Storyboard Video Generator

Storyboard Video Generator: images or a story into a Ken Burns slideshow MP4

Give it image URLs in the order you want them and you get back a finished MP4: each image held for a few seconds with a slow zoom and pan, the clips joined, and your audio track laid over the top if you have one. Vertical, wide or square. No editor, no timeline, no per-clip work.

If you only have a story, it can write the scenes and generate the images first, on your own OpenAI key. Worth knowing before you plan a long one: motion is rendered frame by frame, so the run's clock runs out well before the 900-second ceiling. Several minutes of video is the realistic figure, and when time runs short you get the clips that finished rather than nothing.

🎬 What Storyboard Video Generator does

In URL mode it downloads each image, checks it really is an image rather than an error page, renders a zoom-and-pan clip from it, joins the clips in your order and muxes the audio. The zoom direction alternates between clips so a long slideshow does not feel mechanical.

In story mode it splits your text into scenes, generates one image per scene with gpt-image-1 on your key, then animates them the same way. Your art style and character note go into every prompt, so the scenes look like they belong together.

Nothing crashes the run. A dead URL is skipped and listed under skipped, a scene that fails to generate is skipped, and a broken audio track leaves you the silent video rather than nothing.

Output sizes are 1080x1920 for 9:16, 1920x1080 for 16:9 and 1080x1080 for 1:1, H.264 MP4.

📥 What you give it

You need either image URLs or a story. Give neither and the run writes one free sample row telling you so.

{
  "imageUrls": ["https://example.com/scene1.jpg", "https://example.com/scene2.jpg"],
  "secondsPerImage": 4,
  "aspectRatio": "9:16",
  "fps": 30,
  "audioUrl": "https://example.com/ambient.mp3"
}

Audio length changes the video length. The shorter of the two wins. A long track is cut off, but a track shorter than the slideshow trims the video to match, and you are billed for that shorter length.

📤 What you get back

The MP4 goes to the run's key-value store, and one row lands in the dataset describing it. A real row from a recent run, with the signed link trimmed:

{
  "ok": true,
  "charged": true,
  "images": 2,
  "aspectRatio": "9:16",
  "secondsPerImage": 2,
  "fps": 24,
  "durationSeconds": 4,
  "hasAudio": false,
  "videoKey": "storyboard-video-1789627427569.mp4",
  "videoUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/Bdta3ZePheGXfWAnY/records/storyboard-video-...",
  "videoBytes": 1618276,
  "generatedAt": "2026-09-17T06:43:47.775Z"
}

🧾 Reading the output

The charged field marks which row is the real deliverable rather than a sample or a notice. It is written when the row is built, so read it as a label on the row, not as a receipt.

The Console's overview table hides errorCode, note and skipped, so a sample or diagnostic row shows up there as an empty result with no link. Read the JSON to see why.

▶️ How to run it

1. Open Storyboard Video Generator and click Try for free. 2. Paste your image links into Image URLs, in order. Or write into Story and put your OpenAI key in the key field. 3. Pick an Aspect ratio and set Seconds per image. 4. Add an Audio URL if you have a voiceover or a music bed, then click Start. 5. Open the run's Storage tab and download the MP4, or follow videoUrl from the dataset row.

💰 How much does it cost?

$0.015 per second of rendered video. Flat on every Apify plan, no volume tiers.

You pay for the seconds in the file you actually receive. Five images at four seconds each is twenty seconds of video, so $0.30. A run that produces no file charges no video seconds, and the sample and diagnostic rows are not billed.

Story mode spends on your OpenAI key, separately. The per-image figures OpenAI publishes for gpt-image-1 are about $0.011 on low, $0.04 on medium and $0.167 on high, so a five-scene story is roughly $0.06, $0.20 or $0.84 of your own spend. Use low for drafts.

💡 What people use it for

• Turning a set of product photos into a vertical clip for Reels, Shorts or TikTok.
• Animatics: rough motion over storyboard frames before anyone shoots anything.
• Slideshows from a photo shoot, with the client's music over the top.
• Illustrated stories, where the text is the input and the images are made to match.
• Faceless channel content built from stock images and a voiceover you already have.

🚧 What it does not do

• Hard cuts only. No crossfades, wipes or transitions between clips.
• No text and no captions are burned in.
• No voice generation. Bring an audio track as a URL.
• No per-scene motion control. The zoom direction alternates by itself.
• 60 images and 900 seconds are the hard caps. Settings that would run longer get the time per

image trimmed to fit, and the log says so.

• The run clock usually binds first, because motion is rendered frame by frame. You then get the

clips that finished, with the rest listed in skipped.

• Images must be publicly reachable. They are downloaded directly, so a link needing a login

will not work.

• Story mode needs your own OpenAI key. None is included here.

🧭 Which video tool do you need?

❓ Questions people ask

Do I need an OpenAI key? Only for story mode. Give it image URLs and no key is used and no OpenAI call is made.

What happens if I run it with nothing filled in? You get one row marked _sample: true explaining what to fill in, and no video seconds are charged.

What if one of my image URLs is dead? It is skipped and listed under skipped, and the rest still render. If every URL fails you get a NO_USABLE_IMAGES row and pay no video seconds.

How long can the video be? The caps are 60 images and 900 seconds, but the run's clock is what you will hit first. Raise the run timeout if you want to push it.

Where do I find the file? In the run's key-value store, under videoKey. The row's videoUrl links straight to it.

Can I control the zoom on a particular image? No. The direction alternates automatically.

Can I use my own images? Yes, that is what Image URLs is for, and the video follows the order you list them in.

🆘 If something breaks

Open the Issues tab on the actor page. Send the run ID and the row's errorCode. If the video came out short, check skipped first: it usually names the images that did not make it.