Glossary · Storytelling
Animatic
An animatic is a storyboard laid out in time, with each picture held for as long as its shot will last and set against the narration or a rough soundtrack.
Why it matters
A storyboard shows what happens; an animatic shows when. It reveals shots that drag and lines too long for their picture before any final footage is made.
To make an animatic, the storyboard frames are placed in order on a timeline, each held for its planned length, with a rough voice track or the real narration underneath. Watching it plays the video's timing back at real speed.
Problems that are invisible on paper become obvious: a sentence that runs past its picture, a scene with nothing new to look at for too long, or a total running time well over the target.
Animatics can include simple moves, like a slow push across a still frame, to suggest the motion to come. They are rough on purpose. Their job is to settle the timing, so nothing has to be remade later because it came out the wrong length.
Played as an animatic against the narration, a short about an early vaccine trial runs 74 seconds instead of 60. One scene is cut and two others are merged before any motion is made.
Last reviewed 15 October 2026.