Storyboard Pro Panel Editing Cookbook

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Drawing

Editing brushstrokes

Tools menu > Centerline editor displays a center line for brushstrokes, which can then be moved around to change the path of the brushstroke.

Tools > Contour Editor allows you to edit the edges of a brushstroke.

Pencil lines always have the center line visible. PM recommended always using brushes as opposed to pencils.

Brushstrokes can also be converted to pencil lines and vice versa. Pencil lines can be edited as bezier curves, but brush strokes cannot.

Filling line drawings

Select the layer containing the line drawing to fill.

Layer menu > Generate Auto-Matte ( ⌘M )

Options for tolerance and color are available in the dialog.

By default it will fill with the current color, defined in the color picker window. Layer > Colour

To change the color of the matte, Matte colour: "Custom", then click on the color chip to the right.

Drawing solid freeform shapes

• Select the Pencil tool.
• Tool Properties panel
  • Maximum Size slider > Set to 0. This prevents an outline from being displayed around the shape.
  • Colour > Select the color to use to fill the shape.
  • Auto Fill button (the icon is a loose circle filled with red, located at the bottom of the panel.)
  • Click the Fill Behind button in order to draw the shape behind existing lines to fill drawings.

Converting brush strokes into pencil lines

With the Select Tool, select the brush strokes to be converted.

Tools menu > Convert > Convert brush strokes into pencil lines

Changing the thickness of a brushstroke

First, convert the brush strokes into pencil lines.

With the Pencil tool selected, change the thickness of the stroke in the Tool Properties panel.

Convert the pencil lines back to brush strokes: Tools menu > Convert > Pencil lines to brush strokes

Drawing thumbnails

Preferences > General > Forbid drawing on panel thumbnails

By default, this option is active. Deselecting this option the thumbnails in the Thumbnails pane to be drawn on directly, which can be a convenient way to do thumbnails as they are small and you can see the panels side by side.

Important to toggle this off when you’re done otherwise when you go to select a thumbnail a mark will be left on the panel.

Selecting by color

With the Select Tool (black arrow) active: Tool Properties panel > Select Tool Options group > Select by Color (red arrow icon). (Alternatively, Tools menu > Select by colour.)

Now when the Select Tool is used to click on a vector element in the panel, all other elements with the same color will be selected.

Selections

Selecting layers across panels

Be sure to select the layers within the panels in the Thumbnails panel. They can't be selected across multiple panels in any other window.

Prerequisite: All the selected layers must have the exact same names in all selected panels.

First, make sure that the Selection Tool (black arrow) is active.

In the Thumbnails pane, go to the thumbnail of the starting panel. Select the starting layer or layers.

Scroll to the ending panel and while holding down the ⌘ Command and ⇧ Shift keys, click on the ending panel. In order to select layers across the panel range, all the layers must be named the same across the entire range. This is case-sensitive.

The layers that were selected in the first panel will now be selected on the first panel and last panel and all panels in between. ,

Copying layers across multiple panels

If the layers are to be copied, copy them via Layer menu item > Copy Layers only, i.e. don't copy them by right clicking and selecting Copy Selected Layers, or ⌘+C, or Edit > Copy.

Pasting layers across multiple panels

In the Thumbnail panel, select the panels to paste into. Layer menu item > Paste Layer Special, and review options in the dialog.

Note that Paste Layer Special is only avaiable with multiple panels selected.

Transforming artwork

Transforming an entire layer

With the layer selected in the Stage window, use the Layer Transform tool.

Transforming vector art across multiple panels

If the layers are to be transformed, with the range selected, use the Selection Tool to draw a lasso around all of the artwork in the layers. With the artwork selected, use the Selection tool the move, scale, or rotate the selected artwork in the current panel. The transformation will be applied to the artwork in all of the selected layers.

Note that the Selection Tool cannot be used to select artwork if a layer group is selected. If all the layers in a group are to be transformed it's necessary to select the layers directly by first expanding the layer group, then selecting all the layers within the group directly.

Transforming layers across multiple panels

• Select a layer. Use the Layer Transform tool to move it.
• Layer > Spread Layer Motion...

To apply the transform to any other layers, select the other layers, then apply Spread Motion Layer...

Copying artwork to other panels

Duplicating panels

Sometimes the simplest way to repeat loops in a cycle is to duplicate the entire panels.

• In either the Thumbnails or Timeline window, select the source panel or panels.
• right click > Duplicate Panels
• This will make copies of the selected panels and place them in the timeline immediately after the last panel in the selection.

Drag and drop

• Make the Thumbnails Window active.
• Select the Layers to copy from the tabs on the right side of a Panel.
• Drag those tabs and drop them in the stack of tabs on the right side of the destination Panel.

Paste Layer Special

• Select the layer(s) within a single Panel.
• Copy the layers with Layer menu item > Copy Layers, or right click > Copy Layer.
• In the Thumbnail or Timeline panels, select the range of panels to copy the cycle(s) into.
• Main App Menu > Layer > Paste Layers Special
  • Fill in options, e.g. loop vs ping pong, overwrite existing layers, etc.
  • Use the Overwrite existing layers with same name option to update existing artwork to match the updates made in the source Layer.
  • Use the Place layers at bottom option to update layers containing BG artwork.

Stamp tool

The Stamp Tool is useful for (a) quickly creating collections of similar objects, e.g. crowds, forests, rain, and (b) reusing cycles.

Crowds and chaotic patterns

• Create the source artwork in either a single layer or multiple layers. Multiple layers will add more variation to the backdrop.
• Select the Clone Tool.
• Tool Properties panel > Presets > New Brush button (icon of a pencil with a plus sign next to it.)
• A new stamp is added to the Presets.
• Now with the Stamp Tool over the Stage/Camera View, every click will add a drawing from the stamp cycle. Each layer from the source artwork is the next image in the stamp cycle.
  • Note that the size of the stamps can be changed in the Tool Properties panel by changing the size of the brush. So, for example, you can make a forest containing trees of varying sizes.

Cycles

• Within a single Panel create a Layer for each drawing representing a step in the cycle.
• Select all the Layers in the cycle, and create a new Stamp Preset as described above.
• Create a new Panel for each step in the cycle using the P keyboard shortcut.
• Click in the Stage/Camera View window with the Stamp Tool to place each drawing in the cycle.
  • Turn on Onion Skin to register the drawings relative to each other in the Panels.

Templates

See Storyboard Pro Templates

Special lighting

1. Create a new layer in a panel as an overlay (OL).
2. Use the Rectangle tool to create a rectangle bigger than the frame.
3. Fill the rectangle with a semi-transparent color (save the color including the transparency in the color palette for consistency).
4. Cut out any necessary elements out of the rectangle, e.g. lit windows.

Perspective tool

This tool can be used to skew selections, unlike how Photoshop works where you transform a selection and use modifier keys to skew the selection.

• Make a selection of the artwork to transform.
• Choose the Perspective Tool (located under Contour Editor in the Tools toolbar.)
• Manipulate the selection handles to skew the drawing, e.g. take a drawing of a painting and skew it to look like it's placed on a wall perpendicular to the camera plane.

Notes

See also

• Storyboard Pro Advanced 1 class notes, March 2025 - Google Docs
• Storyboarding For Animation Class Notes
• Storyboard Pro Timeline Cookbook
• Storyboard Pro Workspace Cookbook