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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Storyboard Software

I use Celtx for my scriptwriting stuff, and it;s got a decent tools for storyboarding and such. At the end of the day you still have to draw the images and scan them in or use Photoshop or a similar program and create the images, but it allows you to break up your script and add whatever you need for storyboarding.
 
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I use Celtx myself for screenplays also. I was hoping there was some software out there that integrated something like the Bamboo Pad, that would allow me to "draw" straight to a digital image...then save the frame. I guess I could do that with Photoshop and Bamboo, but I thought there might be a application out there that streamlined the process some. I do enjoy Celtx though and to be honest I have not used it as yet for Story-boarding....might have to dig in to that some.
 
Ultimately storyboard and screenwriting programs are kinda useless..
anything they do..you can easily do yourself on paper...personally
prefer to work in the physical world..but if you're digitally inclined there's....

for 3D visualization..there's FrameForge Previz...Toonboom is
more traditional drawing program..both should have free demos..
then there's a bunch of free drawing storyboard programs out there.

...These should keep you busy...

http://www.frameforge3d.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrameForge_3D_Studio
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/LessonPage:Introduction_to_FrameForge
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http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboard/features.php
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and here's couple of free traditional board drawing programs
http://www.newfreedownloads.com/find/storyboard.html
 
I use a mixture of hand drawn, frameforge and photoshop with location scout photos.

Here's my opinion on all three methods:

Hand Drawn: Best for speed and creativity. Can get the intended mood across very well. Not precise unless time is taken to storyboard properly.

Frameforge: Fantastic if you're shooting on location and have reference photos/measurements. You can block your virtual actors, re create your studio/shooting location accurately down to centimeters and see what your FOV is going to be with your given camera/set of lenses. Downside is that it's very time consuming and the UI is a bit clunky.

Photoshop: Best for conveying colours/tonal range of scenes when talking to DOP, Set Designer etc.

To each his/her own...BTW, glad to see other people using CelTX around here :)
 
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Steve Das said:
...These should keep you busy...

http://www.frameforge3d.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrameForge_3D_Studio
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/LessonPage:Introduction_to_FrameForge
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http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboard/features.php
____________
and here's couple of free traditional board drawing programs
http://www.newfreedownloads.com/find/storyboard.html
Click to expand...

Cheers Steve, I will def. have a closer look at FrameForge, looks like my kind of thing :)

Eren Ozkural said:
I use a mixture of hand drawn, frameforge and photoshop with location scout photos.

Here's my opinion on all three methods:

Hand Drawn: Best for speed and creativity. Can get the intended mood across very well. Not precise unless time is taken to storyboard properly.

Frameforge: Fantastic if you're shooting on location and have reference photos/measurements. You can block your virtual actors, re create your studio/shooting location accurately down to centimeters and see what your FOV is going to be with your given camera/set of lenses. Downside is that it's very time consuming and the UI is a bit clunky.

Photoshop: Best for conveying colours/tonal range of scenes when talking to DOP, Set Designer etc.

To each his/her own...BTW, glad to see other people using CelTX around here :)
Click to expand...

Eren, some good gems there M8, I appreciate the input. I think there is def. a combo I can work with!

And Yes, I love Celtx! I did the manual thing for a while, but I love how easy and intuitive Celtx is with the functions and cross reference and summary tools ..OH! and its free :) I am with Ya!

Thanks all for taking the time :)
 
Eren Ozkural said:
To each his/her own...BTW, glad to see other people using CelTX around here :)
Click to expand...

CeltX is great. I was given a demo version of Final Draft, which I enjoy, but Celtx, for being free does the job perfectly enough.

What i normally do for storyboards is go on the location scout with a DSLR and start taking pictures, sometimes with stand-ins, but usually without. I keep track of the lens size (I use my Nikon 18-55 kit lens), which helps on set.

Mainly it's because I can't draw to save my life.
 
Storyboard Quick is a bit cheesy looking but it's super easy and fast and I did my first feature with it- saved my hind quarters many a time. :)

http://www.powerproduction.com/

Noah
 
Joel Kaye said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haTYcQRpeg

Spooky cool. I haven't used this, but it looks really neat.

My experience is still storyboards can get misinterpreted in a number of ways. They usually require explanation - which is subsequently forgotten by someone, somewhere who needs to understand the shot. If everyone on set had a 3D movie of the current shot on their iPhone or iPad... that would be very, very cool.

http://www.reallusion.com/iClone/iclone_videogallery.html
Click to expand...

...ok, so I will give that a look also, demo downloading ;)

Noah Kadner said:
Storyboard Quick is a bit cheesy looking but it's super easy and fast and I did my first feature with it- saved my hind quarters many a time. :)

http://www.powerproduction.com/

Noah
Click to expand...

Great Noah, that gives me a good range to look over the next day or so...thanks again!
 
Pencil and Paper in meatspace still can't be topped. Draw damn it draw!
 
Most of the storyboards I do are for TV commercials, and 95% of the time I use Photoshop.

All the Best!
 
Hands and Pen, photoshop, and then CeltX, Canvas, location stills etc.

It's free, and if you want to support them, there are great art packs for your canvas, cheap 25$.

About Celtx, am I the only one who whould need a production schedule by shot and not by sequence ?
 
I'm biased because I helped write the FrameForge manual for version 1.0, but I found it incredibly helpful with my own projects and in practical use when I provided pre-viz services for other companies.

Being able to recreate the space in virtual reality not only helped me have my shots 100% planned out, but let me experiment with different camera angles, and I found some beauties. Being able to hand out print outs of the story boards with camera heights, lens specifications, etc. was awesome. I gave it to my crew, and then went to go talk to my actors. My actors got to see the boards as well, so they knew what to expect and how tight the framing was going to be. The production went incredibly smoothly. We did about 40 setups, 7 1/4 pages in just under 12 hours on one of our shoot days. And everything looked great!

It's also been a time/money saver on larger professional grade productions. What they spent on me, they probably saved at least 10x that by having me pre-viz out several action sequences. Once they realized the limitations of the space and the complexity of the shot, they switched things around. Imagine if they had hired all the various stunt people and rented all the equipment they had planned on using, only to determine on the day of it wasn't going to work or be used. There wasn't enough time to previz the whole production (it was a t.v. pilot for ABC), so it was really interesting to compare how the shooting days that were pre-vized went compared to the ones where they were just using storyboards or no boards at all. Prevized days always went faster in terms of set up time and execution time. And that meant more time to work with the actors, which delivered better performances.

And now it can do actual 3D representations. Just whip out your 3D glasses, drop in a 3D camera, and literally see your storyboards pop off the screen. It's amazing.

Disclaimer: It's not practical to use it for everything. A simple establishing shot or a montage of quick one shots are probably not worth the time to use a 3D virtual pre-viz program. Under those conditions, still photography, photoshop and traditional storyboarding are much better suited. But for complex sequences, this is the way to go.

Programs like FrameForge are in my opinion an essential component combined with traditional storyboarding tools.

If you have any questions about it, feel free to call or e-mail me.

Chris
solutions@cordega.com
(818) 505-3428
 
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