Conti (storyboard)
Conti (storyboard) is the rough panel-by-panel blueprint of a webtoon: composition, character placement and balloon positions, handed from writer to artist.
Also written as: storyboard · continuity
Meaning
Conti, a Japanese-derived abbreviation of "continuity", is a panel-by-panel blueprint. For a webtoon it records, in rough sketches (drawn conti) or text (written conti), what is visible in each vertically flowing panel, where characters stand, where balloons go and how much space sits between panels. It is the same idea as a video storyboard, but because a webtoon is read by vertical scrolling, two extra elements appear: scroll speed and gap between panels. When a web novel is adapted into a webtoon, the story writer often produces a written conti rather than a script.
Why it matters
Conti is the bottleneck of webtoon production. In a studio where writer and artist divide the work, the conti is their only point of contact, and an ambiguous conti means redrawn art. The largest transformation in adapting a web novel happens here. One novel chapter (5,000 characters) becomes one webtoon episode (50 to 80 panels) in which 80 percent of the dialogue disappears and interior narration becomes expression and composition. Deciding what to keep and what to entrust to the drawing is the conti's job. A web novel writer who can write a conti can take part in adapting their own work; one who cannot only receives the result.
Example
Written conti — The Bankbook in the Drawer, episode 1, panels 31–35
Panel 31 (tall) Kitchen, wide. Yuri sits on the floor in front of the drawers. Looking down from above. No dialogue. Panel 32 (medium) Close on Yuri's hand gripping the bottom drawer's handle. SFX: "clunk." Panel 33 (small) Yuri's face. Brow furrowed. Balloon (small): "...Why is this so heavy." [Large gap — one full screen of scroll] Panel 34 (tall, full screen) Inside the open drawer. One bankbook. "Yuri" on the cover. Background dark, only the bankbook lit. Panel 35 (small) Only Yuri's eyes. No dialogue.
The large gap between panels 33 and 34 replaces the novel's "she hesitated a moment." The time the reader spends scrolling is Yuri's hesitation. Three sentences of narration became one gap.
Common mistakes
- Transplanting dialogue from the novel. A webtoon balloon holds two lines per panel at most. Delete 80 percent and hand it to the face.
- Not using gaps. In vertical scroll, empty space is time. Always place a blank screen before a big moment.
- Panels all the same size. A panel's height is its emphasis. Let the important panel fill the screen.