Papercut Storyboard

Papercut storyboard

The storyboard is the plan every scene is built from. It names the camera move and the cut for every scene, so the scene agent doesn't invent them. A brief that says "CameraPush or your own transform" gets a flat push or a hand-rolled zoom in every scene, and the kit's camera moves go unused.

Preflight

• Install: Minimal is enough. With a library, check library/papercut/CATALOG.md (sections "paper/camera.tsx" and "paper/transitions.tsx") for each move's props and when it fits. If the file is missing or stale, run python3 $PAPERCUT_LIB/tools/catalog.py. Resolve $PAPERCUT_LIB from the environment, else the PAPERCUT_LIB= line in ~/.config/papercut-explainer/config.env, else ask once.
• Needs narration/script.json and papercut/STORYBOARD.md with the HOOK block and the staging table (banner, set, prop, UI moment, mascot, gag per row). Missing: run papercut-hook and papercut-script.
• Backdrop sheet for choosing sets: library/papercut/public/bg/backdrops/_sheet.jpg. Open only what the step needs.

1. Global rules

Put these at the top of STORYBOARD.md, under the HOOK block. Palette by role (rotate background colours per set): ../papercut-explainer/references/style-guide.md section 5. Fonts: section 6. Canvas and zones: section 4. A feature-unlock that suits one extended metaphor can use section 12.

• 1080x1920, 30 fps. Banner at 14-21% height, caption band 68-80% (it shifts per scene to stay off faces), bottom 20% clear.
• Light from the top-left. Saturation only on characters, captions and signals.

2. Camera / Cut table

One row per scene, before the scene blocks. Every row names a component from the kit's paper/camera.tsx and the CutSeries kind (from paper/transitions.tsx) for the cut into that scene.

• Camera options: OrbitCamera + Depth, SnapZoom, Crane, CrabTrack, DollyZoom, RackFocus, ForegroundPass, DutchTilt, FocusPulse, FreezeFrame, PullBack, PovMask, TimeRamp, TiltShift, FocusHunt, Handheld, and CameraPush (from paper/kit.tsx). The catalog's paper/camera.tsx section says when each fits.
• Cut options: hard, whip, zoomThrough, pageTurn, tearAway, tapePull, stampCut, infiniteZoom, popUpBook, keyhole, burnAway.
• A plain CameraPush is allowed on at most a third of the scenes.
• Copy each row's camera into its scene block header. The cut column goes into episode.json as "cuts": {"S04Name": {"kind": "tearAway"}} (no entry means a hard cut), which papercut-build fills.

3. Scene blocks

One block per scene, 1.5-5 s each, cutting on sentence boundaries:

Copy code
## S03: <beat>  (5.6-8.2 s, 78 f)   BANNER: <TAKEAWAY IN CAPS>
Location/bg: <world location + bg colour>     Camera: <camera.tsx component + params, from the table>   Cut in: <kind>
Cast: <who, accessories>                       Caption band: y=0.76
| VO word (stressed) | frame | event                                    | motion spec                   |
| "<word>"           | +6    | <prop enters / state flips / acts>       | <spring/slide/swap + frames>  |
Ambient: <LED blink, idle bob, stars, screen waveform>
Boil: banner + labels, +-1.5 px every 2 frames
SFX: <pop, chime, click...>

• Expand each staging-table row into frame-level events: one per stressed word (every 0.4-0.8 s), ambient motion always on. Frames are offsets from the word, later read with cueOf(ID)(word, n).
• Product UI is the rough rebuild on a paper monitor or laptop, with fake interactions (cursor click, typing, progress, waveform, list scroll).
• Proof: once per reel, a real screenshot of the source page (a browser capture via library/tools/capture.mjs, not a redraw) taped onto a paper card, with a red marker circle drawing itself around the key line. Everything else stays a rough papercut rebuild.
• One callback to an earlier set before the CTA.

4. Camera and transition rules

• Every scene has one move. A slow push is the baseline. Add a parallax orbit on lit sets for depth, a punch-in or snap zoom on the stressed word for numbers and jokes, a foreground pass (blurred paper object across the lens) or rack focus, a pull-back to reveal scale, and a freeze frame with a label on the struggling-mascot beat.
• Mostly hard cuts on the banner change. A whip-pan with motion blur on 2-3 topic changes, a zoom-through when going "inside" a screen, door or mirror, at most one page turn or tear per reel (on the catch or a before/after contrast), and the tape pull into the CTA (a plain kraft strip, with an optional label to print a word on it).
• The cut out of the hook carries motion through it. Apply the rule from papercut-hook to S01 and S02.
• Transitions run 6-12 frames, each with its SFX (whip, zoom, page-flip, rip, tape-peel).
• In a library project, chain scenes with the kit's transition series, which keeps every scene start on its plan.json frame so the voice stays in sync.

5. SFX plan

• Air sounds (whoosh, slide, whip, zoom) together: at most one every 2.5 s of reel. cues.py prints a note above that. For scale, 12 in 33 s is fine and 24 in 26 s is distracting.
• Entrances get contact sounds (pop, thud, stamp) or silence. Count them in tools/cues.json before the audio render.
• Name SFX from library/audio/CATALOG.md in each block's SFX: line. Scene agents write the real rows to tools/cue_sheet.d/<Scene>.json.
• Pick the bed preset (episode.json "bed") and set cutSfx to match the cut kinds: tearAway rip, tapePull tape-peel.

Gate

• Every scene has a camera and a cut-in, and a plain CameraPush is on at most a third of them.

• Every stressed word has an event; ambient motion is listed.

• One proof beat, one callback, the tape pull or whip into the CTA.

• At most one page turn or tear; air sounds within budget.

• Name the anticipation and the one exaggerated beat in each scene block's event table. The 12 principles, mapped to kit components, are in ../papercut-explainer/references/motion-principles.md.

Hand-off

Next is papercut-build, which scaffolds the project and turns the Camera / Cut table and scene boundaries into episode.json. It reads STORYBOARD.md and narration/script.json. The Timing section of STORYBOARD.md is generated later, after the voice, so leave it out.