Guide · 2 of 5 · Hands-on walkthrough
Story Generation
From a single idea to a timed storyboard with characters, props, locations and dialogue. Follow the exact steps inside ScriptFrame — every field, tab and stage explained.
What story generation does
ScriptFrame turns a free-text idea into a structured production package:
- Title, synopsis and total duration inferred from your idea.
- Characters with appearance, clothing, personality and voice.
- Props and locations with distinct visual states (e.g., “angry”, “damaged”, “at dusk”).
- Storyboard entries — a second-by-second timeline with scene descriptions, who and what is present, dialogue per character, sounds, background, camera angle and effects.
- Scenes and shots grouped into chapters that give you a clean editing structure.
- Video segments — 5-second slices the Video Editor later renders into clips.
All of this is created by a multi-stage pipeline and saved to your idea, ready to edit scene by scene.
Before you start — login and credits
Sign in and check your balance
Path: Home → Login → Dashboard
- Go to the home page and click Login (or Get Started to create an account — you receive 8 free credits).
- After login you land on the Dashboard. Your credit balance appears next to your avatar. See the Credits guide for how to top up.
- Story generation checks your balance before it starts. If you see an insufficient-credits message, top up with Buy Credits first.
Step 1 — Create a new idea
Open the New Idea form
Path: Dashboard → click + New Idea (top-right) → New Idea page
Every control below maps directly to what the generation receives.
Field: Story Idea — required
The large textarea labeled Story Idea. Write 2–10 sentences describing your story. The first line is used as a temporary title until the pipeline creates a polished one.
Example: “A retired astronaut picks up a signal from her old probe. She must convince her estranged daughter to join one last mission — but the signal may be a trap.”
Field: Character Descriptions (optional, collapsible)
Expand Character Descriptions to add free-text guidance — names, appearance, clothing, voice or backstory. Anything you write here steers the cast that will be generated. Leave it blank to let ScriptFrame invent the characters.
Field: Render Style (optional, collapsible)
Expand Render Style to choose a visual style from a grid of options. The default is Cinematic. The style is applied to every scene description, character portrait and later video prompts for a consistent look.
Field: Language (optional, collapsible)
Expand Language to pick the language for the story. The default is English. The choice affects the title, synopsis, scene descriptions and dialogue. Pick for example French to get a fully French script.
Field: Custom AI Agents (optional, collapsible)
Expand Custom AI Agents to override the agent used at each stage:
| Stage | What it influences | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Concept Architect | Overall concept, characters and narrative arc | Built-in |
| Story Scriptwriter | Second-by-second storyboard and dialogue | Built-in |
| Effects Director | Camera moves, pacing and atmosphere | Built-in |
| Asset Discovery | Characters, props and locations with states | Built-in |
Leave any stage at Default (built-in) to use the platform’s agent. Your defaults from Settings are pre-selected automatically. Only stages you explicitly change are saved on this idea; the rest continue to follow your Settings.
If you do not own custom agents yet, the panel links to the Agents marketplace where you can browse or create your own. Learn how to customize, swap models and resell agents in the Agents guide. For balancing quality and troubleshooting, see Agent Issues.
Field: Chapters (slider 1–64)
At the bottom of the form, set the number of Chapters with the number input or slider. Each chapter will contain multiple scenes. The default is 8. More chapters means a longer, more detailed story and a longer total duration.
Action: Generate Storyboard
Click Generate Storyboard (enabled once your Story Idea is not empty). Your idea is created and you are taken to the generation screen where the pipeline starts immediately.
Step 2 — Generation in progress
Watch the 4 stages run
Path: Generating screen — you see four stages with progress indicators
| # | Stage | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concept Architect | Analyzes the idea and defines characters and the narrative arc |
| 2 | Story Scriptwriter | Writes the second-by-second storyboard with vivid scene descriptions |
| 3 | Effects Director | Chooses camera moves, pacing and atmosphere |
| 4 | Asset Discovery | Finds characters, props and locations with their visual states |
- Progress streams live — you see which stage is active, a status message, and outputs as they arrive.
- Click Cancel to stop and return to the Idea page — your idea is preserved in its current state.
- On failure you get an error panel with Retry. You are not charged for usage that was never reported.
- On success you see a completion checkmark and are automatically taken to the Idea workspace after a brief moment.
Behind the scenes the pipeline clears previous drafts, saves the new title and duration, stores characters and storyboard entries, groups them into scenes and chapters, and builds 5-second video segments ready for the editor.
Step 3 — After generation: the Idea workspace
You land on the Idea page. The header shows the title, status badge, duration, and a four-tab strip:
| Step | Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Script | Review title, synopsis and characters |
| 2 | Assets | Manage characters, props and locations |
| 3 | Storyboard | Edit scenes, shots and timing |
| 4 | Video Editor | Render segments into video |
If an admin has temporarily disabled a feature (e.g., image or video generation), the related tab shows a short notice with a contact option instead of the editor.
Tab 1 — Script
Purpose: Review and regenerate the core story.
- Read the generated title, synopsis and character list.
- To redo the story, open the Manage menu in the header and choose Regenerate. This re-runs the story pipeline with your current Settings. Only the stages you customized on this idea keep their override; others use your latest defaults.
- Changes here flow downstream — regenerating the script will rebuild scenes and segments the next time you visit those tabs.
Tab 2 — Assets
Purpose: Fine-tune the visual building blocks.
- Three sections: Characters, Props and Locations. Each card shows the generated image (when available), a description, and any states.
- Add / Edit / Delete: Create a new asset, change its description, or remove it. Changes are saved immediately.
- Regenerate image: Click the regenerate button on a card to create a new image for that asset. Each image generation is billed separately.
- Character states (e.g., expressions or outfits tied to specific story moments) can each have their own image.
Tab 3 — Storyboard
Purpose: Edit the timed narrative structure.
- Shows scenes grouped by chapter, each with a start and end time, a description, and its shots (individual visual beats).
- Edit scene: Change the description or timing.
- Resplit scenes: Ask the assistant to re-divide storyboard entries into a new set of scenes.
- Generate shot images: Create an image for each shot — these fill the timeline and later appear in the storybook and video prompts.
- Each entry keeps its characters, props, locations, dialogue, sounds, background, camera angle and effects — all editable inline.
Tab 4 — Video Editor
Purpose: Turn the storyboard into watchable video.
- Timeline of segments (5-second slices created during generation). Each segment shows its prompt, linked characters and assets, and a status like pending, active, completed or failed.
- Generate / Regenerate segment: Render or re-render a segment. Each render is billed as video generation (per second × quality).
- Quality switch: Choose 480p, 720p, 1080p or 4K before generating. Higher quality increases the credit cost.
- Blank blocks: Insert a solid-color hold after any segment to adjust pacing without changing storyboard timing.
- Custom clips: Upload your own clips and splice them into the timeline.
- Merge and export: When segments are completed, merge them into a single final video for export and mark the idea as completed.
Manage menu (available on all tabs)
In the top-right header, the Manage dropdown offers:
- Regenerate — re-run story generation for this idea.
- Download — batch-download characters, props, locations or rendered video segments as named files.
- Manage Storybook — open storybook settings to enable or disable chat and manage access for the interactive book (see the Storybook guide).
- Delete — permanently remove the idea and its associated files after confirmation.
Tips and troubleshooting
Slow or failed generation? Check the error panel on the generating screen — insufficient credits, rate limits and provider errors are explained there with a Retry option. Your data is not deleted on failure.
- Too short or too long? Change the Chapters value at creation or use Resplit scenes in the Storyboard tab instead of regenerating the whole idea.
- Wrong visual style? Changing just the style and regenerating assets or shot images is cheaper than a full re-generation.
- Wrong language? Set the language before generating — it affects every text field. Changing it after requires regeneration to update existing text.
- Agents not appearing? Only active agents that you own or have purchased are shown. Archived agents are hidden from the selectors. See Agents guide and Agent Issues for details.
- Credits deducted but no output? Check the Dashboard usage chart — spending is logged per day and category. If a provider reported actual usage, the charge reflects that; otherwise a small standard rate is applied.