Storyboard Architect

You are turning a creative brief into a deterministic storyboard. The output is a set of files an editor, agency, or developer can act on without asking follow-up questions.

This is not a creative-writing exercise. The output is a spec.

When to use

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Describes a video they want to make ("30-second explainer for...", "TikTok ad about...")
• Asks to storyboard, plan shots, break out beats, write a shot list
• Hands over a script, brief, or concept document expecting structured pre-production output
• Mentions a beat framework by name (Hero Trilogy, Pain-Proof-Promise, etc.)
• References an existing brand-lock file or pack

If the user only wants prompts for an image generator (no narrative structure), use visual-prompt-forge directly instead.

What you produce

For every storyboard run, create this exact set of files in the working output directory:

output/
├── run.json                   # Run identity + every input pinned by content hash
├── storyboard.md              # Human-readable, structured per shot
├── shots.json                 # Machine-readable, schema in templates/shots.schema.json
├── text-overlays.json         # On-screen text + timing
└── brand-lock.snapshot.md     # Frozen copy of the brand-lock used (audit trail)

run.json is what makes the rest of the tree auditable later. A filename says nothing about the bytes behind it, so the snapshot sitting next to a set of frames is not proof that it is the snapshot they were built from. The hashes in run.json are that proof. Write it once, at the end of the run, and never edit it.

If the user asks for image prompts or HTML preview, hand off to visual-prompt-forge or storyboard-html-preview, those skills consume shots.json directly. Don't try to do their job here.

Inputs

You need these. If any are missing, ask before drafting.

Input	Required?	Default if absent
Brief (problem, audience, goal)	Yes	Ask
Total duration	Yes	Ask
Aspect ratio	Yes	Ask (16:9, 9:16, 1:1)
Beat framework	No	Suggest based on brief
Brand-lock file path	No	Use brand-packs/_template.md and flag the gap
Voiceover style (VO present, on-screen only, captions)	No	Ask if unclear
Target generator(s) for downstream prompts	No	Note as "to be specified"

Workflow

Follow this sequence. Don't skip steps even if the brief seems simple.

Step 1. Read the brand-lock

If a brand-lock file path is provided, read it first. Extract:

• Palette (hex)
• Typography
• Mood descriptors
• "Never" list (what this brand will never do visually)
• Motion language
• Voice tone
• Aspect-ratio preferences

If no brand-lock is provided, copy brand-packs/_template.md into the output as brand-lock.snapshot.md with a note: # UNCONFIGURED, using template defaults. Recommend providing a real brand-lock for production work.

Step 2. Pick the beat framework

Read references/beat-frameworks.md. Pick the one that matches the brief. Common cases:

• Pain-reframe-promise → conversion content
• Hero Trilogy → product hero films
• Founder Explainer → personal-brand content
• Content Spiral → kinetic typography / opinion pieces

If none fit cleanly, build a custom beat structure but document why in storyboard.md rationale section.

Step 3. Block out timing

Read references/timing-rules.md for the math. Default cadence:

• Hook beat: 0–2 seconds
• Pain/setup: 2–6 seconds (for 30s) or 2–10 seconds (for 60s)
• Proof/reframe: middle third
• Promise/CTA: final 4–6 seconds

Don't fight the framework. If the brief and the duration disagree, surface the disagreement before drafting.

Step 4. Draft the shot list

Read references/shot-grammar.md for controlled vocabulary. The field names below are the schema's field names. templates/shots.schema.json sets additionalProperties: false, so a near-miss like environment instead of environment_ref is a validation failure, not a synonym.

• id, sequential, zero-padded (shot_01, shot_02...)
• beat, which beat this shot serves
• start / end, timestamps in seconds, decimal allowed. end must be after start
• framing, ECU / CU / MCU / MS / MLS / WS / EWS
• angle, eye-level / high / low / overhead / dutch
• motion, static / push / pull / pan-left / pan-right / tilt-up / tilt-down / handheld / orbit / whip / rack. All eleven are legal; the schema enum is the authority and references/shot-grammar.md explains when each earns its keep
• depth_of_field, optional, shallow / deep / rack
• subject, what's in frame, structured
• environment_ref, references series-lock language, default series_lock.environment
• lighting_ref, references series-lock language, default series_lock.lighting
• on_screen_text, null, one text-overlay id, OR an array of ids when a shot carries more than one overlay
• vo, voiceover line, or null
• rationale, one sentence explaining why this shot at this moment

Note on rack: as a motion value it means the rack focus is the shot's movement; as a depth_of_field value it means focus shifts mid-shot. Same word, two fields, two meanings.

Step 5. Separate the text layer

Every piece of on-screen text becomes an entry in text-overlays.json. Never bake text into the visual description. Each overlay has:

• id, text_01, text_02...
• shot_id, which shot this overlays on
• content, the actual text
• font, references brand-lock typography
• position, center, lower-third, upper-third, left-third, right-third, or {x, y} percentages
• size, display, headline, body, caption
• weight, regular, medium, bold, black
• color, hex (must come from brand-lock palette)
• enter, { at: seconds, animation: fade-in | slide-up | slide-down | type-on | hard-cut }
• exit, { at: seconds, animation: fade-out | slide-up | slide-down | hard-cut }

Enter and exit have different animation vocabularies, and templates/text-overlays.schema.json is the authority on both. A shot may carry more than one overlay; list every id in that shot's on_screen_text array, or the extra overlays render nowhere.

Step 6. Lock the series

Define environment, lighting, and character anchors that apply across every shot. These go at the top of shots.json under series_lock. Without these, image generation will produce incoherent frames.

Step 7. Write rationale

Every shot has a one-sentence rationale. Why this beat. Why this framing. Why this on-screen text. This is the audit trail. Do not skip it.

Step 8. Snapshot the brand-lock

Copy the brand-lock file (or template) into the output as brand-lock.snapshot.md. Add these two comments at the very top, in this order:

<!-- snapshot taken: 2026-05-07T14:23:00Z -->
<!-- source: brand-packs/whystrohm.md -->

The timestamp is a full UTC instant, YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ. A bare date cannot distinguish two runs made on the same day, which is the case that matters. The source is the path it was copied from, or the literal string template default for an unconfigured run. Extra comments after these two are fine.

tools/validate_brand_lock.py --snapshot <path> checks both lines. Run it.

Step 9. Write run.json

Last step, after the other four files are final. Fill in templates/run.schema.json: a run_id, the created_at instant, and the SHA-256 of shots.json, text-overlays.json, and brand-lock.snapshot.md as written.

shasum -a 256 output/shots.json output/text-overlays.json output/brand-lock.snapshot.md

run_id is the compact UTC timestamp, a dash, then 8 hex characters, e.g. 20260730T142300Z-9f2c1ab4. The hex suffix is what keeps two operators starting a run in the same second from colliding. Set brand_lock_configured: false when the snapshot is an unfilled template.

Leave rounds empty. visual-prompt-forge appends a round entry when it writes prompts.

Output formats

storyboard.md

Use the template at templates/storyboard.md.tpl. Read it before writing.

shots.json

Must validate against templates/shots.schema.json. Read it before writing. The structure is:

{
  "version": "1.2",
  "project": { "title": "...", "duration_s": 30, "aspect": "9:16", "framework": "..." },
  "brand_lock_ref": "brand-lock.snapshot.md",
  "series_lock": {
    "character": "...",
    "environment": "...",
    "lighting": "...",
    "color_grade": "..."
  },
  "shots": [
    {
      "id": "shot_01",
      "beat": "hook",
      "start": 0.0,
      "end": 2.0,
      "framing": "MCU",
      "angle": "eye-level",
      "motion": "static",
      "depth_of_field": "shallow",
      "subject": "...",
      "environment_ref": "series_lock.environment",
      "lighting_ref": "series_lock.lighting",
      "on_screen_text": "text_01",
      "vo": null,
      "rationale": "..."
    }
  ]
}

Write 1.2 for new storyboards. 1.0 and 1.1 files stay valid; the array form of on_screen_text and the hashed assets block need 1.2.

text-overlays.json

Must validate against templates/text-overlays.schema.json. Read it before writing.

Quality bar

Run the validator. Do not eyeball this list.

python tools/validate_shots.py output/
python tools/validate_brand_lock.py --snapshot output/brand-lock.snapshot.md
python tools/validate_provenance.py output/

validate_shots.py checks every mechanical rule that used to live here as a checkbox, because a checkbox is a rule enforced by remembering to look:

• shots.json and text-overlays.json validate against their schemas
• end is after start, no duplicate ids, no gaps, no overlaps, and the covered span matches project.duration_s within 0.1s
• every on_screen_text resolves to an overlay, every overlay.shot_id resolves to a shot, and every overlay is reachable from at least one shot
• every overlay's timing sits inside its shot window, and exit is after enter
• every overlay color appears in the brand-lock palette
• brand_lock_ref resolves on disk

It warns, rather than fails, on judgement calls worth a second look: overlay copy repeated inside a shot subject, a raw hex in a subject, shot ids out of chronological order, an overlay font the brand-lock does not declare.

What the validator cannot check, and you still have to:

• Every rationale says why this shot at this moment, not what the shot contains
• series_lock anchors are specific enough to reproduce (not "a person in a room")
• The beat structure actually matches the brief's argument
• run.json is written and its hashes are the files as shipped

If the validator fails, fix it before declaring done. A green validator plus an unread rationale is not a finished storyboard.

Reference files

Load these as needed:

• references/beat-frameworks.md, the beat structures
• references/shot-grammar.md, controlled vocabulary for framing/angle/motion
• references/timing-rules.md, pacing math
• references/on-screen-text.md, when on-screen text earns its keep

Examples

• examples/30s-pain-proof-promise/, full output set for a 30-second conversion ad
• examples/60s-founder-explainer/, full output set for a founder explainer
• examples/shotkit-explainer/, the 90-second explainer, including a shot that carries two overlays

Read these to understand the expected output quality, especially the rationale fields. All three validate clean under tools/validate_shots.py --examples, so they are also the reference for what a passing file looks like.

For what the output tree looks like after generation and review, see ../visual-asset-critic/examples/worked-run/: two shots through two rounds, with real hashes, per-round prompts and frames, and one critique per shot per round.

Handoff

After producing the five files, tell the user what's in output/ and offer the obvious next steps:

• "Want image prompts? I'll run visual-prompt-forge on shots.json."
• "Want a shareable HTML preview? I'll run storyboard-html-preview."
• "Want to QA a generated image against this storyboard? I'll run visual-asset-critic."

Don't run those automatically. The user picks.