What is the Purpose of a Storyboard? How You Can Use It in Business

When making an explainer video, you might feel like you’re piecing together a puzzle. You know what the finished product should look like, but getting there seems overwhelming. Starting the process, let alone creating a storyboard, might feel like climbing a steep mountain. But storyboards are your roadmap to success. They help you organize your ideas, visualize your video, and make the production more accessible. If you're wondering how to make explainer videos, this blog will guide you through the purpose of a storyboard so you can create a helpful blueprint for your explainer video.
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Moonb's explainer video production services can help remove the stress of making your video. We can help you understand the purpose of a storyboard and how to create one so you can make a beautiful video that meets your business goals.

What is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a visual blueprint for a film sequence, deconstructing the action into separate panels. This organized series of illustrations includes essential information such as:

• Camera angles
• Dialogue
• Other relevant elements
  

When storyboarding originated at Walt Disney’s studio 100 years ago, it took a whole team of artists to start sketching out the individual frames of their animated movies. Today, you will be happy to hear storyboarding is much more accessible. 

Accessibility and Flexibility of Storyboarding Tools

Storyboarding is now more accessible and affordable than ever, thanks to the range and quality of storyboarding software available to professionals and everyday creatives. The entertainment industry may have an authoritarian and rigid format for scripts, but this is not the case with storyboards, which enjoy much more liberal guidelines for how they need to look. 

Creative Freedom in Storyboarding

There is a broad spectrum of acceptable layouts and designs, so you have much more creative liberty when designing your storyboard. This range of creative opportunities means you can decide to use color or not or keep your designs precise or sketched. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to storyboarding, so you can let your creative flag fly high! 

Whether you have a film or TV show script you want to bring to life or simply some social media content you’re keen to map out, storyboarding is the all-important step between a script and shooting the action.  

The Three Main Types of Storyboards  

Though there are many ways to create a storyboard, they generally fall under one of three types:  

1. Traditional Storyboards

These storyboards are hand-drawn or digitally illustrated panels arranged in sequence, representing scenes or shots from the script. They often include notes, dialogues, and directional cues.  

• Use Case: Widely used in live-action films, TV shows, and commercials. They help outline the video’s flow and work as a collaborative tool for scriptwriters and directors.
• Key Feature: Clean and illustrative sketches that prioritize clarity and simplicity. 

2. Animated Storyboards  

Incorporate basic animations and movements to provide a dynamic preview of how the final video will look. An animated explainer video company can help draw up a storyboard for such videos and help you with the production process. 

• Use Case: Commonly used in animation projects, explainer videos, and complex commercials. They allow for early input and revisions to minimize changes later.
• Key Feature: Adds motion to the planning process, making it easier to visualize transitions and timing.  

3. Digital Storyboards  

Created using specialized software, these storyboards combine flexibility with precision. They can include simple images, detailed illustrations, or animated sequences.  

• Use Case: Ideal for modern productions requiring high levels of detail and adaptability, such as animated films or intricate video projects.
• Key Feature: Versatile and customizable, offering advanced tools for shot planning and collaboration. 
  

Each type of storyboard caters to different needs, and choosing the right one depends on your project's complexity and the level of detail required.  

What is the Purpose of a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a crucial pre-production tool for any video project. It helps you visualize your video before filming or animation begins. Storyboards have evolved. What started as a way for Walt Disney Studios to explain the production process to animators in the 1930s is now a ubiquitous part of the film process and quite helpful in many situations. 

A storyboard is an essential pre-production tool for planning and visualizing a video project before it enters the filming or animation stages. It is a series of sketches or images arranged in sequence to represent the flow of the video, accompanied by notes about actions, camera angles, and other key elements.

Visualizing the Concept

Think of a storyboard like a map. When you’re going on a road trip, a map helps you visualize your journey before you hit the road. It outlines different routes, highlights essential landmarks, and shows your final destination. 

Similarly, a storyboard visually represents your video, making abstract ideas concrete. This helps you refine your narrative, structure, and visual style before production begins.

Streamlining the Production Process

A storyboard provides a clear production plan by outlining key details for each shot, including:

• Camera Angles: Specify perspectives for each scene.
• Movements: Highlight planned camera motions to enhance storytelling.
• Transitions: Define how scenes flow seamlessly from one to the next.

Identifying Challenges Early

A storyboard helps pinpoint technical or creative challenges before production, saving time and resources. For instance, issues with continuity, framing, or transitions can be resolved during this stage rather than during shooting or editing.

Improving Collaboration

Storyboards are a universal reference point for scriptwriters, directors, animators, and production crews. They help everyone involved understand the vision and contribute effectively to the project’s success.

Enhancing Creativity and Clarity

Breaking down the video into individual scenes or shots allows creators to:

• Explore different approaches
• Refine storytelling elements
• Focus on delivering impactful visuals

Guiding Post-Production

Storyboards serve as a roadmap for editors and post-production teams, ensuring the final product stays true to the original concept. They reduce the likelihood of missing crucial elements or misinterpreting the intended flow.

Why Storyboards Are Indispensable

Whether creating a high-budget commercial or a simple explainer video, a storyboard provides a blueprint for bringing your ideas to life. It allows you to:

• Present your vision with precision.
• Address potential challenges upfront.
• Ensure a seamless production process from start to finish.

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How Can You Use Storyboarding For Your Business?

Business presentations often require you to convince an audience that your idea is right. Telling them a story will help you get there. While storyboards are great for planning and analyzing business needs, as shown above, they also work well for presenting information visually to others. 

Create a business storyboard of the narrative you need to tell your audience so they can see it the way you do. They'll be more likely to understand your point and get on board. 

Align Your Team With Storyboarding

Have you ever finished a meeting, returned to your desk, and realized a colleague had a completely different interpretation of what was discussed in that meeting than you? Which one of you is correct? The answer is that neither of you is in the wrong, and this is relatively common in business meetings because communicating ideas and plans isn’t always easy. 

The Efficiency of Visual Storytelling

Storyboarding can help get everyone on the same page quickly. A storyboard can help get everyone on the same page quickly. Humans process images a stunning 60,000 times faster than text, which means that no matter how brief you make your presentation, it will ultimately take longer for people to understand it because words are involved.

Storyboarding will enable each of you to visualize what you discuss. Seeing an idea in front of them makes it much easier for everyone to walk away with the same understanding and minimize miscommunication.

Share New Product Ideas With Storyboarding

Great ideas aren’t always easy to communicate to others, especially if they are complex or conceptual. So it’s commonplace for someone to draw a vision on paper to explain their idea more visually. 

A Structured Approach to Idea Sharing

Storyboarding provides a more structured and effective methodology when teams want to share ideas about new products, processes, or services for your business. That’s because it allows you to step through each part of your idea bit by bit with your audience. And that’s often a good opportunity for your listeners to ask questions or spot gaps in your ideas that need further work. 

Storyboarding can help create a more innovative culture in a company, which could be a fantastic competitive advantage for your business. 

Plan Projects Seamlessly With Storyboarding

Planning a complex project is often like juggling ten balls. There are many competing priorities, dependencies, and resource limits. When a project manager needs to put together the project plan, it requires plenty of back and forth with the team to:

• Reorder tasks
• Negotiate on resources
• Spot gaps 

Storyboarding can be a handy tool for the early stages of project planning. It’s a chance for a team to sit together and visualize the end-to-end activities throughout the project. Doing this can help you create a more effective project plan and reduce the time for a team to sign off on a schedule. 

It’s also a visual tool that many teams prefer to review, as a formal project plan is often hard to read and comprehend when it contains high levels of detail. 

How To Make A Storyboard in 7 Steps

1. Start with a Goal

A clear goal is essential to creating an effective storyboard. It’s tempting to dive right into developing ideas, but going off on a tangent is easy. Consider your business storyboard the same way a movie director would begin a storyboard. It must have a high-level idea or goal. Write this down and try and condense it into a single sentence. This will help ensure everyone on the team stays focused.  

2. Create Some Blank Spaces

You want to begin using the visual side of a storyboard, so create lots of blank spaces or steps to give it some structure. It’s okay if this changes as you go; it provides a starting point. 

3. Start Adding Notes

The goal at this point is to get a high-level structure, so avoid any focus on the details. Write notes for each step in your storyboard, even if it’s only one or two sentences. It sometimes helps to sketch these ideas out as they’ll further aid the team in visualizing them. 

4. Run Through Your Storyboard

Once each story element has some information, it’s time to do your first “walkthrough.” That involves starting at the beginning and going through each step to ensure it covers all your ideas and that everything is in the correct order. If not, now is the time to change and move things around. Keep reviewing the story from start to finish until the team is happy with how it looks. Don’t forget to keep reverting to your high-level goal to concentrate on satisfying that core objective.  

5. Add the Details

Once you have the high-level storyboard, you must add the details. If you are building this storyboard collaboratively within a meeting, consider doing this next step during a separate meeting session to ensure the task is manageable. 

At this point, each step of your story needs an extra layer of detail. For example, you might use this point to think about resources and budgets if it’s a project plan. You might also find that you still need to move things around on your board as I get more clarity on each step.  

6. Spot the Gaps

Once you’ve added the detail, it’s time for another walkthrough. This will provide another opportunity to spot any gaps in your storyboard or rearrange the order of things so that it makes more sense. Get a team involved in reviewing this, ideally representatives from different departments, so you have as many viewpoints as possible.  

7. Get Sign-Off

Once you’re happy with the storyboard, it’s time to get sign-off. That will ensure everyone agrees and stop people from changing it in the future. Depending on your organizational structure, you might get sign-off from the core team involved in the creation or from a senior manager or client.  

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8 Best Storyboard Creators For Storyboarding

1. NUMI

NUMI helps businesses organize their video projects and create storyboards for smoother production. This affordable and easy-to-use software provides:

• Templates
• Customizable frames
• Ability to upload images

This makes it simple to visualize your ideas. You can also keep multiple storyboard versions as you edit and refine your scenes.

Pricing

• Free Plan: Includes limited features.
• Pro Version: $12/month for access to advanced tools and capabilities.

2. Storyboarder

This aptly named tool allows you to create quick-n-dirty storyboards. While it’s a straightforward application without bells and whistles, it enables you to:

• Whip up rough sketches
• Move panels around
• Add notes to each panel

Simple Yet Effective Storyboarding

Depending on how much effort you put into your drawings (which you can modify in Photoshop for a more polished look), your storyboard can take a few hours or several days to complete. It may not be as flashy or feature-rich as other options on this list, but Storyboarder gets the job done, and you can’t beat the price!

Pricing: Free

3. Boords

Boords is another user-friendly storyboarding software with a low learning curve. It offers templates (from Photoshop, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and others) to get you up and running quickly, secure online sharing for collaboration, one-click animatics, and dynamic frame number updates as you add and move panels around.

You can illustrate your scenes inside Boords or import images, include camera movement indicators, and dynamically port your script into the panels. It even lets you turn your storyboard into an animation with a single click. 

Though a bit pricey (depending on your needs), it’s a robust platform. And hey, 200,000 users can’t be wrong, right?

Pricing

• Base Plan: Starts at $36/month for up to 3 users
• Expanded Plan: Supports 50 users at $120/month.

4. Plot

If you’re looking for storyboard software that’s easy to use, offers collaboration features, and is accessible on the wallet, Plot is for you. Simply add your script, which you break down into scenes, then add images to each panel. 

You can supplement the script with notes, such as an explanation of what’s happening in the scene, camera angle, type of shot, etc., and it’s effortless to add in new scenes or split your script using a shortcut. 

Easy Storyboarding for Non-Artists

Not an artist? No worries. Take advantage of Plot’s stock clip art or import images from other sources. Once you’ve finished your first draft, you can easily share it with stakeholders. Plot enables commenting and editing for all users with access to a storyboard.

Pricing: Starts at $10/month

5. MakeStoryboard

This uncomplicated storyboarding software is perfect for newbies or casual storyboarders. It includes basic features like the ability to sketch out your scenes or upload images (but doesn’t include any stock or clip art for you to choose from), customizable frames with automatic frame numbering, and aspect ratio sizing.

• Rearrange your frames as needed.
• Add descriptions
• Export them to a PDF

Another of MakeStoryboard’s convenient features is its ability to keep multiple versions or backups of your work in progress if you realize halfway through that you’re headed in the wrong direction and need to backtrack.

Simple yet feature-rich, MakeStoryboard is an excellent option for various use cases and professional situations.

Pricing

• Free Plan: Includes limited features and storyboards.
• Pro Plan: $12/month for enhanced features and capabilities.

6. StudioBinder

StudioBinder delivers a feature-rich interface without being overly complex. It offers the usual storyboarding must-haves, like:

• Importing images
• Moving panels around
• Dynamic frame numbering
  

One of its most innovative features is its ability to auto-organize scenes after you’ve imported a script, to which you can add storyboards. Collaborators can add comments at will, and after you’ve finalized your storyboard, you can turn it into an animatic slideshow, complete with basic movements.

The Professional and Studio versions offer additional goodies like a Gantt-style production calendar and custom branding. Note that only the Studio plan allows for collaboration. StudioBinder requires some time to learn how to use, but this storyboard software is well worth the effort for the results you’ll achieve, especially if you’re part of a larger team. 

7. FrameForge

FrameForge is not messing around. Thanks to its jaw-dropping capabilities, this award-winning storyboard software (it won an Emmy®!) is the go-to for professional movie-makers. With FrameForge, you can:

• Add characters and props through a drag-and-drop interface.
• Manipulate actor and object positions (including facial expressions).
• Create data-rich, 3D storyboards with information such as focal length, camera height, camera angle, etc.
• See how a scene will look from any camera on the set and the type of shot (e.g., zoom, crane and dolly, pan/tilt, etc.)
• Craft your background with pre-populated outdoor objects like streets, greenery, sidewalks, and weather conditions!
  

As you can see, FrameForge is not for individuals looking to whip up a quick storyboard in a few hours. Still, it’s an excellent tool for professional (and aspiring professional) filmmakers.

Pricing

• Core Editionsome text
  • One-time payment of $500
  • Subscription at $12.99/month
• Pro Editionsome text
  • Starts at $799
  • Annual subscription is available at $25.99/month
• Indie Plan: $29/month for limited features and up to 10 projects
• Studio Plan: $99/month for full feature access and unlimited projects 

8. Visme

Visme enables you to create presentations, videos, infographics, and more. While not strictly storyboarding software, it does have the advantage of having a free option (and reasonable pricing for paid versions), and it’s pretty straightforward to create a storyboard thanks to its simple, user-friendly interface.

Using the video option, you can select a template from which you can create a storyboard. Then, use Visme’s stock photos or upload your images for each panel and add “presenter notes,” which can include all the details you want about the:

• Camera shots
• Angles
• Timing
• Aspect ratios
• Script

To share it, you can download your storyboard as a PDF or share it with teammates online. If you’re looking for a reasonably powerful tool that does more than help you create storyboards, you should consider Visme.

Pricing

• Free Plan: Includes 5 projects, limited templates, and JPG-only file downloads.
• Full Access Plan: $29/month for unlimited projects, full feature access, and advanced file download options. 

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Storyboards offer a way to visualize how your film will progress before you start shooting. This prevents surprises and helps you stay organized to complete your project on time and within budget. Even if you don’t stick to the exact plan of your storyboard during production, having one will allow you to capture your vision on film and communicate it to your cast and crew. In short, storyboards help you tell your story efficiently. 

What is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a graphic organizer that sequentially arranges a narrative. It contains images of each scene or shot in your film and corresponding notes that help explain what’s happening in the visuals. 

Think of storyboards as comic strips for films. They break down your movie into digestible pieces so you can understand how the story will unfold before capturing it on camera. Storyboards can be as simple or detailed as you want. Some filmmakers even create storyboard templates with spaces to outline:

• Dialogue
• Sound effects
• Music cues

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