# Build a storyboard

A storyboard is the shot list before the cut – every shot the project needs, grouped by where it lives in the world. In a real production this is the document the director, DP, and editor align around before anyone sets up a camera. In Intangible the storyboard lives in the project itself, alongside the 3D scene and the cameras, so the thumbnails are always live framings and not pencil sketches you have to keep redrawing.

This guide walks through it end to end. Skip steps you've already done.

## Steps

1. **Open or create a project.** From the homepage, pick a Showcase template close to the brief, or start blank. The project is the container; scenes and shots live inside it.
2. **Build the scene in Build mode.** Place the geography, props, characters, and the time of day. Reference images on objects come in here too. The scene is the world the shots will frame – build it once, then frame it many times. See [Build mode](/build/build.md).
3. **Switch to Compose mode.** The mode switcher is at the top center of the editor. The viewport keeps its scene; the controls reshape for shot work.
4. **Add the first shot.** Click the camera **+** icon directly below the viewport. The new shot snapshots the current viewport framing. Position the camera, set the lens, frame the action. See [Cameras and shots](/compose/shots.md).
5. **Name the shot.** Open [Shot details](/compose/shot-details.md) and give the shot a name from the brief – "Hero Approach", "Reveal", "Tag" – not "Shot 1". Names carry through to the cards, the timeline, and any export.
6. **Set the shot's duration.** Adjust the shot's track bar in the Scene Timeline. Default is approximately two seconds; trim down or extend per the beat. Duration matters for the animatic, not yet for the card.
7. **Repeat for every shot in the scene.** Add, frame, name, set duration. The Storyboard tab fills with cards as you go. Group thinking is the win here – build all the coverage for one scene before moving to the next.
8. **Add the next scene.** Scenes hold their own shots and their own world (terrain, sky, references). Add a new scene from the scene picker in the top toolbar. Repeat steps 2 through 7.
9. **Open the Storyboard tab and review the layout.** Each scene shows as a header with shot cards underneath. Drag cards to reorder within a scene.
10. **Hand off.** The storyboard reads naturally to anyone reviewing the project – producer, director, client. Share via the [Share dialog](/publish/publish-tab.md) for review, or move to the [Sequence Timeline](/compose/timeline.md) to cut the animatic.

## Why this works in Intangible specifically

A pencil storyboard is a sketch of what the camera will see. An Intangible storyboard is the camera position itself, frozen at a moment, with a thumbnail rendered from the actual scene geometry. Reframe the camera and the thumbnail updates. Move an object in Build mode and every shot that includes it updates. The storyboard never goes stale.

The same shots are also the input to the cut and to the renders – authoring them once means you're not redrawing the same idea three times.

## Tips

* **Authoring order isn't sequence order.** The storyboard groups shots by scene, not by playback. Use the [Sequence Timeline](/compose/timeline.md) when you're ready to cut.
* **Scene names matter.** They show up as group headers in the storyboard, in the timeline, and in any export. "Manhattan Street" beats "Scene 1" for anyone reviewing.
* **Coverage before composition.** First pass, get the angles you need. Second pass, refine the framing. Trying to perfect each shot before moving on slows the storyboard down without making it better.

## Limits

* **No multi-select reordering.** Drag one card at a time.
* **No image storyboard import.** The storyboard is shots in the project, not arbitrary uploaded images. Bring sketches or reference images into the scene as [Image References](/overview/concepts/image-reference.md) on objects, not as storyboard frames.

## Related

* [Storyboard view](/compose/storyboard-view.md) – the panel reference.
* [Shots](/compose/shots.md) – the unit being arranged.
* [Make an animatic](/overview/how-to/ai-animatic.md) – the next step once the storyboard is laid out.
* [Shot details](/compose/shot-details.md) – names and descriptions.


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