# Previs and storyboards

Period: 2024 – now · Era: 2024 · The Great Convergence

Boards become first frames; a gray-box scene becomes the camera.

Previs used to be a department. In AI filmmaking it is the first draft of the film itself: storyboard frames turn into the first and last frames of each shot, Sora's storyboard laid a film out as cards on a timeline, and since 2025 a gray-box scene in Blender or a 3D director app gives the video model the blocking and the camera. World models now let you walk the set before you shoot it.

## How it worked

1. **Board it in an image model.** Nano Banana Pro can generate many angles of a scene from a few references; keep the frames you would actually cut to.
2. **Make the boards the first frames.** Chain the last frame of one shot into the first of the next so the sequence holds together.
3. **Block it in 3D when the camera matters.** Gray-box the scene in Blender, move the camera and rough stand-ins, and give the playblast to the video model as the motion reference; Pippit 3D Director Studio and Autodesk Flow Studio do the staging inside the AI tool.
4. **Let an agent build the previs.** Claude can build a pose and depth previs or a whole blockout over Blender MCP; Shotblock is a previs tool built from one prompt.
5. **Scout a world before you shoot it.** Build the location in Marble, walk it, and export stills or a camera-path render as plates.

## Why it mattered

The cheapest place to fix a film is before it is generated. Boards and blockouts turn a video model from a slot machine into a camera you aim, and they are what let one person keep a sequence coherent.

## Tools of the era

- Sora (2024): https://openai.com/sora
- Nano Banana Pro (2025): https://gemini.google
- Blender: https://www.blender.org
- Blender MCP (2026): https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-creative-work
- Pippit 3D Director Studio: https://www.pippit.ai
- Flow Studio 3D Editor + Canvas (2026): https://adsknews.autodesk.com/en/news/direct-ai-3d-editor-canvas-flow-studio/
- Shotblock (2026): https://x.com/JoshDaws/status/2064453067773210677
- Marble (2025): https://www.worldlabs.ai

## Example videos and posts

- Sora has a secret super power: the storyboard · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqxSGspcwA
- The Blender previs workflow for Seedance 2.5 · JSFILMZ: https://x.com/JSFILMZ0412/status/2093663876692754713
- Blender animatic as the camera and blocking reference: a '90s retro test · Uncanny Harry: https://x.com/Uncanny_Harry/status/2110704645274304747
- Pippit 3D Director Studio: direct AI videos before you generate them · Loco AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZpX6VHBgI4
- Claude-built pose and depth previs for Seedance · Tim Simmons: https://x.com/TheoMediaAI/status/2074108067361280173
- Shotblock: a previs tool built from one prompt · Josh Daws: https://x.com/JoshDaws/status/2064453067773210677
- Nano Banana Pro angles, Veo 3.1, open-source voice cloning · Blaine Brown: https://x.com/blizaine/status/1993698054394781925

## Sources

- World Labs: Marble: https://www.worldlabs.ai/blog/marble-world-model

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Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/workflows/craft-previs