AI story video generator
AI story video generator: turn your text into an animated story
AnimatedBoard's story mode turns a written story into an illustrated video. Our AI splits your text into chapters and panels, illustrates each panel in one of nine storybook styles, keeps recurring characters recognisable and narrates it all with burned-in captions. Your words are never rewritten. If you only have an idea, our AI drafts the story first, and you edit it before anything is drawn.
No card required. Your first minute of video with AnimatedBoard is free.
Updated on October 27, 2026
1-min video, ready in ~1 minVideo made by our app
Script
The brain weighs just three pounds, yet it uses 20% of the body's energy…
Our app made this video of about a minute from a plain-text script, in about a minute: you paste it, click Create video and our AI draws and narrates every scene. Nothing edited by hand. Longer videos take a few minutes more.
What makes a story video worth watching
A story told over one static image loses people in seconds. What keeps them is rhythm: a new picture for every beat of the story, the right image when the line lands, a pause between chapters. That rhythm is what used to take an illustrator and an editor days.
In story mode, our AI does the cutting and the illustrating. A short story gets a new panel roughly every five seconds, each one drawn from the sentence it goes with. Chapters open with a card that the narrator reads aloud, and captions appear a few words at a time for people watching with the sound off.
What it doesn't do is write the story for you, unless you ask. Paste your text and every word of it is narrated exactly as written. Ask for a draft, and it becomes your text to edit before anything is drawn.
How to turn a story into an animated video
From text to MP4 in five steps. Splitting the story is free; minutes are spent when the panels and the voice are generated.
Write or paste the story
Leave a blank line wherever a new chapter should start. No story yet? Give our AI the idea, the length (1 to 15 minutes) and notes on tone and audience, and edit its draft.
Pick the look, the voice and the format
Nine storybook looks: Little Worlds, Wax & Wonder, Paper Mosaic, Watercolour Tales, Soft Pastel, Clay Town, Comic Pop, Paper Stage and Flat Shapes. Then pick one of eight AI voices per accent, or your own recording on a paid plan, and landscape, portrait or square. On a paid plan our AI voice can also read Calm, Normal or Fast, and you can hear each speed before choosing: Calm suits a bedtime story.
Check the panels before generating
"Scenes only" shows every panel with its sentence and a short description of what will be drawn. Change any description, or add your own characters on a paid plan.
Generate the story
Our AI illustrates each panel and records the narration. Or use "Create video" to go from text to finished MP4 in one run, after confirming the estimated cost.
Fix and download
Redraw a panel, change a detail of it, or re-record a line, then download the MP4, without a watermark on any paid plan, with its captions as a .srt or .vtt file. Our AI can also write title ideas, a description with chapter timestamps and tags for YouTube, and on a paid plan you can publish the story straight to YouTube or TikTok from AnimatedBoard instead of uploading it yourself.
Nine storybook looks
Real 30-second samples, narrated and uncut, straight from our engine. All nine are available on every plan, including the free minute.
Little Worlds
Simple, expressive characters in a warm illustrated world.
Stories & charactersWax & Wonder
Layered pencil and wax textures with the warmth of a storybook.
Education & storytellingPaper Mosaic
Sophisticated shapes, expressive silhouettes and a magazine illustration look.
Brands & narrativesWatercolour Tales
Soft watercolour washes, paper texture and the calm colours of a picture book.
Tales & bedtime storiesSoft Pastel
Round, big-eyed characters in gentle pinks, mints and butter yellows.
Kids & songsClay Town
Plasticine figures with fingerprints, like a stop-motion film.
Kids' tales & humourComic Pop
Bold black outlines, punchy colours and comic-book halftone dots.
Adventure & historyPaper Stage
Layers of coloured paper with shadows between them, like a handmade diorama.
Culture & craftsFlat Shapes
Flat geometric shapes and a few colours, no textures: clean and modern.
Explainers & business
What story mode does
| How it works | |
|---|---|
| Chapters | Each blank line in your text starts a chapter. A card with "Chapter 1" and its title opens it, and the narrator reads it aloud. |
| Panels | In a short story, one panel for every 12 words or so, about five seconds each. A video holds up to 60 scenes, chapter cards included, so a 15-minute story keeps each panel on screen for about 17 seconds. |
| Characters | Our AI writes a description of up to six recurring characters and uses it in every panel where they appear. On paid plans you can define up to three of your own per project, with an optional reference picture. |
| Captions | Burned in, a few words at a time, on by default. You can switch them off. Every video also comes with a .srt and a .vtt file to upload to YouTube. |
| Music | Optional: one of eleven original background tracks, such as the warm, storybook “Bedtime stories”, mixed under the narration and lowered while it speaks. Free on every plan. |
| Motion | Still illustrated panels joined by soft crossfades, with an optional slow camera move on each one (a gentle zoom, or zoom and pan), or drawn in by a hand if you prefer. |
| Pictures | No text, letters or numbers inside the illustrations, so they read the same in every language. |
| Length and formats | Up to 15 minutes per video, in 16:9 (1920×1080), 9:16 (1080×1920), 1:1, 4:5, 3:2 or 2:3. |
Stories people turn into videos
Bedtime and moral stories
Short tales for children in the Wax & Wonder or Little Worlds look, three to six minutes long.
History and biographies
A life or an event told in chapters, with the real people as characters.
Mysteries and true stories
Longer narratives for YouTube, where chapters give viewers a reason to stay.
Lessons told as stories
Science with the things themselves as characters, or law and economics with a guide who walks the viewer through.
Your own fiction
Short stories and serialised fiction you wrote, with the same characters in every episode.
Brand and founder stories
How a company started or why a product exists, in the Paper Mosaic look.
Consistent characters, and what to expect from them
Keeping a character recognisable from panel to panel is the hard part of AI illustration. Story mode handles it two ways. By default, our AI writes a description of each recurring character (how they look and what makes them recognisable) and puts it into every panel that shows them. On a paid plan you can create the characters yourself, add a reference picture, and that picture is sent with every panel that names the character.
With a reference, results are much closer, but they are still illustrations, not copies: expect the same character drawn with small variations, as a human illustrator would. If a panel misses, redraw it or change only the part that is off. With a character, each panel costs double its length, and the editor tells you so before you confirm.
Your first animated story, free
Paste a short story or give our AI an idea, choose a storybook look and download your first minute. No card needed.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI story video generator?
A tool that turns a written story into a video automatically: it divides the text into scenes, creates an illustration for each one, adds the narration and assembles the video. AnimatedBoard does this with chapters, recurring characters and captions, and narrates your text word for word.
Can I make an animated story video for free?
Yes. Every new account gets 1 minute of video free, once, with no card, which is enough for a short story or a first chapter; it carries our watermark, which any paid plan removes. After that, plans start at $29 a month for 30 minutes.
How do I keep the same character in every scene?
Our AI describes each recurring character and uses that description in every panel where they appear. For closer results, paid plans let you create your own characters with a reference picture, which is sent with every panel they appear in.
Can I make story videos for kids?
Yes. The Wax & Wonder and Little Worlds looks suit children's stories, and captions help early readers follow along. On YouTube, marking the video as made for kids is your decision: if you publish it from AnimatedBoard on a paid plan, the publish window asks for that answer before uploading; if you upload it yourself, you set it in YouTube Studio.
Does the story video have subtitles?
Yes. Story videos carry burned-in captions, a few words at a time, on by default. You can switch them off in the project settings. Either way, you can download the captions as a .srt or .vtt file and upload them to YouTube as a caption track.
How long can an AI story video be?
Up to 15 minutes. A video has at most 60 scenes, so short stories change panel about every five seconds and long ones hold each panel longer.
Can I narrate the story myself?
Yes, on any paid plan: upload your recording and the panels follow it. With your own recording the chapter cards are left out, since you're not reading them.
Your story, illustrated and narrated
Create a free account, paste your text and watch it become an animated story.
Create my first story for freeNo card required. Your first minute of video with AnimatedBoard is free.