How to turn a children's story into an animated video

To turn a children's story into an animated video, paste the story into Nima's Long-form Video, or describe the idea for one in a few lines and Nima writes it for you. Pick a look, such as felted wool or cut paper, approve the characters it draws and choose their voices from five auditions each. A narrator reads the story while the characters speak their own lines. A 500-word picture book makes a film of a little over three minutes, and your first trailer is free.

Your first trailer is free.

Last updated 23 October 2026

Start from a story, or from an idea

• A story you wrote. Paste it, from 150 words up. A picture book text is short enough to film whole.
• A story you only have the idea for. Describe it in a few lines: who it is about, what happens, how it ends. Nima writes it into a story on the page, and you read it and ask for changes before anything is drawn. You can start writing without an account.
• A classic. Fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and Aesop's fables, are in the public domain, so anyone can animate them.

How long the film will be

Film follows the words, at about 150 words a minute with the narrator reading.

Pick a look

Five looks are on the menu. Felted wool and cut paper read like a handmade picture book; claymation looks like a stop-motion film; comic book ink and acid pencil, which is coloured pencil, are drawn by hand. Nima can draw your main character in all five so you compare them side by side.

Voices, and reading it aloud

Each speaking character gets five voice auditions, each reading a line from your story, and you pick one. With the narrator on, the whole story is read aloud, word for word, while the pictures play; with it off, only the characters speak.

Your own voice as the narrator, or a grandparent's, is available on request: write to hello@nima.mov.

If the book already has pictures

By default the characters are drawn from the descriptions in your story, in the look you pick, and you leave notes on any picture until it looks right. If the book has an illustrator, write to hello@nima.mov and we can work from that artwork.

Step by step

1. Paste your pages. Open Long-form Video and paste the scene, chapter or short story you want filmed, between 150 and 10,000 words. Nima reads it, maps the scenes, the cast and the places, and asks before it cuts anything.
2. Pick a look. Detailed claymation, felted wool, comic book ink, acid pencil, which is coloured pencil, or paper love, which is cut paper. Nima can draw your lead character and your main location in all five so you compare them side by side.
3. Approve the cast and the places. Every character is drawn once, from the descriptions in your text, and every location is built once as a set. Leave a note on any picture and Nima redraws it.
4. Pick the voices. Each speaking character gets five voice auditions, each one reading a line from your book. Choose the one that sounds like the person you wrote.
5. Watch your free trailer. Nima cuts a trailer of 15 to 20 seconds from your text: several of its places and people, two or more of your lines spoken word for word, music under it, your title at the end. You see it first as a storyboard with the voices, give one round of notes, and it is fully animated, free. Nima emails you when it is ready.
6. Make the film, if you want more. Pick a plan, metered in minutes of finished film, and Nima films the text scene by scene. You review a full draft with the voices, leave notes in each round your plan includes, then approve the render. The finished film is yours to download and share with a link.

Sharing it

• A link for the family. Every finished film has its own share link and can be downloaded.
• Phones and tablets. Films come in widescreen and in vertical.
• YouTube. When you upload, YouTube asks whether the video is made for kids: "we require you to tell us whether or not your videos are made for kids" (YouTube Help). A story made for children should be marked that way.

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.

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.