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Toon Boom Storyboard Pro: Detailed Features

Digital Drawing


Draw with a complete set of vector-based tools to create resolution-independent drawings, including:

  • Brush tool for freehand drawing, using solid color, gradient or textured pen styles IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Basic shape tools (Line, Rectangle, Ellipse)
  • Text tool with essential wording feature and independent attributes for each character (Font, Size, Bold, Italic) with automatic or user-defined kerning for multiple lines of text, with independent alignment modes, indentation and spacing, Unicode with Input Method Editor support for typing foreign languages
  • Eraser tool for correction and removal
  • Cutter tools, ideal for rectangular image cropping and freehand for custom cut selections
  • Paint tool for filling areas with solid colors, gradients or textures
  • Close Gap tool for closing a shape so that it can be filled with a color, without adding a visible line
  • Modify, transform or recolor drawing object brushstrokes and color fills
  • Create brush textures to recreate the look of natural media tools, such as graphite, charcoal or pencil
  • Manage color palettes using a color picker that supports solid colors, gradients and textures, as well as an independent transparency value for each color
  • Apply the Transform tools to drawing objects to prepare them for transformations in the animatic
  • Flip horizontally or vertically selected objects or layer content
  • Flatten strokes inside a layer to optimize and reduce overlapped objects
  • Merge layers to group them together
  • Switch on Light Table to see through layers and clean drawings
  • Quickly flip panels with onion skinning to draw key frames as you go
  • Support screen rotation on Windows Tablet PC

Scenes, Panels and Layers

  • Add an unlimited number of panels per scene for complex scene descriptions
  • Duplicate, re-order, join or detach panels from a scene easily
  • Create and manage an unlimited number of layers in a panel, using the transparent layering architecture
  • Key frame layer's position, scaling and rotation between the first frame and last frame over time
  • Spread layer's motion over several panels to create quickly multi-panels background panning
  • Create smooth layer movement using drag-and-drop layer path elements
  • Define ease-in and ease-out acceleration for smooth layer motion
  • Enjoy easy layer manipulation using drag-and-drop to rearrange layer order, swap layers between panels and merge layers together
  • Customize layer display (Hide or Visible, Rename) and attributes (Lock, Export availability on PDF or animatic)
  • Display In, Out and Duration of selected elements NEW in v.1.5
  • Overlay safety area and 4:3 safety while working on widescreen project New in v.1.5

Captions

  • Include captions for each panel with information such as notes, dialogue, slug lines, costume
  • Use the Global Captions field for overall comments, production notes, Storyboard Proer contact information, etc.
  • Create an unlimited number of panels and Storyboard Pro captions
  • Type notes directly into caption fields
  • Customize the caption categories
  • Save caption layouts as a template for future Storyboard Pros
  • Search tool to find caption text easily
  • Import TXT files directly into a caption field
  • Support Pen Input panel user interface on Windows Tablet PC

Sound

  • Use voice annotation to add comments quickly
  • Add an unlimited number of voice annotations to a panel
  • Record voice annotations directly without using an external application

Timeline

  • Display thumbnail images for each panel
  • Manage panel and transition duration using drag-and-drop
  • Import an unlimited number of audio files
  • Link audio tracks to panels to keep sound files in sync during editing
  • Expand sound files for overlapping dialogue, sound and music
  • Set sound file duration directly in the timeline using drag-and-drop
  • Display sound file waveforms to synchronize shots
  • Edit each sound file volume envelopes
  • Turn individual soundtracks on or off
  • Shift and shuffle selections, panels or sound files all at once
  • Roll panels to change median editing point without affecting global timing NEW in v.1.5
  • Split a panel at the current frame to insert extra panels within the same scene NEW in v.1.5
  • Show the camera frame while scrubbing through a panel NEW in v.1.5

Image and Audio Libraries

  • Reuse assets from the built-in image template library including Characters, Locations, Props and Actions
  • Access an unlimited number of user libraries easily to work with custom and frequently used drawings and sounds
  • Set user libraries as global to Toon Boom Storyboard Pro or localize it to the current Storyboard Pro project
  • Import libraries from Toon Boom Harmony or Digital Pro

Camera

  • Play back a panel with dynamic camera movements in real-time using the Camera tool at any time during Storyboard Pro development
  • Key frame camera position, zoom and roll between the first frame and last frame in a panel
  • Create smooth camera movement using drag-and-drop camera path elements
  • Define ease-in and ease-out acceleration for smooth camera motion
  • Copy camera key frames to create complex camera motion over several panels

Playback

  • Play animatics in real-time without any rendering, including all camera movements and synchronized sound
  • Play back the current panel or the entire Storyboard Pro
  • Toggle playback to loop Storyboard Pro output
  • Turn sound playback on or off
  • Display camera mask during playback NEW in v.1.5

Transitions

  • Place transitions between shots
  • Select different types of transitions (Cut, Dissolve, Wipe)
  • Define the length of the transition

Import

  • Import TVG, OPT, PAL, SCAN, SGI, TGA, YUV, OMF, PSD, PNG and JPG image formats
  • Import a group of images to automatically create a Storyboard Pro
  • Import PSD and preserve independent layers in panel IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Import SWF animation file format
  • Import PDF file format
  • Import MP3, WAV, AIF and AIFF audio formats

Export

  • Support SWF and MOV animation formats to export the current panel, selected panels or full Storyboard Pro project
  • Configure SWF and MOV formats (audio and video codec, compression)
  • Overlay time code on exported movie
  • Overlay panels and scene number as well as local scene time code on exported movie NEW in v.1.5
  • Support PDF format with password protection and foreign language encoding support IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Select a layout from a list of standard Storyboard Pro page layouts
  • Place bitmap on both header and footer New in v.1.5
  • Display 4:3 safety in PDF panels New in v.1.5
  • Customize page layout properties, with headers and footers IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Save new and updated page layouts
  • Select the information you want to print, including data on the panel, scene name, start and end times, duration, transition, text in caption fields and layers IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Print extended panel to include the scope of the entire scene
  • Set snapshot markers to print timing positions inside a panel
  • Support EDL and AAF format, allowing the creation of standard CMX EDL files or Legacy AAF and the export of QuickTime movie files for each panel or scene synched with EDL to export Storyboard Pro timeline to major editing applications IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Produce a sequence of still JPEG or TGA images at current Storyboard Pro frame rate or one per panels
  • Export PSD images with independent layers
  • Export current visible frame to JPEG or TGA image
  • Activate PSD background transparency NEW in v.1.5
  • Export current visible frame to JPEG, TGA and PSD NEW in v.1.5
  • Create CSV files containing all panel information and bring it into any spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • Generate all panels into Toon Boom Harmony or Digital Pro scenes IMPROVED in v.1.5
  • User definable filename pattern when exporting EDL, AAF, Bitmap or Image Sequence NEW in v.1.5
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