How to make an animated series from your story

To make an animated series from your story, split the text into episodes by length, about 150 words for every minute of film, and keep one cast for the whole season. In Nima's Long-form Video, one upload takes up to 10,000 words, about an hour of film, and can be made into many distinct films, each an episode with its own link, all with the same characters, places and voices. Our studio's Pride and Prejudice runs this way, one to three chapters an episode.

Your first trailer is free.

Last updated 23 October 2026

Plan the episodes by word count

An episode's length comes from its words. With a narrator reading the prose, film runs at about 150 words a minute:

Cut where the story already pauses: the end of a chapter, a change of place, a cliffhanger. Our Pride and Prejudice episodes are one to three chapters each and run from 8 to 28 minutes.

Keep one cast for the whole season

A series only works if the people in episode four are the people from episode one. In Long-form Video, every character is drawn once as a sheet you approve, every place is built once as a set, and each speaking character keeps one voice. You can make many distinct films from the same upload, and every one of them uses that cast. One upload is up to 10,000 words, about an hour of film: a season of six 10-minute episodes, or two of half an hour.

A longer series runs across more than one upload, a season at a time.

Our series, as the example

Pride and Prejudice, made by our studio in felted wool:

A story can also be a short series of two. Our Sherlock Holmes films went up that way: The Speckled Band as two episodes of 30 and 37 minutes, The Red-Headed League as two parts of 33 and 25.

Step by step

1. Pick the text for the season. Up to 10,000 words: a novella, or the first chapters of a novel. Your own story, or one in the public domain.
2. Paste it. Open Long-form Video and paste it. Nima maps the scenes, the cast and the places, and nothing is cut unless you agree.
3. Pick a look, approve the cast and pick the voices. Five looks, every character drawn once from your text, five voice auditions per speaking character. This is the step that keeps the season consistent, so take your time over it.
4. Watch your free trailer. 15 to 20 seconds of the story, animated: a check of the look and the voices before the series.
5. Plan the episodes in chat. Tell Nima where each episode starts and ends.
6. Review each episode as a storyboard, then render it. Every scene is built with the voices before it is animated. Each finished episode has its own link and can be downloaded.

Posting it as a season

• One playlist for the season, in order, so a viewer can watch from episode one.
• One title pattern: the series name, the episode number, the episode's own name. Ours read "Pride and Prejudice, Ep. 4: An Excellent Walker, Chapters 7-8".
• One thumbnail design, with the episode number on it.
• Clips from each episode. Vertical clips cut from an episode go to TikTok, Reels and Shorts and point back to the full episode.

Short episodes: microdramas

A series can also run short. A microdrama (also called a vertical drama or a short drama) is a season of episodes of one to two minutes, 150 to 300 words each, every one ending on a cliffhanger, posted vertical to Shorts, Reels and TikTok. The same cast rules apply, only the episodes are scenes rather than chapters. What Nima makes of a microdrama, and how to make one, step by step.

Doing it with clip-by-clip tools

A series made clip by clip needs the same discipline as a long film, every week: one reference picture per character given to every clip, one voice per character, and a list of which pictures each shot used. Which tools save a character between clips.

What it costs

Films are made on a monthly plan metered in minutes of finished film: two, ten or a hundred minutes a month, with one, two or five rounds of notes on each film. Extra minutes are $10 each and never expire. That works out from as low as $10 per finished minute; the plans and their current prices are on the pricing page. Film length follows the text at about 150 words a minute with the narrator on.

A season of an hour uses an hour of a plan. The largest plan makes a hundred minutes a month.

You need the right to adapt the text. Your own book qualifies, and so does anything in the public domain. If a publisher holds your film or audio-visual rights, ask them before you post a trailer.