Dialogue in the Storyboard: How to Write a Line, and What Save Tidies Up
Open an episode, press Edit on a segment, and find a line inside it: what you type there is exactly what the video says.
The four parts of a line
@Mara (low, steady): Read it before you say no. (voice: 🔊Mara)
- The speaker chip — type @ (or press the @ button above the text) and pick the character from the Cast tab: the name becomes a chip tied to that character, not plain text.
- The delivery note in round brackets — how it is said, a few words: (low, steady), (through her teeth), (fast, out of breath). The note can be left out; a line with only a colon and the words works too — the voice chip is still needed.
- The words after the colon — what is said, written exactly as it should be spoken. The video reads the storyboard, not your script: if the line is shortened or reworded here, that is what is heard.
- The voice chip after the words — type @ again, open the Voice tab and pick the same character. It reads (voice: 🔊Mara) and says whose voice speaks the line. It is not decoration: a line without it is not treated as a dialogue line at all.
All of it stays inside the shot where the line is spoken; what happens after it — she closes her lips and looks away — follows in the same shot. The Cast chip and the Voice chip are two different things: the Cast chip puts the character in the picture, the Voice chip gives the line their voice. A spoken line usually needs both.
Writing one, step by step
- Open the episode and press Edit on the segment. The text you see is the machine script — the thing the video is built from.
- Put the cursor in the shot where the line is spoken, after the action sentence: @Mara sets the envelope down. …
- Type @ and pick the character from the Cast tab.
- In round brackets, write how it is said: (low, steady).
- Type a colon, then the words: Read it before you say no. Keep the line as long as the shot can hold — about three words a second in English.
- Type @ again, open the Voice tab and pick the same character; the voice chip lands after the words.
- Press Save. Read the message that appears, if any; the four possible ones are below.
Lines are spoken in the project’s dialogue language, chosen when the project was set up: write them in that language. Dialogue language · How a character gets a voice.
What Save tidies for you
You do not have to write the full shape. Saving rewrites the common casual ways of writing a line into the standard one, and answers with one message naming the shots it tidied. Your words are kept — it only rearranges what is around them. The rewrite runs over the whole segment, not just the shot you changed, and it runs on every save that touches this text, including saving an AI edit and restoring an older version from History.
| You wrote | Save rewrites it as |
|---|---|
| @Seren (alarmed, spoken fast) Who are you? (voice: 🔊Seren) | @Seren (alarmed, spoken fast): Who are you? (voice: 🔊Seren) — the missing colon is added |
| @Severin says: “Aeylin. Are you ready?” (voice: 🔊Severin) | @Severin: Aeylin. Are you ready? (voice: 🔊Severin) — the speaking verb goes, the quotes come off |
| @Maia “Okay, okay. I’m quiet.” (voice: 🔊Maia) | @Maia: Okay, okay. I’m quiet. (voice: 🔊Maia) |
| @Erik steps toward her and angrily says, “Don’t call me sweetheart!” (voice: 🔊Erik) | @Erik steps toward her. @Erik (angrily): Don’t call me sweetheart! (voice: 🔊Erik) — the action stays, the manner moves into the note |
| @Jules is heard from the hallway, calling: “Dinner!” (voice: 🔊Jules) | @Jules is heard from the hallway. @Jules (off-screen): Dinner! (voice: 🔊Jules) — a voice from off camera is marked as one |
| @Maia says: “Dad!” (no voice chip) | @Maia: Dad! plus a voice chip for Maia — one is added where the speaker is clear |
| A line already in the standard shape | Left alone, byte for byte — model-written lines included |
| She says firmly: “Stand down.” — no name | Left alone. The editor warns instead: nobody is named, and it will not guess between the people in the shot |
| when @Maia whispers “Mother…” and the pebbles move — reported, not spoken now | Left alone. Reported speech inside a clause is not a line spoken in this shot |
What the rewrite will not do: it does not touch the words themselves; it does not guess a speaker for He / She says; it leaves a sentence whose subject is not clearly the speaker (a name standing as the object, looks at @Maia and says…); it leaves a name that is not one of the project’s characters; and it skips a sentence that was already spoken earlier in the same shot. The tidied text is what is saved from then on, and the version as it was stays in the segment’s History, where you can restore it. What the notes after saving mean.
The four messages after Save
Tidied. “Tidied the dialogue in shot 2, 5 into "Name (delivery): line" so it is voiced with the character’s voice.” Nothing to do — the shot numbers are the numbering inside this segment, the same numbers in the text. History holds the previous version.
Not recognized. “A line in shot 3 wasn’t recognized as dialogue, so it will be treated as description and not voiced. Write it as "Name (delivery): line".” There is a line in the shot, but it cannot be read as one: usually a missing colon, a speaking verb with the wrong person next to it, or a voice chip naming a different character than the speaker. The words are not lost — they stay in the shot as description — but nothing binds them to a voice, so the video may say them in some other voice or not say them at all. Rewrite the line in the standard shape before generating.
It doesn’t say who speaks it. “A line in shot 4 doesn’t say who speaks it, so it won’t use a character’s voice. Use the character’s name instead of He / She: "Name (delivery): line".” A pronoun is not a fact: She says could be any woman in the shot, so the editor will not choose for you. Write the character’s name; if a voice chip already names them, the line can be tidied from it.
Missing voice chip. “Some dialogue lines are missing voice tags — their audio may drift.” One or more lines have the shape of dialogue but no voice chip, so no character’s voice is bound to them. Add the chip from the Voice tab: a line without one is not treated as a dialogue line.
One message per kind per save; several shots are listed as “2, 5”. If none of the four appears, nothing was found to tidy or to warn about.
Voice-over, narration, and phone calls
A line spoken by someone who is not in the picture starts with the mark in its delivery note: @Jules (off-screen): Wait! (voice: 🔊Jules), or @Narrator (voice-over): Ten years earlier. (voice: 🔊Narrator). The line is heard over the shot; the people in the picture keep their lips closed and nobody on screen mouths it. Do not put the speaker’s Cast chip in the picture text either: a character who is not in the shot gets no reference image and is drawn as off-screen.
For a phone call, the person we cannot see is an ordinary line with the mark, and the note can say where the voice comes from: @Jules (off-screen, on the phone): Get out of the house. The person we see takes their normal line. A narrator who never appears at all is a voice-only character — give them a voice in step 2 like anyone else. Leads, supporting and voice-only characters · Who is in frame.
One thing that is not the mark: “looks off-screen” describes where her eyes go; she is in the shot and speaks on camera. If the voice is what comes from off camera, write it — is heard, off-screen.
Two people in one shot
Each speaker gets a complete line of their own — speaker chip, note, words, voice chip — written in the order they speak, one after the other in the same shot. Never merge two speakers into one line and never leave one of them without their voice chip. The other people in the shot are handled on their own: whoever is in the picture and not speaking is kept with their lips closed.
The delivery note
The note is what the acting follows, and it never changes the words. A few physical words work better than a mood: (low, steady), (fast, out of breath), (calling from the stairs), (stress on ‘never’) — a word in quotes has to be one that is in the line. One note per line. The voice-over mark lives in this same note, at its start. Dialogue lines: delivery, voice-over and captions.
Names read the wrong way, and accents
The line is spoken exactly as written: the video voices the words in the shot, and there is no separate pronunciation notation. If a name comes out wrong — a spelling with two readings, an unusual imported name — write it in the line the way it should sound. The character’s name on their sheet is not what gets pronounced; only the line is.
There is no accent or dialect field on a line either. Two levers: write the accent as part of the delivery note, short and physical ((thick Scottish accent)) — the acting is asked to follow it — and choose a voice that carries it in step 2. The voice chip decides which voice speaks the line. How a character gets a voice.
When a line comes out wrong
| What you see | What it comes from | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The shot plays silent — the words are never said | The line is not read as dialogue: no voice chip, or a form the reader cannot take apart | Write the standard shape and add the voice chip; check the message after saving |
| It is said in a voice that is not hers | The voice chip is missing (the “audio may drift” warning), or the chip names a different person than the speaker | Both names must be the same character |
| Someone else says it | The line hangs on the speaker chip written before the colon, not on whoever the words sound like | Fix the speaker chip |
| The words differ from my script | The video speaks the storyboard; the reading may have reworded or shortened the line | Fix the words in the shot — the script is not re-read |
| The person on screen talks over a line that should come from elsewhere | The note has no mark | Add (off-screen) or (voice-over) in front of the note |
| My line disappeared from the text | It was never a line the reader recognizes — most often the chip is missing or the name is not chipped | Write it as a full line with @ chips; the words themselves are never rewritten by the editor |
FAQ
Do I have to write the line in the standard shape?
No. Save tidies the common casual forms — Name says: “…”, a missing colon, quotes right after the name — and tells you which shots it tidied. Writing the standard shape yourself is still the most predictable.
The editor rewrote my text. Can I get the old one back?
Yes. Press History on the segment: the first version and the text before the last few edits are kept and can be restored.
I wrote She says and nothing was tidied. Why?
Without a name there is nothing to tie the line to: He or She could be anyone in the shot, so the editor does not guess and instead says a line doesn’t say who speaks it. Write the character’s name.
Which shot does the message mean?
The shot numbering inside this segment — the third block of shot text in it, not the segment’s number in the episode. Saving rewrites the whole segment, and the message lists the shots it touched.
Can a line be spoken by someone who is not in the shot?
Yes. Put (off-screen) or (voice-over) first in the delivery note and keep the voice chip; do not put the speaker in the picture text. The line is heard over the shot.
Can two characters speak in the same shot?
Yes. Write one complete line per speaker — its own speaker chip, note, words and voice chip — in the order they speak.
Do I pay for the tidy?
No. Editing text is free; only generating the segment costs credits, at the prices on the pricing page.
Should I type the character’s name as plain text?
No. Add characters through the @ menu so the name becomes a chip linked to that character; a plain name in the text is not treated as dialogue, and the line won’t use their voice.
I changed a line in my script file — will the video pick it up?
The script is read once, at the start. Later edits happen in the editor: the video speaks the storyboard. Changing a line after the clip is made.
Write a line and hear it
Open a segment, give a character one line in this shape, save, and look at the message before you generate.
Updated October 10, 2026
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