How to use Video Editor in StoryTribe

What is Video Editor?

Video Editor turns any storyboard project into a video. Your storyboard frames become the video clips. There's nothing to re-upload or rebuild. You control the timing, layer music and AI voice-overs, then share a link. Your audience taps play. That's it.
Video Editor lives alongside your storyboard. You can switch between them at any time, and your storyboard always stays as the source of truth.

Creating a video from your storyboard

You can create a video directly from your storyboard. Use the top navigation bar to switch between project modes: Canvas, Writer, Overview, and Video.

Create a Video for the First Time:

• Open your storyboard project.
• In the top navigation bar, click Video.
• If no video exists yet, select Create Video.
• StoryTribe automatically converts your storyboard scenes into a video timeline.

Understanding the timeline

The timeline sits below the preview window and has several lanes: frames, voice-over, and music. The red play-head stays pinned in the middle while the timeline scrolls underneath it. Whatever sits under the red line is what's playing.

The timeline lanes:

• Time ruler at the top with adaptive labels (e.g. 00:00, 00:10).
• Frame thumbnails in your storyboard order. Click a frame to select it.
• Voice-over lane for AI-generated narration.
• Up to three stacked music sub-lanes for layered background tracks.

Navigating the timeline:

• Seek - scroll the timeline horizontally. Two-finger swipe on a trackpad, swipe on a tablet, or use the arrow buttons on either side.
• Zoom - hold Ctrl and scroll on desktop, or pinch with two fingers on touch devices (tablet and mobile).

Setting the timing for each frame

Each frame shows its duration; how long it stays on screen before the next one appears. The default is 3 seconds per frame.

To change a frame's duration:

• Click the frame's thumbnail to select it. A small purple triangle appears on the right edge.
• Drag the triangle left to shorten the frame, right to extend it.
• Changes are saved automatically. There's no save button.
• You can also set a default duration in the settings panel to update all frames at once.

Frame order always follows your storyboard. To reorder frames, switch back to the Canvas or Overview tab. The Video Editor picks up the change automatically.

Adding music

StoryTribe ships with a music library built into the editor. You can also upload your own tracks. Music tracks stack on up to three sub-lanes so you can layer background music with foreground stings.

Picking a track from the library:

• Click the + music button on the left of the music lane.
• Browse by name, or filter by Genre (Rock, Cinematic, Pop…) and Mood (Calm, Dramatic, Happy…).
• Click the play icon on any row to preview the full track. The player bar at the bottom of the dialog shows progress. Drag the scrubber to jump within the preview.
• Tap the star on any row to favorite it. Favorites bubble to the top the next time you open the library.

When you find a track you like, just click the track itself to drop it onto the timeline at the playhead position.

Uploading your own music:

In the music library, click Upload your own to pick a local file. Supported formats: MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, AAC. Maximum file size: 50 MB.

Editing a music track:

Click a music block on the timeline to open its controls. From the popover you can adjust the volume, set fade in and fade out duration, loop the track until the video ends, duplicate the track, or delete it.

While selected, small purple triangles appear at each end of the block. Drag them inward to trim. The trimmed portion is what plays, and what loops if looping is on.

Layering multiple tracks:

You can stack up to three music tracks on parallel sub-lanes. To move a track to its own lane, drag it downward past the bottom of the current lane. A dashed preview row appears, and dropping there creates a new sub-lane. When you drag the only track out of a sub-lane, that lane collapses again.

Adding AI voice-overs (Pro)

Generate realistic voice-overs in thousands of voices across 29 languages, and layer them onto your timeline. AI voice-over is a Pro feature.

Creating a voice-over:

• Scroll the timeline so the play-head is where you want the voice-over to begin.
  Click + voice on the left of the voice lane.
• Write the script in the text area, or click Load from frame to pull existing text from any frame in your storyboard.
• Pick a voice from the drop-down. Star a voice to bookmark it for next time.
• Click Generate. The voice-over appears on the timeline within seconds.

Loading scripts from your frames:

The Load from frame picker opens a two-panel browser. On the left, a thumbnail list of every frame in your storyboard. The frame under the play-head is highlighted by default. On the right, every script source on the selected frame: the frame's title plus any annotation fields with text (Voiceover, Dialogue, Visual Detail, and so on).

Click any card on the right to load that text into the voice-over script. It's a quick way to bring your existing storyboard writing into your narration without copy-paste.

Editing a voice-over:

Click any voice block to open its controls. You can adjust the volume, regenerate (which reopens the editor so you can tweak the script or voice and re-render), duplicate the block in place, or remove it. Voice blocks also support the same trim triangles as music blocks; drag inward from either end to crop the audio.

Share and download your video

When you're ready to share your video:

• Click Share video in the video editor toolbar.
• Choose Publish as video from the drop-down.
• Your public link is generated instantly. For example, storytribe.com/v/abc123
• Copy the link and send it to anyone. No account needed to view.

Recipients open the link and play the video. Frames, music, and voice-over all in sync, exactly as you set them up.

To unpublish, go back to Share and toggle the video off. The link stops working immediately.

To download a video:

• Click Share video in the video editor toolbar.
• Choose Download Video from the drop-down to open the download window.
• Click Video to save an MP4 file to your device.

Your downloaded MP4 includes the voice-over and background music, synced with your scenes in the exact order you arranged them.

When your storyboard changes

Your storyboard is always the source of truth. If you add, remove, or reorder frames in the storyboard after creating a video, the video editor will detect the change the next time you open it.

New frames are added to the timeline with the default duration. Deleted frames are removed automatically. Frame order always follows the storyboard.

Your music and voice-over tracks stay on the timeline through these changes. Adjust their positions if needed.

Need help or found a bug?

If you notice anything not working as expected, please report it to [email protected]. Including a screenshot or short video recording helps us resolve issues faster.

You can also get help directly in the app by clicking the Help button (question mark icon) at the bottom of the screen, then selecting Help → Contact support to speak with one of our support team.

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