Storyboarding

[Luke Stewart]

What storyboarding software do you like? I am using Celtx for my screenplay and beat sheet, but the storyboarding part of it feels crippled. Any suggestions?

[PaulVortex]

The best software for storyboarding is some paper and some pencils. You have three or four panels down the left of the page, and then some space on the right to give some extra information, such as audio and action/camera notes.

I swear by storyboards.

[Luke Stewart]

Thanks Paul, but I am ditching the pencil and paper method this time around. Storyboarding a 90 page screenplay on paper just doesn't appeal to me. I like the flexibility of moving shots around, and inserting new shots digitally. I have a Wacom tablet for the artwork on the boards themselves.

[Granty]

If it's electronic I guess any cheap and easy 3D package is great and fast once you set-up, or download, a few assets. Photoshop with a Wacom pen can be good set-up. But all depends on what kind of storyboard are you after.

But you can't beat paper for storyboarding, I personally setup a template on the computer, just a a4 side with 4 X boxes of your aspect size with a few lines for notes, and a small square on the top of each box to number it.

Then I get a pencil and ink, a fine marker, a think marker, and a brush for blocking in ink washes, and a few pots to hold them - I find this way I can just pencil in, then ink in, and finally block in tones for contrast and focal points. Then I can scan in and clean up, and add some hues if needed. Your storyboard looks like a cool comic book all toned in blacks and greys, and it is so fast to work in that method, you can't screw it up and you find quick methods to frame things up sometimes quite abstracted. You don't need to use black ink, try watercolours and Burnt Umber to get a more artistic ideal down.

Along with the above I may sometimes have a single A4 sheet for one complex panning shot with a number of key frames and arrows across a sprawling image.

Some people also use photographs to storyboard and build up scenes in camera, or a montage of many shots, better still is to just use the photographs for reference poses and locations, for a digital or inked storyboard.

Celtx is good but you still need something good, quick and organic to get it done, as the world is full of incomplete storyboards, that could have got the production money to make it happen.

[Zac C]

Moviestorm is nice, but i ahve yet to have a real project to test it with

[Kyle Presley]

I put this together from an older design I was given. It's really good, feel free to use it if you like. Works will if you use a 3 hole punch and a binder.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4201728869_7b97791bea_b.jpg

[J Davis]

The best software for storyboarding is some paper and some pencils.

Paul is right .. no software comes close to paper 'n pencils, even for feature length.


I swear by storyboards.

I used to swear by storyboards, now I swear by shot lists with storyboards on estab's, critical sequences, line crossings etc. Once you enter conversations a drawn storyboard can be a hindrance to the freedom of blocking on location.

[Steve2007]

If you've got an i phone, there's an app called hitchcock that looks quite good. Philip Bloom reviews it here

http://philipbloom.co.uk/2009/11/19/directors-viewfinder-app-for-iphone/

[holy_handgrenade]

Maybe its from my animation background, but storyboarding with paper/pencils has always been the way to go. I usually think of a scene or cut and instead of drawing on a big sheet of paper, I usually go with completely blank (no lines) 4x6 cards. I write any directions, audio queues, etc on the back of the card and just draw the scene on the card. A new idea pops up, or whatnot, you just change the order of the cards, or put a new card in, etc.

Using a portfolio style book that has pull away clear sheets allows you to put it in a book or otherwise present your scene/shots in a handy way.

[MattN]

Yeah, I have no drawing skills so doing things electronically has a big appeal to me. I'll probably throw down for that iphone app and try that for my next project which we film in about a month.

[KurtF]

download the free version of Google Sketchup. Assemble people, rooms, props, etc. Get the view you like, make screen captures, and insert via Gimp, Photoshop, Painter, etc.

[J Davis]

Yeah, I have no drawing skills so doing things electronically has a big appeal to me. I'll probably throw down for that iphone app and try that for my next project which we film in about a month.

I still swear by pencil and paper and I am not that great at drawing. Circle for head, oval for body, sticks for arms and legs. Often I take a still of the location, print it out and draw over the top. I can draw well if I take the time but I don't have time. Only time enough to get ideas down accurately for later reference. If I need to use the storyboard as part of my sales pitch I hire an illustrator.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

I have a Wacom tablet for the artwork on the boards themselves.

I think the OP is not interested in 3D storyboarding softwares. From what I can understand he wants an interface to organize the drawings and have the capabilities of adding comments and fields like everyone posted in their examples.

If I'm wrong please correct me, specially the OP.

:thumbsup:

And yeah, if someone knows a software dedicated to this, please tell us.

And I'm not sure why a Word/Writer template wouldn't do it.

[Peter Majtan]

Pietro & OP - we are addressing this issue/request in way You can't even imagine. Keep an eye on the Workflow section this week...

:beer: Peter

[jimmins]

What about FrameForge?

[bigmike]

What about FrameForge?

Frame Forge is very good if you have a lot of time to build virtual sets. I beta tested it, then bought it when it came out.

If you are building a storyboard that you are going to use to get financial backers, Frame Forge is an excellent way to go.

I always find myself pulling out a pencil and paper when push comes to shove. I can draw and it's just so much faster!

I saw a Coen Brothers storyboard once and it was just stick figures! Same with Scorsese. You don't have to be an outstanding artist to get your point across.

If you can draw, Storyboard Pro by Toon Boom is really nice. Toon Boom is an animation software company and the workflow is very easy...

I didn't like Storyboard Quick. I bought that when I was looking for a software solution. Cheesy.

I also like Sketchup. Someone mentioned it earlier. Really easy to use and fast.

Don't get me started about previs software!!! Can't afford it.

[JonFairhurst]

Yep. Pencil and paper - or tablet and draw program if you prefer. As a visual artist, if you don't have this skill (using simple circles and lines), then it's worthwhile to develop it.

Once you start talking about 3D drawings, that moves from storyboard to visualization. A storyboard is for telling the story. Visualization is for choosing lenses, building the set, arranging the furniture, laying dolly track, etc. Do a quick and dirty storyboard first. And focus on telling the story. No need to do detailed visualization, until you are sure that the story is told well by the sequence of pictures.

And even then, unless you have the luxury of a large soundstage and a crew of set builders, does one even need visualization software? If you're shooting on location (a church, bar, school, courtroom, or park in your area), you need to be able to work with what you have. A rough storyboard gives the idea of the shot you want to show. Often the details of the shots can't be worked out until you're actually at the location.

[Luke Stewart]

I think the OP is not interested in 3D storyboarding softwares. From what I can understand he wants an interface to organize the drawings and have the capabilities of adding comments and fields like everyone posted in their examples.

If I'm wrong please correct me, specially the OP.

:thumbsup:

And yeah, if someone knows a software dedicated to this, please tell us.

And I'm not sure why a Word/Writer template wouldn't do it.

Correcto-mundo Pietro! Still want to draw the frames by hand, but would like a better way of organizing the shots, and the freedom to move shots around and duplicate shots easily. It just seems like a no-brainer for a software product, but I guess not. I'm going to stick with Celtx for now, since the rest of the project is in that file format.

Peter- looking forward to what you have cooking!!!

[Tim Hole]

I agree but storyboarding and visualisation are one in the same beast. Just at different degrees. People tend to use visualisation tools for complex visual setups whether virtual or physical. I don't see it that way personally. I use the moleskine storyboard notebooks to sketch out my ideas whilst I am on the move.

I used frameforge for quite a few years but then moved to antics, and since that went bye-byes I have moved to I-Clone. As i tend to like camera movement instead of a lot of cutting, I find building a virtual environment and then using that to plan out the film, I then take the captures building my storyboard from that.

I have not as yet done a full animated visualisation, as I haven't needed to.

[Tim Hole]

Correcto-mundo Pietro! Still want to draw the frames by hand, but would like a better way of organizing the shots, and the freedom to move shots around and duplicate shots easily. It just seems like a no-brainer for a software product, but I guess not. I'm going to stick with Celtx for now, since the rest of the project is in that file format.

Peter- looking forward to what you have cooking!!!

Celtx, as much as I love it for development, I always have to turn off the autosave function if dealing with a bigger project. It takes about too long to save.

For storyboarding it works enough for me but is just a bit slow and restrictive. I agree though that Toon Boon to use too.

I would like to say though that for Wacom one of the greatest things that Adobe did was integrate the manual 'rotate canvas tool', in CS4. It now works like a piece of paper. SO MUCH BETTER!!!

[Tim Hole]

Have you seen the art packs available for celtx sketch

http://www.celtx.com/toolbox.html

they must be new as I havent seen them before. Nice little add-on