Storyboards

A storyboard is a set of shots, and each shot holds panels: a frame and a line describing it. Storyboards live in the project, beside the script, and the Director view plays them as an animatic.

Storyboards are in Director · Plan, under Storyboards in the Browser. See Director View.

How a storyboard is laid out

Storyboards / [folder /]* storyboard / [subfolder /]* shot

A storyboard shows every shot laid out, each as a strip of its panels. Make one with New storyboard on the Storyboards folder, or + at the top of the Browser.
Folders above a storyboard only organize storyboards: act 1, act 2, drafts. They can nest, but a storyboard can't go inside another storyboard.
Subfolders inside a storyboard organize its shots, such as a chase. The storyboard's page shows them as indented headings with their shots under them.
A shot holds the panels. Shots only move within storyboards.

Every level has a name and a one-line synopsis you edit in place. The page body has a prompt to describe it: "Describe this storyboard: the sequence it covers, its purpose and tone…" for a storyboard, "Describe the shot: what we see, who is in it, how it moves…" for a shot, and "Describe this frame…" under each panel. Panels can be named in their header.

The Storyboards folder can sort by Order, Start time or Duration. Storyboards with no start in the script sort to the end, by name.

Starting from the script

A scene heading's actions menu (the icon beside it) offers New shot for this scene, which makes a shot that starts in that scene and files it in the scene's storyboard. Once shots exist it also offers Open shot: … for each.
Select lines in the script and press Storyboard this on the selection toolbar. It makes a shot over those lines (or the line your cursor is in) and files it with the storyboard for that scene.

Frames

Each panel has a frame. You can:

Add frame: pick an image from your device or the Library.
Sketch a frame: open the sketchpad on that panel.
Frame from 3D: draw the frame from the scene's 3D blocking. See 3D frames.
Generate one. See Generating Media.

The sketchpad

The sketchpad has Pencil, Pen, Marker, Shade, Eraser, Line, Arrow, Box, Circle and Text, in Thin, Medium or Thick, and seven colours. Layers lets you add, hide, reorder and fade layers. Undo, Redo, Clear and Clear layer work as you'd expect.

A new sketch takes the frame's shape. To change the shape of a sketch you've started, clear the page first. Save puts the sketch in the panel and in Media.

Marking up a picture

Any picture in the project can be marked up: choose Mark up on its tile in Media, or pick it in Add media → From the Library and mark it up there. Marking up saves a copy named "(marked up)". The original stays as it was.

Shot details

A shot's page has a Shot details box, closed until you open it, with a one-line summary of what is set. Its groups are:

Frame: the shot's aspect ratio and resolution (see Frame size).
Slate: scene, shot, INT/EXT, time of day, duration.
Look: medium, and where the shot sits between expressionism and realism.
Framing: shot size, angle, composition.
Movement: camera move and pacing, with a box to describe the move.
Camera: sensor, lens, aperture, ISO, shutter, white balance, ND, squeeze, filtration and film or camera emulation.
Lighting: Key, Fill and Back lights, key:fill and key:back ratios, direction, quality and lighting key.

A field you leave empty uses the project's default where there is one. Set the project's Medium (live action, 2D or 3D animation) and its place between expressionism and realism under Production on the Style and Tone page. Shots use these unless they set their own.

Frame size

The project has an aspect ratio and a resolution, in Settings → Media → Picture, with the project frame rate. New sketches, renders and generated shots use this shape.

A storyboard can pick its own (Aspect ratio and Resolution in its row's … menu, or at the top of its page), and so can a shot (Shot details → Frame). Each one offers "Same as project" or "Same as storyboard" to go back.

Custom… takes any aspect ratio from 1:4 to 4:1 as width:height, and any resolution as width × height in pixels, or just the short edge, from 120 to 4320.

Timing and the script

A project with several scripts lets each storyboard be timed against one of them: pick it with Script at the top of the storyboard's page.

At the top of a storyboard, the Script strip shows which stretch of the screenplay the board covers. Pick a scene, then click the first line of the range and the last. The range ends at the start of the next scene unless you click an end line, and Continue into the next scene… lets it run across scenes. Open in script jumps there. Setting the start names the page (Scene 3 – Storyboard 1) unless you've renamed it.

Each panel can be tied to one line of that range: Link to script on the panel opens a searchable list of lines. A linked panel shows the line under its number (click it to jump the script there), and its time starts where that line does. Unlinked panels share the gaps evenly.

Links and Generate

A storyboard's Links section shows how each shot ties to the script and the outline. A shot is linked by its script range, or by a synopsis that reads exactly like a scene's. A synopsis link can be pinned to its scene. A shot whose scene was deleted shows Scene missing, and scenes that share a synopsis show Several scenes match. Nothing is guessed.

Under Generate, each action shows a preview with a checkbox per step and writes nothing until you Apply:

Shots from script: a shot for every scene the storyboard doesn't cover.
Shots from outline: a shot for each outline beat not covered yet.
Fill shot synopses: linked shots with no synopsis get their scene's.
Outline from script: scene synopses the outline lacks, as outline beats.
Synopses to script: a shot's synopsis becomes its scene's = line, only when the scene has none.
Scenes from outline: a placeholder scene (INT. NEW SCENE - DAY) for each outline beat no scene covers yet. It never changes the scenes you have.

Each is safe to run again: a step that was applied no longer appears.

Shot cuts on the script page

When the script has shots, the script page shows a thin line above the line each shot starts at, with a tab in the margin giving the shot's name and length.

Drag a tab up or down to move where the shot starts. The shot before it ends where this one now starts.
Split: click the scissors on a tab. Then rest the mouse in the margin to the right of that shot's text and press Split shot here where you want the cut. On a touch screen, press and hold in the margin. Click the scissors again, or press Esc, to stop.
Merge: right-click a tab (or press and hold it) and choose Merge with previous shot. The first shot of a storyboard has no menu.

Undo takes back a split, a merge or a moved cut.

Turn the lines off with View → Show Shot Cuts. They show in the Writer and Director views' script, not in the Print view.

3D frames

From the panel: Frame from 3D draws a frame from the scene's 3D blocking. Choose the camera (or Overhead) and the time, then Render frame. The panel shows a small 3D badge. When the blocking changes it is marked Out of date, and Update redraws it with the same camera and time. A storyboard's page shows Update out-of-date frames to redraw them all.
Contact sheet: on the same popover, pick a number of frames (2 to 12) and Add frames across the scene adds that many panels after this one, at evenly spaced moments, each captioned with its time.
From the 3D editor: Add camera frame and Add overhead frame. See 3D Blocking.

Frames you replace stay in the project. In Media, Remove unused 3D frames clears the ones no panel uses.

Printing and exporting

Print a storyboard (or one of its subfolders) while it's on screen: you get its synopsis, each subfolder and shot with their synopses and timing, and every panel with its frame and caption. Export… in the Writer view also has Storyboard under production documents. See Import & Export and Printing.