Movie Character Development
Build the character architecture of your movie. Characters have lanes. Story events become blocks. Arrows show who affects whom and when.
Preset / Project
Temporary Memory is stored in this browser. It does not create a project file.
Character Timeline
Category key
Example: Alex and Ben meet at 8%, trust develops at 27%, Cole threatens Ben at 70%, Cole kills Ben at 82%, and Alex kills Cole at 97%.
Add Character
Use ✎ to edit, ↑ / ↓ to change the character order, and × to delete. The order here is the order used on the Character Timeline.
Add Story Event
Choose who acts, what happens, who is affected, and where it occurs in the movie. Click an event on the timeline to edit it.
Plot Structure Markers
Turn markers on to place the main story beats directly across the Character Timeline. You can adjust each marker's percentage; the corresponding movie time is calculated automatically.
Story Events / Actions
All actions currently in the movie. Multiple targets can belong to one single event box.
Characters in Timeline Order
This is the same order used by the Character Timeline. Use the ↑ and ↓ controls on the timeline to arrange the characters.
About Character Planner V51
Character Planner is a visual story-development tool for planning a movie through character relationships, actions, turning points and plot events. Build a character timeline, place events by percentage or movie time, connect characters through targets, and keep detailed notes for each event. The planner is designed to make the character-driven structure of a film easy to see and revise without losing the underlying story information.
Updates
V51 — Fixed Story Event editing: a simple click and a double-click now open the Edit Event dialog reliably. The drag handler no longer redraws the timeline on a simple mouse release, which previously replaced the clicked element before the browser could fire its click events. Removed the duplicate event button from the Edit Event dialog and kept Delete as the only destructive quick action. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V50 — Removed the duplicate icon from timeline event cards so there is no conflict with editing. Clicking an event opens the Edit Event dialog, and double-clicking an event now explicitly opens the same editor. The Delete control remains separate. Updated the event hover/title guidance and preserved the Story Events / Actions reorder controls. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V49 — Restored robust Edit Character button handling on the Character Timeline and Characters in Timeline Order list. Edit controls are always clickable and open the character editor reliably, with a safe fallback for browsers that do not support modal dialog opening. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V48 — Restored clear category/function colours on timeline event cards. Each story category now has its own restrained visual colour while notes remain the primary content; connectors and target markers follow the same category colour. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V47 — Added previous / next swap controls to the Story Events / Actions list so adjacent story events can exchange their timeline positions directly. Timeline event cards now use a character-based accent by default, while the function remains visible as neutral metadata. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V46 — Added persistent Edit / ↑ / ↓ / Delete controls beside every character in the Character Timeline and added explicit Order ↑ / ↓ controls to the Characters in Timeline Order list, so character positions can be swapped from either location. Controls remain visible at all times rather than appearing only on hover. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V45 — Final suite pass: synchronized the Character Planner version metadata with the visible UI, added direct ADBRecords tool navigation, added Cast View filters (All / Major only / With events), and retained the exact shared sidebar/timeline row geometry from V44. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V43 — Fixed Character Timeline lane alignment. The character sidebar rows and the corresponding timeline rows are now locked to the same explicit height and axis height, with independent flex sizing so content cannot stretch one side. Event cards are constrained inside their lane, preventing oversized blocks from visually making the timeline rows appear taller. This keeps the character names, lane separators, event lanes, target markers and connectors aligned even with large casts.
V42 — Added Compact / Normal / Spacious vertical-density modes so more characters can be visible at once, while keeping the timeline structure and horizontal movie-time layout intact.
V41 — Visual refresh: event blocks now prioritize Character → Target and Notes, with story-function colour accents, subtler connectors, cleaner character lanes, hover-only character controls, a compact category key, Focus Timeline mode, and Compact / Normal / Spacious density controls.
V35 — Simplified timeline event cards so the character route and Notes are the visual priority; reduced metadata to a small category/time line; hid percentage and verbose event labels from the card; widened cards progressively at higher zoom; softened connectors and target markers; and kept the timeline readable as a left-to-right story map. Print layout keeps the timeline in landscape. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V38 — Fixed the character-lane grid alignment by giving the sidebar and timeline one shared lane height and axis height; added a Condensed view that compresses empty stretches while keeping the real movie times on the ruler; and kept Timeline view available for proportionally accurate screen-time spacing. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V39 — Rebuilt Auto Zoom so it measures the real visible timeline viewport and the actual card widths, then finds the smallest scale needed to keep consecutive events readable. Auto Zoom now takes control of the scale while enabled; the manual scale selector is temporarily disabled until Auto Zoom is turned off. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V40 — Rebuilt the Add Story Event layout into clear rows: Character / Category / Specific Event / Target Mode, then Targets, then Position / Notes / Add Event. Prevented the Notes field and Add Event button from overlapping, removed page-level horizontal overflow on desktop, and kept the timeline itself horizontally scrollable. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V37 — Visual redesign focused on the timeline: cleaner cinematic lane styling, hover-only character controls, a compact legend, function-based event colours, Focus Timeline mode, Compact / Normal / Spacious density controls, improved structure markers, and scale-aware story cards. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V36 — Redesigned timeline event cards so story notes are fully readable instead of being cut off; increased the character-lane height, made cards scale-aware at high zoom, removed text ellipsis from the main story content, and aligned interaction connectors with the larger lanes. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V33 — Widened the character sidebar so character names remain clearly visible alongside the Edit, ↑, ↓ and Delete controls. Character names can now wrap instead of being cut off. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V32 — Reworked the Targets selector into a wide, readable card-based picker that uses the full Add Story Event/Edit Event width instead of collapsing into a narrow column; added direct Edit and Delete controls to the Characters in Timeline Order list; and kept the four Edit / ↑ / ↓ / Delete controls on each timeline character lane. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V31 — Added four character timeline controls for every character (edit, move up, move down and delete), preserved manual character order, added a dedicated Characters in Timeline Order list, replaced the native target selector with a cleaner target-picker interface, and added dedicated close controls to the edit dialogs. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V30 — Added clearer event Notes display directly inside timeline blocks, a dedicated Close control for the Edit Event window, duplicate-event controls in the editor and on the timeline, and maintained Auto Zoom for easier event planning. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V29 — Added optional Auto Zoom. When enabled, the timeline automatically widens when story events are close together so individual event blocks are easier to see. Manual Timeline Scale remains available when Auto Zoom is off.
V28 — Renamed the character-only event option to “This character only” so it is immediately clear that no other character needs to be selected.
V26 — Kept Add Character narrower and Add Story Event wider on desktop while preserving the existing event system.
V25 — Kept the Add Story Event panel the same width as the other panels by removing fixed internal widths and preventing the multi-target selector from forcing horizontal overflow. All V24 event features remain unchanged.
V24 — Fixed multi-target event creation so one character can affect up to five targets in one single box, with a different specific event for each target. Enlarged the target selector and kept Search plus percentage/minute positioning. so one character can affect up to five characters in one single box while each target can have a different specific event. Added a dedicated Search button, enlarged the target selector, and kept percentage/minute positioning. The Story Events / Actions list remains below the Plot Structure Markers.
V18 — Added multi-target events: one character can now affect up to three characters in the same story event, with a separate arrow/chart connection to each target. Existing single-target projects remain compatible.
V16 — Expanded the Movie Preset library with many additional movie genres and story models.
V15 — Expanded the Story Event system beyond Interaction, Relationship, Turning Point, and Death / Loss with Action / Behaviour, Goal / Motivation, Conflict / Obstacle, Emotion / Inner Change, Information / Revelation, Decision / Choice, Plot Development, Setting / Location, Time / Story Time, Object / Symbol, Theme / Meaning, Backstory / Memory, Foreshadowing / Setup, and Consequence / Aftermath categories. Each keeps a + Custom option.
V15 — Updated the visible planner version, project format version, title, and footer to V24. The physical HTML filename remains character_planner_v1.html.
V12 — Character Timeline moved directly below Movie Character Development so the story architecture is visible immediately.
V12 — Removed confusing vertical gridlines from character lanes. Character rows remain horizontal lanes.
V12 — Plot Structure markers are placed below the character/event controls and appear as vertical lines directly across the Character Timeline, with calculated movie time.
V10 — Added Movie Duration, real screen-time labels, Story Function labels and project/memory controls.
V4 — Added Erase All Blocks and Erase All Characters.
Temporary Memory — Ten browser memory slots let you save and load different versions to compare story structures.