AMCC5170 — Spring 2026

Weight: 20% | Due: May 14, 2026

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Due date: May 14, 2026 11:59 PM (GMT+8)

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This project explores storyboarding across three scales as the connective tissue between narrative and image: (1) as a static visual medium with panels, character consistency, and narrative pacing (Story2Board); (2) as an intermediate pose/layout representation bridging text and motion (VAST); and (3) as a cinematic anchor for multi-shot narrative video (STAGE). You will design a short story, storyboard it, and progressively lift it from panels → animated layout → a full video sequence.

Part 1: Short Answer (20%)

Write a one-page response covering the following two questions. Feel free to include screenshots, sketches, or diagrams.

1. Why does storyboarding matter for generative video? Compare traditional film storyboarding with AI-assisted storyboarding. Think about:
   • What roles do panels, shot composition, and pacing play in narrative communication?
   • Why is character consistency across panels hard for current generative models, and how do approaches like Story2Board try to address it?
   • How does an intermediate layout/pose representation (as in VAST) change what the model has to "decide" vs. what the artist decides?
2. From storyboard to cinematic video: Imagine you want to create a 30–60 second multi-shot narrative video. Walk through how a storyboard would act as the cinematic anchor for generation (in the spirit of STAGE). Address:
   • How would you decompose the story into shots (establishing, close-up, cut-away, etc.)?
   • How would you maintain identity, scene, and style consistency across shots?
   • Where would you insert human control, and where would you let the model generalize?

Part 2: Reading Reflection (20%)

Choose one of the following papers from our Week 11 reading set (linked on the course page):

• Story2Board — storyboarding as a static visual medium with character consistency
• VAST — pose/layout as an intermediate representation between text and video
• STAGE — storyboard as cinematic anchor for multi-shot narrative video

Write a one-page reflection (approximately 500–800 words) that addresses:

1. Summary: Briefly summarize the paper's core idea and technical contribution.
2. Critical analysis: What does the method do well? Where do you expect it to fail (identity drift, layout ambiguity, shot incoherence, motion artifacts, etc.)?
3. Connection to artistic practice: How does this method change what an artist or director can author vs. what the model fills in? Does it expand or constrain creative control?
4. Personal position: If you had to build a storyboard-driven creative pipeline for your own work, which of the three paradigms (Story2Board / VAST / STAGE) would you anchor on, and why?