Animation

Every BigMotion video is built from scenes: each scene is a picture with narration over it. Animation turns those still pictures into short moving clips. It’s optional, and it’s the only thing Sparks pay for. Your plan already covers making and posting the videos themselves.

You choose animation in the last step of Series setup and in the last step of making a Cartoon.

The three options

Animate the opening scene

Only the first scene moves; the rest stay as illustrations. The opening seconds are the hook, the moment that decides whether someone keeps watching, so this is where movement matters most.

Faster to make and uses fewer Sparks.
The default for new Series, and a good place to start.

Animate every scene

Every scene becomes a moving clip with ambient sound. The video feels like a short film rather than a slideshow.

The richest result, and it takes longer to make.
Costs the most Sparks.
Needs a higher Sparks pack. If it’s locked for you, the option says so, and buying more of a smaller pack won’t unlock it.

No animation

A slideshow of your illustrations with overlay effects and smooth transitions. It still has narration, music and captions.

Costs no Sparks.

What it costs

Each option shows its price in Sparks and your current balance, right on the animation step. A few rules:

The price is fixed per video (or per Cartoon) for the option you choose. Video length, niche and visual style don’t change it.
In a Series, every video uses Sparks, not just the first one. The price you see is per video.
Prices can change, so check the animation step in the app, or ask your connected AI assistant, for today’s numbers.

When Sparks are taken

Sparks are set aside when a video starts generating and taken only if the video is made. If it fails, they return to your balance.
In a Series, each video starts generating about a day before it’s posted, so that’s when its Sparks are used.
To create an animated Series, you need enough Sparks for at least one video.

If you run out of Sparks

Series keep going. New videos are still made and posted, just without animation. The Series page then shows Animation skipped (“Your Sparks ran out, so the rest came out without animation”) and how many videos were animated this month, for example “4 of 30”. Press Animate every video to get more Sparks, and the following videos are animated again.

Cartoons: if you pick an option you can’t afford, the app opens a window to get more Sparks.

Things to know

A Series’ animation option can’t be changed after it’s created. To switch, archive it and create a new Series.
In the Images Editor, regenerating the picture of an animated scene turns it into a still picture.
When you open the Sparks window from a Series, the app recommends a Sparks pack that matches that Series’ schedule.

See Sparks for how to get Sparks and how the monthly pack works.