Storyboard Pro Panel Editing Cookbook

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.

Drawing solid freeform shapes

With the Pencil tool selected: Tool Properties panel > Auto Fill button (the icon is a loose circle filled with red, located at the bottom of the panel.)

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

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.

Selecting and transforming layers across panels

Selecting layers across panels

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.

Transforming layers 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.

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.

Clone tool

The Clone 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.

Converting templates to drawings

Use case: A template is added to a panel from the Library. Subsequently, the design of the objects in the template needs to be edited.

Layer > Convert to Drawing.

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.

Tool presets

These are brushes that create new layers when they are used, e.g. a blue brush that creates a "ROUGH" layer when it's used.

Windows > 'Toolbars > Tool Presets

It's located in the horizontal toolbar strip along the top of the window by default.

Default layer set

To make the current set of layers (both the number of layers and the names given to the layers) the default for new panels, select the panel with the desired layer set.

Layer > Set Layer Layout as Default

Rotating the stage

The stage can be rotated as if an animation disc was being used.

On Mac OS, hold down ⌘ Command + ⌥ Option to free rotate the stage.

The default keys for rotating right and left are V and C, although I often reassign V to invoke the Select Tool, like in Photoshop.

To reset the stage rotation, click the Reset Rotation button in the view options.

Notes

See also

• Storyboarding For Animation Class Notes