Table of Contents
- A complete guide to turning your illustrated book into a narrated video using Story Studio
- What Is Story Studio?
- Where to Find Story Studio
- Step by Step: Making Your Video
- Step 1: Open your book in Projects
- Step 2: Open Story Studio
- Step 3: Record the narration
- Step 4: Add a motion effect
- Step 5: Choose a transition
- Step 6: Choose the shape of your video
- Step 7: Check the captions
- Step 8: Preview your video
- Step 9: Export your video
- Flip Book, PDF or Video: Three Ways to Share Your Book
- Ideas for Your Story Video
- Tips for Better Narration
- FAQ
- Start Making Your Story Video
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A complete guide to turning your illustrated book into a narrated video using Story Studio
What Is Story Studio?
Story Studio turns your illustrated book into a video. You record the story in your own voice, one scene at a time, add a little movement to each illustration and a transition between pages, then export a video you can share with anyone.
Works with: Any book in Projects. The illustrations you have added to your project become the scenes of your video, in the same order.
Why it matters: The same book you made for print becomes something to watch and listen to. A grandchild can hear the story in your voice, a class can watch it together, and you can share it anywhere a video plays.
Where to Find Story Studio
Story Studio lives inside Projects. Open Projects and open your book. At the top right you will see three views: Grid, Storybook and Story Studio. Click Story Studio.
Step by Step: Making Your Video
In this example, the book is Little Lost: a girl named Emma finds a tiny turtle in the middle of her town.
Step 1: Open your book in Projects
Go to Projects and select the book or story you want to work on. Once the project is open, you will see all the illustrations you have added to your book.
Step 2: Open Story Studio
At the top right of your project, switch from Grid to Story Studio. Each page with an illustration becomes a scene on the timeline at the bottom, in the same order as your book. Here you add voice narration to each scene, a little movement and the transitions between scenes.
Step 3: Record the narration
Click the first scene on the timeline. In the Narration section on the right, click the round red record button and start telling your story. In the video, the first scene of Little Lost is a single sentence about Emma walking through her little town one morning.
When you finish speaking, click the button again to stop. Your recording saves itself, and the panel shows Recorded with its length. To hear it, click Listen. If you want another take, click Re-record.
The best part: the length of each scene adjusts to the length of your narration on its own. You don't need to time anything. Just tell the story.
Move to the next scene and record its narration in the same way. In Little Lost, the second scene is where Emma stops: there is a tiny turtle right in the middle of the street. Keep going until every page of your book has its narration and motion.
Step 4: Add a motion effect
Under Motion, choose how the illustration moves: Auto, Zoom in, Zoom out, Pan left, Pan right or None. Auto is already selected and switches between zooming in and zooming out from one scene to the next. A gentle movement makes the illustration feel more alive while you read.
Step 5: Choose a transition
In the toolbar, open Transition and pick how your video moves from one page to the next: Crossfade (a soft blend, already selected), Slide or None. This sets every page turn at once.
To change just one page turn, click the small marker between two scenes on the timeline and pick a different transition for that one.
Step 6: Choose the shape of your video
In the toolbar, open Aspect and pick the shape that suits where your video will play: 1:1 (square, already selected), 9:16 (vertical, for phones and social media) or 16:9 (widescreen, for YouTube).
Step 7: Check the captions
Story Studio writes a caption for each scene from your narration. Click a scene and read its Caption on the right, and fix any word that came out wrong. If you record a scene again, its caption is written again too, so check it once more.
Prefer a video without captions? Switch off Auto-captions in the toolbar.
Step 8: Preview your video
When all your narrations are recorded, click Preview at the right of the toolbar and watch the whole story from start to finish.
Step 9: Export your video
If you are happy with the result, click Export, then Export MP4. A progress bar shows while your video is made. When it is ready, click Download MP4.
If a narration is still uploading or a caption is still being written, Story Studio asks you to wait a moment. Try again shortly.
Flip Book, PDF or Video: Three Ways to Share Your Book
One project in Neolemon can become three different things. Pick the one that suits your reader.
Option | What you get | Best for |
Flip Book | A link to a page-turning book that opens in any browser, no login needed | Sending the book to family, friends or readers in a message |
Export PDF | Print-ready files: Interior Pages PDF and Cover Wrap PDF | Amazon KDP, a print service, or printing at home |
Story Studio | A video of your book, narrated in your own voice | A video gift, social media, a storytelling YouTube channel |
Ideas for Your Story Video
- A gift for family. Grandparents, cousins and friends far away can hear the story in your voice.
- A personalized video gift. Make the book about the child who will watch it.
- Social media. Share your book as a short video.
- Your own storytelling YouTube channel. Each book becomes an episode.
Tips for Better Narration
✅ Record in a quiet room, close to your microphone.
✅ Keep each scene to one or two sentences. Short scenes keep young listeners with you.
✅ Read the story text you wrote for the page, so the video and the book match.
✅ Read slowly and with expression. Scenes adjust to your narration, so a pause costs you nothing.
✅ Watch the preview before you export, and record a scene again if it doesn't sound right.
❌ Don't record with your microphone muted. If no sound comes through, Story Studio asks you to check your microphone and record again.
FAQ
Do I need a microphone?
Yes. You record your narration in Story Studio, so you need the microphone on your computer or a headset, and your browser needs permission to use it.
How long is each scene?
As long as its narration. Each scene's length adjusts to your recording on its own, so you never set timings by hand.
Do I need to finish my book first?
Story Studio uses the illustrations already in your project. Add every page you want in the video before you start recording. Only pages with an illustration become scenes, in the same order as your project's Grid, and the front and back covers are not part of the video. To change the order, rearrange your pages in Grid.
What do I get when I export?
An MP4 video of your book with your narration, captions, motion and transitions, ready to download and share.
Which plan includes video export?
Exporting the video comes with the Creator Plan.
Start Making Your Story Video
Next steps:
- Go to neolemon.com and try it free, no credit card required
- Build your book in Projects, page by page. The How to Use Neolemon guide walks through it
- Keep your characters the same on every page with the Story Scene Pro guide
- Open Story Studio and record your first page
For the whole journey from idea to finished book, see How to Make a Children's Book with AI.
Need help? Email us at support@neolemon.com
