Storyboard Pro Panel Editing Cookbook

Editing brushstrokes

Contour Editor > Centerline editor displays a center line for brush strokes. Pencil lines always have the center line visible. PM recommended always using brushes as opposed to pencils.

Brush strokes 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.

Selecting layers across panels

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

In the Thumbnails pane, go to the thumbnail of the starting panel. Select the starting layer from the tabs on the right side of the thumbnail (don't select layers in the Stage/Camera View pane), then ⌘ Command + ⇧ Shift + click on the end of the selection from the layer tabs on the ending panel thumbnail. The starting layer, ending layer and all layers in between will be selected within the panel range.

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.

Copying and pasting cycles

• Select the cycle by selecting the layers across panels (⌘ + ⇧ + select layers in the Thumbnails panel.)
• Copy the layers with Layer menu item > Copy Layers. (This is the only mechanism for copying a cycle.)
• Select the range of panels to copy the cycle(s) into.
• Layer > Paste Layers Special
  • Fill in options, e.g. loop vs ping pong, overwrite existing layers, etc.

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 Selection 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