Understanding Animation and Advanced Settings in LongStories

Overview

LongStories offers several animation levels and a set of advanced controls that affect how your video moves, sounds, and renders. You don't need to touch most of these on day one — but understanding what they do helps you make smarter choices as your projects get more serious.

Animation levels

The Animation step sets the quality and depth of motion applied to your visuals. There are three levels:

Storyboard (images only)

• Generates static frames — no animation or movement.
• Fastest output, lowest credit cost.
• Use it to check shot compositions, character placement, and visual flow before committing to animation. You can animate the frames later from the Edit page — nothing is thrown away.

When to use: any time you want to validate an idea before rendering a full video.

Fast Animation (budget motion)

• Applies basic animation and motion to your visuals.
• Faster and cheaper than Pro — good for iterating quickly.
• Solid quality for drafts, social content, and frequent-posting workflows.

When to use: regular content, drafts, or any time speed matters more than premium quality.

Pro Animation (cinematic motion)

• Detailed motion, smoother transitions, higher consistency.
• Takes longer and uses more credits.
• Best for final versions of episodes, trailers, or anything you're proud to publish.

When to use: final renders — once you've validated the script, characters, and style.

On top-tier plans there's also a Custom Model preset that lets you choose the exact video model — see "Video model" below.

Recommended workflow

1. Storyboard — validate compositions and visual feel.
2. Fast Animation — check how the story flows with motion.
3. Pro Animation — final render when you're satisfied.

This three-step approach saves credits and time. Don't go straight to Pro on untested scripts.

Advanced settings

These live under Advanced animation settings and in More Settings. They're optional — defaults are fine for your first several videos.

Lipsync

• Syncs character mouth movement to the narration.
• A separate Lipsync quality option controls how it's done — leave it on Auto unless a specific character's mouth movement looks off.
• Tight lipsync is harder to achieve on heavily stylized characters — if it looks wrong, this is the setting to revisit.

Multi-cut

• Adds multiple camera cuts within scenes for a more cinematic feel.
• Great for dynamic storytelling; turn it off if you prefer long, composed shots.

Sound Effects

• Layers automatic sound effects over the video — ambience, action sounds.
• Costs extra credits (billed per second of video), and the cost is shown next to the toggle.
• Can add life to scenes or feel distracting: for clean explainers or quiet storytelling, leave it off.

Enhance consistency (experimental)

• Extra object and environment consistency between shots.
• Try it if props or backgrounds drift noticeably across scenes.

Takes per scene (storyboard only)

• When animation is off, generate 1–4 storyboard options per scene and pick the best take for each shot.

Video model

• Used with the Custom Model preset: choose the specific model that generates your motion.
• Different models handle motion and style differently — some suit 3D content, others flat animation.
• You can also pick the model per clip when re-animating a single scene in the Edit page.

Other controls worth knowing

Video Format

• Horizontal (16:9) — YouTube, widescreen, desktop.
• Vertical (9:16) — TikTok, Reels, Shorts, mobile-first content.
• Set it before generating — it applies to the whole video.

Captions

• Styled captions rendered onto your video. Keep them on for any public-facing content — most social viewers watch on mute.

When to touch advanced settings

Leave at defaults when:

• You're on your first few videos.
• You haven't validated your script and storyboard yet.
• You're testing a new universe or character.

Adjust when:

• Lipsync looks noticeably wrong on a specific character.
• The motion style doesn't match your universe's feel.
• You're finalizing a polished episode and want maximum quality.

Change one setting at a time — that way you know what actually made the difference.

Quick reference

Updated on: 11/08/2026