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The AI Storyboard turns a script, an article, or a one-line idea into a designed video. Instead of the standard full-screen visual with subtitles, every scene gets its own layout, on-screen text elements, and a matching color palette: title cards, statistic callouts, checklists, two-column comparisons, quotes, and more. You enable it with a single field, aiStoryboard, on the same request you already use to render a video.

What You’ll Learn

Designed Scenes

Every scene receives a layout, text elements, and colors chosen by AI

Script or Idea

Start from your own narration or let AI write the script from a brief

Visual Control

Keep using stock search, your own media, AI-generated visuals, or solid colors

Job Monitoring

Track the render and collect the video, audio, thumbnail, and subtitle files

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:
  • A Pictory API key
  • Node.js or Python installed on your machine
  • The required packages installed

How It Works

Set aiStoryboard.enabled to true on a Render Storyboard Video request. The AI then works in one of two modes, depending on the content you send: In both modes the rest of the request works as usual: voice-over, avatar, background music, branding, subtitle styles, and per-scene background settings are all applied to the designed scenes.
aiStoryboard is optional and must be set explicitly to { "enabled": true }. Requests without it, or with enabled: false, are processed exactly as before.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

  1. Scene breakdown - Your script is split into scenes (one per sentence by default) or, in brief mode, the AI decides how many scenes the video needs
  2. Design - The AI chooses a layout for every scene, writes the on-screen text elements, and picks a color palette for the whole video
  3. Visual selection - Each scene’s visual is resolved from its background configuration and placed into the layout
  4. Narration and timing - Voice-over, subtitles, and scene durations are generated from the narration
  5. Render - The video is encoded and the download links are attached to the job
Processing Time: The design step adds 1–3 minutes to the usual rendering time. Poll the job status every 10–30 seconds.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Render an AI Storyboard from a Script

Send your narration with aiStoryboard enabled:

Step 2: Monitor Progress

Poll the job until it completes, then collect the video and the accompanying files:

Start from an Idea (Brief Mode)

Do not have a script yet? Describe the video in a brief and the AI writes the narration and designs the storyboard together. A brief is a single scene; the AI decides how many scenes the video needs.
The generated narration is available in the completed job’s txtFile (plain text) and srtFile/vttFile (timed subtitles). If you omit videoName, the AI’s own title is used as the project name.
Without aiStoryboard, a brief still generates a script and builds a standard storyboard from it. See the AI Brief to Video guide.

Understanding the Parameters

aiStoryboard Object

brief Object

Scene Control in Script Mode

  • A story scene without createSceneOnNewLine or createSceneOnEndOfSentence is split into one designed scene per sentence.
  • Each designed scene can hold at most 1500 characters of narration. A scene that cannot be split (for example, one that uses caption) and exceeds this limit is rejected with a 400 response; a single sentence longer than the limit fails the job.
  • A video can have at most 250 designed scenes.
  • createSceneOnNewLine and createSceneOnEndOfSentence are not allowed on a brief scene; the AI decides the scenes.

Choosing Visuals

Each scene’s background configuration works the same way it does for a standard video. The AI Storyboard places the resulting visual into the layout it designed for that scene, and fills any additional media slots in the layout from the same search.
In brief mode there is only one scene in the request, so its background configuration applies to every scene the AI creates. A brief with aiVisual generates one visual per designed scene and charges AI Credits for each of them.

Subtitles, Branding, Voice, and Avatar

  • Subtitle styles: the AI chooses a subtitle style that fits each layout. Your subtitleStyle, subtitleStyleId, or subtitleStyleName overrides its font, size, and colors; the AI’s placement is kept unless your style sets a position. Brand text styles apply the same way.
  • Subtitles on designed scenes: where the narration is shown as an on-screen text element, subtitles are hidden for that scene. Set hideSubtitles: false on a scene to force them on.
  • Voice-over and music: applied as usual. Scene durations follow the narration.
  • Avatar: the avatar you configure is used; the AI positions it scene by scene to fit each layout. Scene-level avatar overrides in your request still take precedence.
  • Brand intro and outro: added as usual around the designed scenes.

What Is Not Supported

The AI Storyboard is a text-to-video feature. With aiStoryboard enabled, a scene must use story, brief, or blogUrl, and the following are rejected with a 400 response: Scene elements remain supported and are added on top of the AI’s design.

Understanding the Response

Initial Response (Job Created)

Completed Response

Troubleshooting

Cause: The request uses a source or option the AI Storyboard cannot design, such as pptUrl, audioUrl, videoUrl, templateId, or a smart layout.Resolution:
  1. Use story, brief, or blogUrl as the scene source
  2. Remove the field named in the message, or
  3. Remove aiStoryboard to render a standard video with that field
Cause: A brief was combined with other scenes.Resolution:
  1. Send the brief as the only scene; the AI decides how many scenes the video needs
  2. To combine your own narration with generated content, render the brief first, take the narration from txtFile, and submit an edited version as story scenes
Cause: A scene that cannot be split (for example, one that uses caption) holds more narration than one designed scene can show.Resolution:
  1. Enable createSceneOnEndOfSentence or createSceneOnNewLine on the scene, or
  2. Split the text into several scenes yourself
Cause: The design step could not complete, for example the AI produced an invalid design or the service was temporarily unavailable. There is no fallback to a standard video.Resolution:
  1. Retry the request; the design is generated fresh on every attempt
  2. Shorten very long scripts (the limit is 250 designed scenes)
  3. If the error persists, contact support with the job ID
Cause: The AI generates a new design on every request, so rendering the same script twice can produce different layouts.Resolution:
  1. Use saveProject: true to keep the designed project in your Pictory account and render it again from there with Render Project

Next Steps

Add AI Voice-Over

Choose a voice for the narration

AI-Generated Visuals

Generate unique visuals for the designed scenes

Apply Brand Settings

Add your logo, fonts, and colors on top of the AI design

Video with Avatar

Present the designed scenes with an AI avatar

API Reference

Render Storyboard Video

Full request reference for the render endpoint

aiStoryboard and brief Objects

Field-level reference for the aiStoryboard and brief objects

Get Video Render Job

Poll the render job and collect the output files

Render Project

Render a saved AI storyboard project again