Doodaro complete tutorial: every screen explained (2026)

Doodaro turns a script into a hand-drawn video in four steps: Story → Storyboard → Editor → Exports. This tutorial walks through every screen in that order, plus the two screens that sit beside the flow (Home and Voices). Follow it once with a short script and you will know where everything lives.

Before you start

You need a Doodaro account and a short script. If you do not have a script, a one-line idea is enough; the story assistant can draft the rest.

A good first project is 60 to 90 seconds long. It renders quickly, uses little of your allowance and shows you the whole pipeline.

Home

Home is where projects live.

• Create new starts a blank project.
• Start with a template opens the style gallery. Every template starts a new project, so your existing work is not touched.
• Saved projects lists what you have made, with search and sort.
• Start with an example opens one of three finished projects (The Curious Creator, Stories Through Time, Make It Make Sense) as a copy you can edit.
• The sidebar also has Templates, My Templates (your own saved styles), Image Generator and Media (every image, recording and export you have made).

Open a project and you see the three production steps across the top: 1 Story, 2 Storyboard, 3 Edit. Exports sits inside the Editor.

Story

The Story screen is where words go in. It has three parts: the brief, the assistant, and the script box.

1. The brief

At the top is one large field, What is your video about? Write a sentence or a paragraph. Below it are four small settings:

Field	What to put there
Audience	Who is watching, for example “first-time home buyers” or “grade 5 science class”.
Language	The language of the script and the narration. English, Spanish, French, German and more.
Target length	30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, 2, 3, 5 or 10 minutes. The assistant writes to this length.
Narrator	The voice for the whole video. Click it to open the voice library. You can change it later.

Under those is a collapsed section, Recurring characters and details. Use it to keep the same people, clothing, objects and places consistent from scene to scene:

Maya, a woman in her thirties with short curly hair and a yellow raincoat. Her dog Pip, a small brown terrier. The setting is a rainy coastal town.

Filling this in helps every scene description refer to the same characters. It does not guarantee identical faces across scenes; hand-drawn pictures vary, and that is part of the look.

2. The story assistant

On the left is a chat panel, Your story assistant. Three quick actions sit above the message box:

• Draft my story writes a full script from your brief, audience and length.
• Improve the opening rewrites the first lines while keeping the rest.
• Make it shorter trims the script to the target length.

You can also type your own request, for example “add a scene about the refund policy after scene 3”. The assistant answers with a proposed story. Click Review proposed script to read the new script and its scene list, then Use this draft or Dismiss. Your previous version stays available, and the last three story versions are kept as checkpoints.

3. The script box

On the right is Your script. Paste, type, or use Import .txt for a plain-text file. The counter under the box shows the word count and a spoken-time estimate (about 2.5 words a second), so you know if a 300-word script will run close to two minutes.

When the script reads well, click Build scenes. Doodaro splits the script into scenes, each with narration text and a picture description, and takes you to the Storyboard.

If you change the script later, the Storyboard shows a notice that the script has changes that are not in the scenes yet. Click Review script and build again to apply them.

Storyboard

The Storyboard is one card per scene. This is the screen you will spend the most time on.

The setup row

Three cards sit above the scenes:

1. Style card. The drawing style for the whole video. Click it to browse the 37 styles or your own templates. Changing the style redraws the scenes, so decide here before you generate.
2. Narrator card. The voice used for every scene. Choose voice opens the voice library; Change swaps it.
3. Progress card. Two meters, Images and Voices, show how many scenes are done. Generate N images and Generate N voices make everything that is still missing in one go.

Above the setup row are three buttons: Script (back to Story), Play storyboard and Open editor.

The scene grid

Each card shows the picture, the scene title, a Scene 01 badge, the scene length, the voice name, the narration text and two status badges:

Badge	Meaning
Image · Not created	No picture yet.
Image · Waiting / Creating	In the queue or being drawn. You can keep working.
Image · Ready	Done.
Image · Needs update	The description changed after the picture was made. Redraw when ready.
Image · Try again	The request failed. Click Redraw.
Voice · Your recording	You uploaded your own audio for this scene.

The same states apply to Voice. A small badge with a headphone icon shows the recorded length in seconds.

Four buttons sit under each card: Edit, Draw (or Redraw once a picture exists), Voice (or Revoice) and Listen.

The toolbar above the grid has Undo, move earlier, move later, delete, and Add scene (up to 100 scenes). A Grid / Focus switch changes the layout.

The Edit pop-up

Click Edit on any card to open the scene. The large picture is on the left. On the right are collapsible panels:

• Narration: the text this scene says, with a word count and the recorded length. A Regenerate button under it makes a new recording.
• Scene voice: keep Use video voice or pick a different narrator for this scene only.
• What we’ll draw: the picture description. Change it and click Regenerate to get a new picture.
• Timing & animation: drawing reveal, ending hold and scene length, with an Edit in editor link.

Only the scene you are editing changes. Use Previous scene and Next scene to move through the video without closing the pop-up.

Focus view

Switch the layout to Focus to get the same panels as the pop-up, laid out on the page, with a strip of scene tiles at the bottom. Each tile shows two status dots (image and voice). Focus view is the fastest way to review a long video scene by scene.

Play storyboard

Play storyboard opens a preview that shows each still picture for its scene length while the narration plays. It has Previous, Play and Next. Nothing is animated yet; the drawing happens in the Editor. Use this preview to check the order and pacing before you spend render minutes.

Voices

Open the voice library from the Narrator field on Story, the Narrator card on the Storyboard, or the Scene voice panel in a scene.

• Search voices by name.
• Filter by Language, Accent, Gender and Region. Clear filters resets them.
• Every card has a Play sample button. Voices with no supplied sample say so.
• The heart saves a favorite on this browser; Favorites first sorts them to the top.
• Try my script with this voice opens a small box. Paste up to 250 characters of your own script and click Generate preview to hear that voice read your words.
• Use voice assigns it to the video or to the scene, depending on where you opened the library.

The library holds hundreds of narrators in a dozen-plus languages. Cards load 24 at a time; Show more voices loads the next batch. See the voice guide for how to choose well.

Editor

The Editor is where pictures become drawings. The selected scene fills the middle. The left column holds the settings, and a scene timeline runs along the bottom.

Left panel settings

• Drawing style: the style for this scene, with Apply style to all scenes.
• Reveal direction: Natural, Left to right, Right to left, Top to bottom, Bottom to top, the four diagonals, Center outward, Edges inward, Choose a starting point (click a spot on the picture) and Random with a Shuffle drawing order button.
• Reveal time: how many seconds the pen draws, from 1 to 120.
• Hold time: how long the finished picture stays, from 0 to 30 seconds.
• Follow the story: for grouped story scenes, a Follow drawing camera that zooms to each group as it is drawn (Zoom amount 1x to 2.5x), then returns to the full page after a Pause before pullback.
• Narration: Upload narration or Replace narration to attach your own recording to this scene.

Settings changes need a new render before you can see them.

Preview versus full render

• Render scene makes a preview of the selected scene only. Use it to check timing and direction. It is cheap and fast compared with the full video.
• Render all applies the selected scene’s drawing settings to every scene and renders the full video.
• Render full video renders every scene with its own settings and its narration into one MP4.

Minutes are counted on rendered exports, not on drafts, so preview freely. For the full explanation, read the editor timing guide.

Exports

The Exports panel sits at the right of the Editor.

• Format: Landscape 16:9, Portrait 9:16 or Square 1:1. The picture layout is planned for the format, so pick it before you generate images if you can.
• Export video starts the full render.
• Export history lists every completed render with its version number and date, each with a Download button. Previous versions stay available.

Exports are MP4 files with no watermark on any plan.

A first project in twelve steps

1. On Home, click Create new.
2. Write a one-sentence brief. Set Audience and a 1-minute Target length.
3. Click Draft my story, review the proposal, click Use this draft.
4. Read the script. Edit anything that sounds wrong.
5. Click Build scenes.
6. On the Storyboard, open the style card and pick a style (Clearboard is a safe first choice).
7. Click Choose voice, play two or three samples, click Use voice.
8. Click Generate N images, then Generate N voices.
9. Click Play storyboard and listen through once.
10. Fix any scene with Edit, Redraw or Revoice.
11. Click Open editor, render one scene as a preview, adjust reveal time if the pen is too fast or too slow.
12. Pick a format, click Export video, and download the MP4 from Export history.

Where each screen fits

Screen	You go there to	You leave with
Home	Start or open a project	An open project
Story	Write the script	Scenes built from the script
Storyboard	Fix pictures and narration per scene	Every card marked Ready
Voices	Pick a narrator	A voice on the video or on a scene
Editor	Set timing and direction	Preview renders you are happy with
Exports	Render and download	An MP4

If a scene ever looks wrong after export, go back to the Storyboard, fix that one card, and export again. You do not rebuild the video.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a video in Doodaro step by step?

Open a project, write or paste a script on the Story screen, click Build scenes, review the pictures and narration on the Storyboard, set timing in the Editor, then render the full video and download the MP4 from Exports. Each step is a tab at the top of the project.

Do I need to write the script myself?

No. Type a one-line brief in the Story screen and click Draft my story. The story assistant writes a draft you can review, apply and then edit. You can also paste your own script or import a .txt file.

Can I change one scene without redoing the whole video?

Yes. Every scene has its own card on the Storyboard. Click Redraw to make a new picture or Revoice to make a new recording for that one scene. The other scenes stay as they are.

Where do I pick the drawing style?

On the Storyboard, in the style card at the top. Pick one of the 37 styles or one of your own saved templates. Switching the style redraws the scenes, so pick it before you generate images.

How long can a Doodaro video be?

The Target length menu on the Story screen goes from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, and a project can hold up to 100 scenes. Rendered minutes come out of your plan allowance, so longer videos use more of it.

What file do I get at the end?

An MP4 in landscape 16:9, portrait 9:16 or square 1:1. Every render is kept in Export history, so earlier versions stay available.