An animation production tracker the director and every animator can see

What this board can't do for an animation team

• No frames or video. A free board holds 3 images and 1 file, so a shot card is text. Put a link to your review copy or shared folder in a card and name the version there. The example has no images.
• No version history. "Animation v2" is typed on the card. The board doesn't keep v1 for you or compare versions.
• No timeline axis and no reminders. A card says what a shot waits for, not when. Nothing flags a shot that has sat in layout for a week, and nobody is told when a card changes. Dates, if you want them, are words on a card.
• No per-stage sorting or counts. Colour is the card's border and text, set by hand. The board doesn't total how many shots are in clean-up.
• An arrow is only a line. An arrow joins a card in one section to a card in another, takes a caption and its own colour, and stays attached when a card is reordered or a section moves. It doesn't know whether the shot it points at is finished.
• 150 items on the free plan, across your account. The example is 55. The arithmetic for a longer short is below. Pro is $5 a month billed yearly ($59.99 a year) and removes the item limit.
• 5 boards and 3 images per board on the free plan. An animator who opens your link uses 1 of their own 5 boards, and cards they add count toward their own 150.

How to track shots on one board

This is how the example board is used. The names, versions and runtime belong to the example.

1. 1Make a section for each sequence. The example has Kitchen (8 shots), Market chase (10), Rooftop (10) and Home (8). A section is free and holds its cards, so you can rename it or move it with its shots.
2. 2Add one card per shot. Bold title with the shot code ("SH060 Grabs the lantern"), then one line: stage and version, "Owner:" and a first name. The example writes "Animation v3. Owner: Mei".
3. 3Colour the card by stage and change it when the shot moves on. Grey for storyboard or layout, blue for animation, orange for clean-up, purple for colour, green for comp or approved. Edit the stage line at the same time.
4. 4Mark a blocked shot red and say what it waits for. Add "Waits on SH050" to the card and draw an arrow from the blocked shot to the shot it waits for, captioned "waits for". The example has seven such arrows, two of them red because those two shots are blocked by the same shot, SH050.
5. 5Keep review notes in their own list. One card per note, with the shot code in the title and an owner on the card, for example "SH100: cat's eyes off model".
6. 6Keep a delivery list and an open questions list. Delivery holds the animatic lock, music cue sheet, sound mix, subtitles and exports, each with an owner. Open questions hold anything nobody can answer yet, with who will decide.

On the working method, one commenter in r/animation (November 21, 2021), u/spacecad3ts, described an Excel sheet with every step for every shot printed on the wall. The board does the same job on screen, with the sheet's step column turned into card colour and a version word. That is one person's setup, not a standard.

How many shots fit on the free plan

• The example: 3 minutes, 36 shots in 4 sequences, plus 15 cards (1 Start here, 5 review notes, 6 delivery, 3 open questions) and 4 lists, which is 36 + 15 + 4 = 55 items (our arithmetic).
• A longer short: 120 shots with the same 15 cards and 4 lists is 139 items, leaving 11 of your 150 for every other board you have. Our arithmetic. Two boards like the example come to 110.
• Ways to stay under: put only shots that are still moving on the board and delete finished ones, or keep one card per sequence with the shot list in its body, or split one board per act. Sequence sections cost nothing, so you can group shots without spending items.
• Beyond that, a shot tracker built for a studio is a better fit, or Pro, which removes the item limit.

Share it with the team

1. 1In the share menu, set "Anyone with the link can edit". New boards start view-only.
2. 2Send the link, or the 4-digit join code. The code expires after 2 hours of inactivity, so send the link to anyone you'll need later.
3. 3Each person signs in free (Google, Apple or email) to write. Someone who isn't signed in can open the link and read everything, but can't change anything. A signed-in animator can add cards and arrows, and what they change shows up for the others within a few seconds.
4. 4Give each person their own cards. If two people type in the same card at once, the two edits merge letter by letter with no lock, so the animator owns the shot card and the director owns the review notes.

Free calls on the board run up to 60 minutes per call, with a warning 10 minutes before the end; everyone signs in free, calls aren't recorded, and Pro has no limit. If your short is further along, the post-production tracker board tracks the notes and cuts after picture, and the short film pre-production board covers who owns what before the work starts. The hand-drawn storyboard board is the place for the sketches themselves, since this board holds no frames.

Shot tracking tools, side by side

Each row is from the tool's own pages, read on November 11, 2026. Features and prices change, so check the page before you choose.

When another tool is the better choice

• You need review on the frames. Kitsu's review engine and ShotGrid's playback are built for comments on a version. A board has no player and no timecodes.
• You need versions kept for you. Picoprod lists per-shot version tracking on its free version. A board keeps whatever version word you type.
• You need a schedule or a Gantt. Picoprod lists Gantt and Kitsu lists a schedule. A board has no timeline axis.
• You track dozens of artists across hundreds of shots. ShotGrid is built for that. A board passes 150 items at about 130 shots.
• You need reminders. The board has none. Use your calendar or chat.
• You only need sorting and sums. A spreadsheet. On r/vfx (January 4, 2024) a student team asked for an open-source alternative, and replies there named Kitsu (open source, but you host it), Airtable, and Google Sheets if you only need tracking.

On bigger tools, one commenter on r/vfx (December 4, 2024), u/lennyfoulds, called ShotGrid the best off the shelf if you don't have a pipeline person, and another, u/ParadoxClock, suggested self-hosting Kitsu. Those are two accounts, not a survey.

Questions