Boords, Premiere Pro, and a paper board.
These do different jobs: Boords is a dedicated storyboard tool with animatic playback, Premiere is where a real animatic gets assembled and rendered, and paper is still the fastest way to draw one. Here is the honest split.
Storyflow
Recommended
Frames in sequence with durations and a running total
AI generates frames and first-pass timings
Script, reference, and shot list on the same canvas
View-only links with no account required
Plays the animatic back as video
Audio mixing and rendered export
Boords
Frames in sequence with durations and a running total
AI generates frames and first-pass timings
Script, reference, and shot list on the same canvas
View-only links with no account required
Plays the animatic back as video
Audio mixing and rendered export
Premiere Pro
Frames in sequence with durations and a running total
AI generates frames and first-pass timings
Script, reference, and shot list on the same canvas
View-only links with no account required
Plays the animatic back as video
Audio mixing and rendered export
A paper board
Frames in sequence with durations and a running total
AI generates frames and first-pass timings
Script, reference, and shot list on the same canvas
View-only links with no account required
Plays the animatic back as video
Audio mixing and rendered export
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Animatic questions, answered.
What one is, when to make it, and what it is meant to catch.
An animatic is a storyboard cut together in time. The frames run in sequence, each held for as long as that shot will actually last, usually over a scratch voiceover with temporary music and rough sound. It sits between the storyboard, which shows what the shots are, and the finished piece, which shows how they look, and what it contributes is duration, which neither of the others reveals until it is expensive to change. In advertising it is standard before a shoot. In animation it is the production backbone, because every second that survives it gets animated. Even the simplest version, meaning drawings held for a stated number of seconds with a voiceover read at real pace, catches problems a board cannot show.
Time it before you shoot it.
Open a canvas, describe the spot, and let AI lay out the frames. No download.