Create storyboard frames from the CLI
Keep character and scene direction explicit across separately generated frames.
Choose one current text-to-image model for the first pass and hold it constant across the sequence. OfflineCreator currently lists FLUX Schnell at 1 credit for fast iteration, FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra at 8 credits for photoreal detail, and Recraft V3 at 5 credits for brand graphics. These are catalog labels and costs, not evidence that one option preserves a character better than another. Use the live `models` response as the authority before spending.
For a six-frame rough board, a lower-cost model can answer composition and shot-order questions before a higher-detail pass. Keep the same aspect ratio and shared style paragraph across every command. Change only the action, framing, and story information that must differ in that shot. If the art direction changes midway, begin a new labeled set rather than mixing incompatible frames and calling the sequence continuous.
Turn the shot list into a fixed frame contract
Start with a short sequence, not an open-ended request. For every frame, record the shot number, story beat, character action, camera distance, angle, composition, setting, time of day, lighting direction, palette, aspect ratio, and any object that must remain recognizable. Keep a separate continuity sheet for facts shared by all shots: character age range, hair shape, wardrobe colors, recurring props, location materials, visual medium, and forbidden changes. The sheet is an editorial control, not a promise that a model will remember it.
Write each prompt in the same order so omissions are visible: shared subject description, shared location and style, frame-specific action, camera, lighting, and exclusions. Black Forest Labs describes a comparable natural-language prompt structure built from subject, location, style, camera, lighting, colors, effects, and additional elements, and recommends changing one important detail at a time during refinement. That guidance supports a disciplined prompt template; it does not establish cross-frame identity.
Approve continuity as a human comparison, not a model claim
Review the frames side by side before treating them as a storyboard. Check face shape, hair, wardrobe, body scale, handedness, recurring props, room geometry, screen direction, time of day, palette, and camera progression. Mark every mismatch as accept, revise, or intentionally changed. A frame can communicate the beat while still failing continuity, so judge narrative readability and recurring-detail fidelity separately.
Dedicated storyboard software documents a stronger mechanism than repeated text alone: Boords says its AI does not automatically remember other frames and requires an attached reference image to carry characters, locations, or visual elements between frames. The version-pinned OfflineCreator CLI used here exposes no reference-image argument in its generate command. Therefore this workflow can repeat explicit descriptions and compare results, but it cannot honestly promise character or scene consistency. If visual identity is a release requirement, stop after concept review and move to a reference-capable or deterministic illustration workflow.
Build six prompts from one continuity sheet
Use a concrete shared description such as: “loose graphite-and-gouache storyboard illustration; Mara, an adult bicycle courier with a short black bob, ochre rain jacket, charcoal trousers, red canvas messenger bag; blue steel bicycle with a white front light; wet brick station concourse at dawn; cool gray palette with warm amber practical lights; unlettered surfaces.” Copy that paragraph unchanged into all six prompts. Then append a shot instruction such as “Frame 03, medium side view, Mara brakes beside the locked gate, bicycle facing screen right, messenger bag visible, low eye-level camera.”
Before generating, run `npx @offlinecreator/mcp@0.1.1 models` and `npx @offlinecreator/mcp@0.1.1 balance`. The published package exposes `models`, `balance`, and `generate`; generation requires a model and prompt. The CLI recognizes `--aspect` or `--aspectRatio` only for `1:1`, `16:9`, and `9:16`, and `--wait` requests polling for a generation that does not require an upload. For the local CLI, the package documents `OFFLINECREATOR_API_KEY` as a required environment variable and says keys stay in environment or MCP client configuration. Keep that credential out of prompts, command examples, and the storyboard manifest.
Know exactly what the CLI does not control
The 0.1.1 CLI implementation passes only a model ID, prompt, and recognized aspect ratio into its generate request. It exposes no dedicated seed, reference-image, prior-frame, or continuity input in that command. Do not invent flags for absent inputs or imply that repeating prose makes separately generated frames deterministic. The shared continuity sheet improves reviewability because intended constants are explicit; it is not hidden model state.
This distinction determines the stop rule. Minor variations in brush texture or incidental background detail may be acceptable for an exploratory board. Changes to identity, wardrobe, prop design, spatial geography, screen direction, or the action that carries the story beat require revision. If repeated attempts keep moving a protected detail, preserve the best frame as a reference for a downstream tool that actually accepts references, or redraw and composite the detail manually.
- Text can control
- Explicit intentRepeat the same named visual facts and isolate the shot-specific change.
- This CLI cannot prove
- Cross-frame identityIts published generate surface has no reference, seed, or continuity control.
- Human gate
- Side-by-side acceptanceApprove each recurring detail or move to a different production method.
Choose the next guide from the failed check
Return to the creative-workflow directory if the sequence still needs a different asset path. Use the motion-prompt guide after the frames communicate the correct beats and you need to describe movement between approved stills. Use the ad-concept guide when the board is becoming campaign creative that needs claims and brand review. These links are handoffs, not keyword variants.
Do not animate a continuity failure. If a recurring subject or location drifts, revise or replace the frame first. If every frame passes but the transition is unclear, add an intermediate beat or rewrite camera direction rather than spending on higher detail. The storyboard should answer what changes from shot to shot before it becomes an input to motion generation.
Keep the page inside its evidence boundary
This guide owns the narrow task of producing reviewable storyboard-frame concepts with the OfflineCreator CLI. It supports a version-pinned text-to-image command sequence, explicit continuity sheet, stable prompt structure, contact sheet, and human stop rule. It does not promise deterministic output, automatic memory, cross-frame consistency, exact product geometry, production-ready boards, or fewer revisions.
Keep every factual product statement attached to its source link in the block where a reader encounters it. Treat the command sequence as a procedure to test, not proof of visual performance. If the current CLI inputs, model catalog, cloud-processing boundary, or source-backed continuity limitation can no longer be verified, return this page to placeholder research rather than preserving an outdated instruction.