The 21 scene visuals
A scene has to be drawn as something. PageToVid has twenty-one ways to draw one, and picking the right one is most of what separates a film that explains something from a film that recites bullet points over a background. This is the whole catalogue, grouped by the job each visual does.
The catalogue
Twenty-one visuals, and every scene in every film is one of them.
- Words —
statement,bullets,quote,testimonial,titlecard - Numbers —
stat,bignum,counter,meters,chart,table - Structure —
compare,checklist,timeline,grid,pricing - Story —
chat,beforeAfter,logos - Pictures —
image,gallery
A real screen recording of your page is not in this list because it is not a drawn visual — it is footage, and it is what a scene gets by default when there is something on the page worth filming. The catalogue is what a scene is drawn as when there is not.
Scenes made of words
statementis one sentence, set large, with nothing else on screen. It is the only visual drawn as text rather than as a card, which is why it takes a different motion vocabulary. Use it for the thesis and the turn — the two or three moments in a film that deserve the whole frame.bulletsis a short list. Three items read well, five is the limit before nobody reads any of them.quoteandtestimonialput someone else's words on screen.testimonialcarries an attribution;quotedoes not. A quote from your own marketing copy is not a quote — usestatement.titlecardopens and closes the film.
Resist the pull toward bullets. It is the easiest visual to write and the weakest to watch. If a scene's list has three items, three statement scenes usually beat one list — and since narration sets the length, splitting costs no extra seconds.
Scenes made of numbers
bignumis one figure, enormous. The most under-used visual in the product: a single number on screen for two seconds is remembered far better than the same number inside a sentence.counteranimates up to that figure. Worth it when the growth itself is the point, distracting when it is not.statis a figure with a label and some context around it.meterscompares a few proportions as bars — share of something, progress toward something.chartplots a real series. Give it real data; a decorative chart with invented shape is the fastest way to lose a technical audience.tableholds a grid of values. It is the densest visual available and needs the longest hold, so budget narration for it.
Every number on screen has to come from somewhere. The pipeline binds figures to their source and the storyboard reports the provenance of each one, so a claim you cannot trace is visible before you publish rather than after.
Scenes that show structure
compareis two columns. Us and them, before and after, plan A and plan B. It is the most persuasive visual in the catalogue and the easiest to make look unfair — if the right column is empty, nobody believes the left one.checklistticks items in as they are narrated. Good for a process someone will follow, or for capabilities as they are named.timelinelays out a sequence along an axis. Use it when the order matters; usechecklistwhen it does not.gridis a set of small tiles, each with an icon. The standard feature-overview visual.pricingdraws plan cards with their figures and features.
The list visuals hold up to eight items and scale their type to the count, so a grid of four and a grid of eight both fill the frame properly. Past eight, items are dropped rather than shrunk to nothing — which is the correct trade, but it means a nine-item list silently becomes eight. Split it.
Scenes that tell a story
chatdraws a message thread, bubble by bubble, in time with the narration. It is the best visual in the catalogue for a support conversation, an objection being answered, or two people disagreeing — because a viewer reads a conversation without being told it is one.beforeAfterwipes between two states. The wipe is the argument: the viewer sees the change happen rather than being told about it.logosis a row of marks. Only worth a scene if the names are ones your audience recognises.
These three are where a product video stops being a brochure. A chat scene where a customer asks the exact question your prospect is thinking, and gets answered, does more work than four feature tiles.
Scenes that are pictures
imageis a single picture: a real screenshot, an upload from your bank, or a generated still or clip.galleryis several, in sequence.
An image scene with a generate description is how you film a beat your page has no picture for. An image scene pointing at a banked asset is how you use a photograph you already own — which, when you have one, always beats generating an approximation of it.
Picking one
Work backwards from the sentence.
- Does the page show this? Then film it. A real screen recording of the actual product beats every drawn visual for anything the product does.
- Is there one number in the sentence?
bignumorcounter. - Is it a comparison?
compareorbeforeAfter. - Is it a sequence?
timelineorchecklist. - Is it somebody's words?
quote,testimonialorchat. - Is it the thesis?
statement. - None of those? It is probably two ideas in one sentence. Split the scene.
list_motions publishes the whole catalogue with each visual's requirements, so an assistant authoring a storyboard can validate its choice rather than guessing at field names.
Turn your website into a video — free
Paste a URL. PageToVid scripts, records, voices and renders it automatically.
Create your first video →Frequently asked questions
What decides whether a scene is footage or a drawn visual?
Whether there is something on the page worth filming for that beat. Scenes about your product become real screen recordings; scenes about an idea, a number or a comparison become drawn visuals. A film of a site is expected to be at least half real footage, and the pipeline enforces that rather than quietly drawing everything.
Can I choose the visual myself?
Yes. Every scene's visual is explicit in the storyboard, and update_storyboard changes it without re-authoring the film. A visual you name is the one you get.
Why did my nine-item grid come out with eight?
List visuals hold eight and scale their type to the count. The ninth is dropped rather than shrinking everything to unreadable — split the scene in two instead, which costs no extra running time because the narration sets the length.
Which visual should the first scene be?
Usually a titlecard or a statement, and in a phone-first film often an image clip — the first two seconds decide whether the rest gets watched. What it should almost never be is a feature grid.
Can one scene combine two visuals?
No, and that is deliberate. One scene is one idea drawn one way. If a beat needs a chart and a quote, it is two beats — and splitting it costs nothing in running time.