With AI video, the style frame is not a nice-to-have before production: it is the production input. Most video nodes on 8frame animate a still you give them, so the colour, light, lens and texture of that still are what the clip inherits. Approve two or three style frames on the board first, test one of them with a cheap motion run, and only then make the shot stills from them. The step people skip is the motion test, and it is the one that shows whether a look survives movement at all.
What a style frame is, and where it sits between mood board and storyboard, is in what is a style frame. This page is the working order on a board, from references to approved frames to the first clips. It starts from the existing mood-board stage; see how to make a moodboard for a client pitch for that.
What a style frame has to lock
A mood board says "this kind of feeling". A style frame says "exactly this". Before you call a frame approved, check that it fixes each of these:
| Element | What to decide | Why video cares |
|---|---|---|
| Palette | Three to five colours, including the shadow colour | The clip starts from the still's colours; a still that commits to them leaves less to invent |
| Light | Direction, hardness, time of day | Light that changes between shots is easy to spot in a cut |
| Lens and framing | Wide, normal or long; depth of field | Every shot still is generated to match it |
| Texture | Film grain, clean digital, paper, paint | Texture is easy to lose when frames are regenerated one by one |
| Character design | Face, costume, proportions | Becomes the reference sheet for every later node |
| Type and graphics | Font, where text sits | Added later on the timeline, but the frame needs space for it |
Austin Shaw's textbook Design for Motion, as Motionographer describes it, explains how style frames and design boards "are used professionally to pitch projects, guide productions, and manage client expectations". The AI version keeps all three jobs and adds a fourth: the frame is the literal first frame of the video.
TL;DR
| Step | Node or model | Price in credits | Input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gather references | Upload | none | Brand images, mood board picks |
| Style frame candidates | Seedream 5 / Nano Banana Pro / Midjourney V8 | 6 / 21 at 1K or 2K / 32 per job of four | Up to 14 / up to 10 references / prompt |
| Fix one detail | Flux Edit / Kontext Max | 7 for an input around 1 MP, rising with size / 13 | Frame plus an instruction |
| Motion test | Pruna p-video Draft / Kling v3 Standard | 4 for 5 s at 720p / 57 for 5 s silent | The style frame as start image |
| Shot stills in the approved look | Nano Banana 2 / Nano Banana Pro | 11 at 1K / 21 at 1K or 2K | Approved frame as reference |
A credit is about $0.01 at pack rate.
The board, node by node
1. A reference zone
Put a frame on the left of the board called "References" and upload everything that defines the look: brand photos, the mood board picks, a product shot, a colour swatch you made in a design tool. Canvas uploads take PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, AVIF and BMP up to 50 MB.
Write one style line on a sticky note in that frame, in plain words: "late-afternoon sun from the left, warm highlights, teal shadows, 35 mm lens, light film grain, no text". Every node from here on gets the same line.
2. Three candidates, not thirty
Run the candidates on an image node that accepts many references:
- Seedream 5 takes up to 14 reference images, the most on the roster, and costs 6 credits per image.
- Nano Banana Pro takes up to 10 references and costs 21 at 1K or 2K, 42 at 4K.
- GPT Image 2 takes 1 to 10 references; at its default high quality it is 29 credits for a square image and 20 for other ratios.
- Midjourney V8 returns four images per job for 32 credits. Do not use V7.
Make each candidate a deliberate direction (warm and grainy; cool and clean; high contrast) rather than random variation. Generate in the shape of the final film: 16:9 for a landscape video, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok. Then pick three to show.
3. Approve, then lock with edits
Once a direction is chosen, stop generating new candidates. Fix what is left with edit nodes, which change one thing and keep the rest: Flux Edit (FLUX.2 [pro]) is 7 credits for an input around 1 MP and rises with input size; Kontext Max is 13. Typical fixes: a colour in the costume, a distracting object, a sky that is too busy.
Move the approved frames into a frame called "Approved look". From now on, nothing outside that frame is a reference.
4. The motion test
Before you make twenty shot stills, check that the look survives motion. Connect one approved frame to a cheap video node:
- Pruna p-video Draft is 4 credits for 5 seconds at 720p, the cheapest video on 8frame. We quote its price and settings, not results.
- Kling v3 Standard is 57 credits for 5 seconds silent (86 with sound), at 720p, image-to-video only.
Ask for the kind of movement the film will have: a slow push-in, a figure walking through frame, wind in the trees. Then look at three things: does the grain stay grain or turn to noise; do the shadows keep their colour; does the character's face stay the same face when it turns. If the look breaks, adjust the frame (less fine texture, simpler background) and test again. A failed test costs far less than a failed shot list.
5. Shot stills from the approved look
Now make the storyboard stills, each with the approved frames attached as references and the same style line. Nano Banana 2 is 11 credits at 1K and 17 at 2K; Nano Banana Pro is 21 at 1K or 2K. ShotGrid can produce nine framings of one moment for 42 credits at 4K when you want options fast.
Then the stills go to video nodes, shot by shot. The board for that stage is in AI storyboard workflow for commercials.
Presenting style frames for approval
A style frame review goes wrong when the client approves a picture instead of a look. Present each candidate with three things next to it on the board:
- What it locks, as a short list on a sticky: palette, light, lens, texture.
- The motion test for that frame, so the approval covers movement too.
- One shot from the film redrawn in that look, to show it working on a different subject.
Ask the client to choose a direction, then to name what they would change about it, on stickies of one colour. Fix those with edits, show the result once, and record the approval date in the "Approved look" frame title. From then on, a request to change the look is a new round, not a tweak to a shot.
If the client has no 8frame account, export the frames (download the Original, the stored file) with the motion test clips and collect the notes outside; bring them back to the board as stickies.
Which model for which job
| Job | Model | References | Price in credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Style candidates from many references | Seedream 5 | up to 14 | 6 |
| Style candidates, highest detail | Nano Banana Pro | up to 10 | 21 at 1K or 2K, 42 at 4K |
| Illustrated or painterly direction | Midjourney V8 | prompt-led | 32 per job of four |
| Instruction edit of an approved frame | Flux Edit / Kontext Max | 1 image | 7 and up / 13 |
| Cheapest motion test | Pruna p-video Draft | 1 start image | 4 for 5 s at 720p |
| Motion test closer to production | Kling v3 Standard | 1 start image | 57 silent, 86 with sound, 5 s |
| Long production take from the frame | Seedance 2.5 / Wan 3.0 | 1 start image | 157 for 5 s at 720p / 95 for 5 s at 1080p |
Where it breaks
- Video resolution is lower than image resolution. A 4K style frame becomes a 720p or 1080p clip. No video model on 8frame outputs 4K, and there is no video upscaler. Judge the frame at the size the video will be.
- Fine texture moves. Grain, paper and brush texture are drawn fresh on every video frame. Test them.
- No negative prompt. No image or video node has a negative-prompt field. Say what you want, including "no text", in the prompt.
- Grading after the fact is limited. The Video Editor has Filter Presets and a per-clip Brightness slider, but no curves, colour wheels or LUTs. Lock colour in the frame, not in the edit.
- References are a ceiling, not a guarantee. A node takes a fixed number of references; more images than it accepts will not be used.
FAQ
What is the difference between a style frame and a storyboard frame? A style frame fixes the look (colour, light, lens, texture, character design) in one finished image. Storyboard frames show the shots, and in an AI workflow they are generated with the style frame as a reference.
How many style frames should I make? Three candidates for a choice, then one to three approved frames that cover the film's main settings. More candidates usually delay the decision without improving it.
Why test motion before the storyboard? Because the video model inherits the still. A look that falls apart when it moves will fall apart in every shot. A 5-second test on Pruna p-video Draft costs 4 credits.
Which 8frame model takes the most reference images? Seedream 5, with up to 14. Nano Banana and GPT Image 2 take up to 10.
Can I put the title or logo in the style frame? Leave space for it, but add the text later on the Video Editor timeline. Text generated inside an image cannot be edited.
Sources
- Motionographer, interview with Austin Shaw, author of Design for Motion, 2015-12-16: motionographer.com/?p=61754, checked 2026-11-09
- 8frame prices, defaults and limits: the 8frame app, checked 2026-11-09
Try it without signing up: the 8frame canvas opens on a real board. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month.