AI Storyboard Generator

Turn a script, scene, or advertising brief into a reviewable shot plan and a small set of approved storyboard key frames. Use this Skill for short films, ads, animation, social-video concepts, motion comics, vertical dramas, or a creative pitch that needs a shared visual direction before production.

Prove the sequence works before paying for polished frames. If the user only wants the table, stop at the written storyboard. Use the resulting shot plan as the source of truth for a later image or video production request. A one-off illustration without shot planning belongs to beatra-ai-image-studio; a reusable character asset pack belongs to ip-character-consistency-studio; and a request to produce finished moving footage can continue through beatra-ai-video-studio after the board is accepted.

Inputs and defaults

Start with a script excerpt, scene outline, story concept, or advertising brief. Reuse already-known audience, platform, duration target, format, language, brand cues, characters, locations, product facts, references, and must-keeps. Ask only when a missing choice would change the board: for example, the intended medium or orientation, the principal audience or message, or the scene whose visual direction needs deciding.

Break the narrative into beats before drawing frames. Two or more shots need a global shot list. Default to a concise editorial shot plan: one central visual idea per shot, clear progression of beats, an explicit camera intention, and a short written frame prompt. Keep existing aspect ratio and visual references when they are provided; otherwise use the destination's normal aspect ratio. Do the written planning first, then ask the user to select the one to four shots that deserve visual key frames.

Golden path

1. Turn the supplied material into a shot list. For each shot, provide the scene and story beat, subject and action, shot size and composition, camera angle and intended movement, timing estimate, dialogue or sound cue, and a concise still-frame prompt. This planning step does not create a paid media task.
2. Review the beat board and shot list with the user. A structured plan is still required. Start paid work only after a human approves that plan. Record each approved key-frame candidate, its source references if any, its must-keeps, canvas, and the desired visual style. Read storyboard planning and key frames when a shot needs a route-specific request.
3. Before creating any key frame, read the live model card for the selected image capability. Show the route, the complete prompt and references in order, canvas, output count, model behavior, and current maximum price. Start paid work only after the user approves that frozen plan. Paid key frames must be generated stills, not placeholders.
4. Treat each different shot as its own count: 1 paid request. The current package may create one to four approved key frames, therefore at most four paid image requests, with no more than two generation tasks in flight at one time; poll that pair to a terminal state before submitting a later pair. The API's multi-image count is not a substitute for a verified storyboard sequence. Use a multi-image sequence only after a live model card and a representative sample establish that exact route.
5. Give each approved request one opaque, stable client_request_id. Submit it once through this package's bundled client, retain the task ID, and poll the same task to a terminal result. Review accessible frames against their named composition, subject, action, camera, style, and canvas must-keeps.
6. Deliver the editable shot list and the returned key-frame artifacts in shot order, including actual dimensions, format, resolved model, task identity, and billed credits when returned. A changed shot is a new paid request with its own approval and ID.

Key-frame routes and paid work

Use beatra.images.generate for a new visual direction from the approved shot brief. Use beatra.images.transform when one to four ordered reference images should guide a new shot. Use beatra.images.edit when a selected key frame is the base image for a focused adjustment; put that base in images[0] and later references in their intended order. For a local source, use the bundled upload helper; it requests the upload grant, completes its returned HTTP PUT, and prints the resulting artifact reference. Upload is transport only and does not establish what the host can visually inspect:

python3 scripts/mcp_client.py upload ./approved-reference.png --mime-type image/png

For every paid key frame, freeze the shot number, source and source order, prompt, must-keeps, canvas, count, relationship, model selection, and controls. Changing any of these is newly scoped paid work. If a reference or returned frame is not visible to the host, identify its role from the user's description instead of claiming visual inspection.

Recovery and result review

Record the approved payload, create response, task ID, and terminal result. If a create response is lost, retry only the identical frozen payload with the same request ID. If the task ID is unavailable, use beatra.tasks.list and beatra.tasks.get to find and confirm the matching task before considering another submission. Queued and running tasks remain the original request.

When the user asks to cancel, call beatra.tasks.cancel once and confirm the task state with beatra.tasks.get. Deliver observed facts rather than inferred ones: inspect only accessible pixels, and report any observed drift from the approved composition, subject, action, camera, style, or canvas.

Execution

Invoke every remote Beatra operation only through this package's bundled scripts/mcp_client.py. Pass the tool name after call and one JSON object on standard input:

printf '%s' '{"capability":"text_to_image"}' | python3 scripts/mcp_client.py call beatra.models.list
printf '%s' '{"prompt":"Create the approved key frame for shot 01.","count":1,"client_request_id":"opaque-storyboard-shot-01"}' | python3 scripts/mcp_client.py call beatra.images.generate

Do not configure or call a host Beatra Connector, and do not use REST/OpenAPI as a fallback.

References by task

• Read storyboard planning and key frames for the shot-list format, image route, paid request, result review, and recovery.
• Read installation and authentication and installation registration for authorization and the non-billable registration step.
• Read tasks and results, billing, errors, and recovery, and Bundled MCP Client diagnostics for shared runtime detail.
• Read automatic updates and safety for update behavior and controls, and uninstall and disconnect when removing the Skill.

Runtime and safe automatic updates

The bundled client silently checks for a newer release at most once every 24 hours per installation. When a higher version is available, it installs automatically without separate confirmation. It downloads only from the fixed official Beatra discovery and immutable CDN paths for this package, channel, and locale; verifies discovery data, archive, manifest, and every packaged file; and replaces only package-owned files.

Update checks, downloads, verification, replacement, rollback, and recovery fail open: the current installation remains usable and the original command continues. An update failure never authorizes another paid key-frame request. The setting persists for this installation. See automatic updates and safety.

python3 scripts/mcp_client.py update --auto off
python3 scripts/mcp_client.py update --auto on
python3 scripts/mcp_client.py update --check