Ultra-fast storyboards: minutes, not days
Storyboard software that keeps
the board next to the shoot.
Storyflow is an AI visual workspace that storyboards a film or video from its script on one infinite canvas, then keeps the shot list, references and call sheet beside the frames. Here is how it compares with drawing apps, frame grids and production suites.
Creatives working for these brands already got early access
- Red Bull
- Canon
- Artlist
- Porsche
See how easy it is to get started
Watch a real project come together, from a blank board to a finished plan, clicked through step by step.
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
Which storyboard software should you use?
Storyboard software turns a script or an idea into a sequence of frames a crew can shoot from. Storyflow is an AI visual workspace that storyboards a film or video on one infinite canvas: attach the script and its AI builds one wall per scene, each with a frame, a beat note and a shot checklist, with the moodboard, shot list and call sheet PDF on the same board. If you draw every panel yourself, a drawing app such as Storyboarder or Toon Boom Storyboard Pro is the closer fit, and if you need a timed animatic for a client, Boords is.
The category is wider than the word suggests. Search for storyboard software and you get four different kinds of product under one label, each built for a different person. A drawing app is for the storyboard artist who draws every panel on a tablet. A frame grid is for the agency or animation studio that needs numbered panels, timing and an approval round. A production suite is for the producer who wants the storyboard as one tab among scheduling, budgets and call sheets. An AI canvas is for the director, creator or marketer who has the words and needs the frames, and who wants the plan for the shoot to sit beside them.
Choosing well starts with what you already have. If you have drawing skill and a tablet, the frames are not your bottleneck and a dedicated drawing tool will feel fastest. If you have a script, a brief or a treatment and no illustrator, the slow part is sequencing: deciding what each shot is, in what order, at what size. That is where AI saves real hours, because correcting a laid-out sequence is much faster than building one panel at a time. And if the storyboard is going to drive a shoot, the question that decides the tool is where it lives on shoot day: in a file someone exported last week, or on the same board as the shot list the crew opens on their phones.
Storyflow sits in the fourth group. It does not try to be the best drawing app; its pen tool is for rough frames and notes, not finished illustration. It does not render a timed animatic. What it does is take the script, lay out the storyboard scene by scene, and keep every other piece of pre-production around it: the reference frames you grabbed from YouTube or Vimeo, the moodboard, the shot list, the shooting schedule and the call sheet. One link holds the whole film.
Ultra fast from brief to board
How do you storyboard a script in storyboard software?
The steps are the same in most tools. What changes is how many of them the software does for you.
01
Bring the script or the brief
Attach the script, treatment or brief to the AI chat. Storyflow reads PDFs, Word files, plain text and Final Draft .fdx files, and you can attach up to five documents and three boards as context.
02
Answer the short setup questions
The AI asks only what changes the board: how many scenes, and whether each frame should hold a web photo captioned as reference, an AI-generated image (Pro and Max) or an empty placeholder you fill. Then it lays out one wall per scene in the order the film plays.
03
Fill the frames your way
Each frame has a beat note and a shot checklist. Drop in a reference photo, grab a still from a YouTube or Vimeo video, sketch with the pen tool, or generate an image on the Pro and Max plans.
04
Share it and carry it to the shoot
Send a view-only link the client opens with no account (they sign in to comment), present it fullscreen, export a PDF, then ask the AI for the shot list and call sheet on the same board.
What good storyboard software does, and how Storyflow does it.
Four jobs every storyboard tool is judged on.
Script in, scenes out
Sequencing from the script
The slow part of a storyboard is deciding the shots. Storyflow's AI reads the script and lays out one wall per scene with a frame, a beat note and a shot checklist, so you start by correcting, not by drawing.
See the script to storyboard page →
Pictures without an illustrator
Frames you can fill without drawing
Use a reference photo, a still grabbed from a film you admire, a rough pen sketch, or an AI-generated image on Pro and Max. A frame only has to show the framing and the action.
Storyboard when you cannot draw →
One board for pre-production
The shot list on the same canvas
Ask the AI for the shot list and it builds it from the storyboard you just made, beside it. The call sheet PDF comes from the same board, so no number is retyped between tools.
See the shot list generator →
Review without accounts
A board the client can open
A view-only link opens in any browser with no account. A client signs in to comment or draw on a frame, and presentation mode steps through the board fullscreen in a review call.
How to present a storyboard to a client →Unlimited storyboards. No frame cap.
Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly). A free plan launches before the end of 2026, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free today.
Unlimited boards and frames on an infinite canvas
AI that builds the storyboard from your script
Web-sourced frame images, or AI-generated ones on Pro and Max
View-only links a client opens with no account
Built for people with taste
What are the types of storyboard software?
Four kinds of product share one name. Pick the kind first, then the tool.
For artists who draw every panel
Drawing apps
What they are: Desktop applications with brushes, layers, camera moves and a timeline. Storyboarder by Wonder Unit is free and open source; Toon Boom Storyboard Pro is the paid standard in animation.
Choose one when: You or your artist draws every frame and the drawing is the deliverable, as in animation and feature work.
Where they stop: They hold the frames, not the shoot. The shot list, schedule and references live somewhere else.
For agencies and animatics
Frame grids
What they are: Browser tools built around numbered panels in a grid, with timing, an animatic preview and client approval. Boords is the best-known, and its AI now turns a pasted script into frames.
Choose one when: The client signs off a timed animatic and the panel grid is the format everyone expects.
Where they stop: The grid holds frames in a fixed layout, so the moodboard, research and production plan sit in other tools.
For producers running a whole production
Production suites
What they are: Platforms such as StudioBinder that hold script breakdown, scheduling, call sheets and a storyboard module in one account.
Choose one when: You run many productions with departments and want every form in one database.
Where they stop: The storyboard is one tab among many, laid out in a fixed form rather than a canvas you think on.
For directors, creators and marketers with words, not drawings
AI canvases
What they are: An infinite canvas with AI that reads the script and lays out the board. Storyflow builds one wall per scene with a frame, beat note and shot checklist.
Choose one when: You have the script or brief, no illustrator, and you want the shot list, references and call sheet beside the frames.
Where they stop: Storyflow has no animatic timeline and its pen tool is for rough frames, not finished illustration.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
One app instead of five
Storyboard software compared: Storyflow, Boords, Storyboarder and Storyboard Pro.
One representative tool from each kind, on the questions people ask before buying. Boords features checked on boords.com/pricing on October 13, 2026; Storyboarder and Storyboard Pro as reviewed in our 2026 storyboarding software guide. Plans change, so confirm before buying.
Storyflow
Recommended
AI builds the storyboard from a script
Moodboard, shot list and call sheet on the same canvas
Runs in a browser with nothing to install
Client opens a shared board with no account
Timed animatic preview
Usable free today
Boords
AI builds the storyboard from a script
Moodboard, shot list and call sheet on the same canvas
Runs in a browser with nothing to install
Client opens a shared board with no account
Timed animatic preview
Usable free today
Storyboarder
AI builds the storyboard from a script
Moodboard, shot list and call sheet on the same canvas
Runs in a browser with nothing to install
Client opens a shared board with no account
Timed animatic preview
Usable free today
Storyboard Pro
AI builds the storyboard from a script
Moodboard, shot list and call sheet on the same canvas
Runs in a browser with nothing to install
Client opens a shared board with no account
Timed animatic preview
Usable free today
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Storyboard software questions, answered.
What people ask when they are choosing a storyboarding tool.
Storyboard software is any program that turns a script or an idea into an ordered sequence of frames a crew can shoot from. The category covers four kinds of product: drawing apps for artists who draw every panel, frame grids built around numbered panels and animatics, production suites where the storyboard is one module among scheduling and call sheets, and AI canvases that lay out the board from the script. Storyflow is an AI visual workspace in the last group.
Storyflow is built for exactly this job when you have the script and need the frames and the shoot plan: attach the script and its AI builds one wall per scene with a frame, a beat note and a shot checklist, then the shot list and call sheet PDF on the same board. If you draw every panel yourself, Storyboarder (free) or Toon Boom Storyboard Pro fit better, and if a client signs off a timed animatic, Boords does.
It depends on the profession. Animation studios and storyboard artists in feature work commonly use Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, a desktop drawing application with a timeline and camera moves. Agencies often use Boords for numbered panels, animatics and client approval. Producers who run many productions use suites such as StudioBinder. Directors, creators and in-house video teams who work from a script without an illustrator increasingly use an AI canvas such as Storyflow.
Yes. Storyboarder by Wonder Unit is free and open source for Mac, Windows and Linux, and is the best free choice if you draw your own frames. Boords, Milanote and Canva have free tiers with limits. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, from $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly); a free plan launches before the end of 2026, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free today.
Not with every tool. Drawing apps assume you draw. In Storyflow a frame can hold a reference photo, a still grabbed from a YouTube or Vimeo video, a rough pen-tool sketch, a web photo captioned as reference, or an AI-generated image on the Pro and Max plans. A frame only has to communicate framing and action, and the AI writes the beat note and shot checklist for each one.
Some can. Storyflow reads the script you attach (PDF, Word, plain text or a Final Draft .fdx file) and lays out one wall per scene in the order the film plays. Boords also turns a pasted script into frames. Drawing apps such as Storyboarder and Storyboard Pro do not; you build each panel yourself.
A template is a fixed grid of empty boxes you fill in by hand, usually in a document or design tool. Storyboard software adds what a template cannot: reordering frames by dragging, building the board from a script, sharing a live link instead of a file, and in Storyflow keeping the shot list and call sheet beside the frames. A template is fine for a single short piece; software pays off once the board changes after review.
No. Storyflow has no timeline for timing frames into an animatic. You can add video clips and GIFs to the canvas and present the board fullscreen, frame by frame, but a timed animatic needs a tool such as Boords, Storyboarder or Storyboard Pro, or an edit in your video editor.
Yes, to view. A Storyflow view-only link opens in any browser with no account. To comment or draw on a frame, the client signs in. Anyone a paid member invites to the board as a collaborator joins free, and presentation mode steps through the board fullscreen for a review call.
Yes. Storyflow exports any board as a high-quality PDF or image for a production binder, a client email or printing on set. Most crews also keep the live link, because the board on the link is always the current version.
Neither. Storyflow runs in the browser on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad and phones, with nothing to install. That is why a crew can open the storyboard and shot list from one link on set. If you need an offline desktop drawing app, Storyboarder and Storyboard Pro are installed applications.
StudioBinder is a production management suite where the storyboard is one module beside breakdowns, schedules and call sheets in structured forms. Storyflow is a canvas: the storyboard, references, moodboard and shot list sit spatially on one board you think on, and the AI builds each piece from the script and the board itself. Producers who live in forms tend to prefer StudioBinder; directors who think visually tend to prefer a canvas.
As many as the cut has shots that need a decision, not one per second. A 60-second commercial usually needs 10 to 20 frames; a short film scene often needs one frame per setup. Storyflow places no cap on frames or boards, and the AI asks how many scenes you want before it lays out the board.
Yes. In Storyflow your team edits the same board in real time with live cursors, and anyone a paid member invites joins free. Drawing apps such as Storyboarder are single-user files you pass around, while frame grids and production suites offer shared projects on their team plans.
Bring the script. Leave with the board and the shoot plan.
Attach your script, answer two questions, and the storyboard lays itself out beside everything the shoot needs.