New

Creates a new project while closing any scene already open. The New Project dialog box opens, asking for directory, name, and resolution information.

New from Final Draft Script

Uses your Final Draft script to create a new Storyboard Pro project. This saves you time as it handles the creation of scenes and panels, as well as inserting all the text in the proper captions automatically.

New from Harmony Scenes

You can create a project from Harmony scenes. Before you do this, in Harmony, you must mark the frames you want to use as panels in your project. Frames must be marked in an annotation column called 'EM'. For each marked frame, a panel is created in Storyboard Pro. If you don't mark your frames, the first frame of each Harmony scene will be used.

You must group all your different Harmony scenes in one folder. Storyboard Pro will create one scene per Harmony scene. If your Harmony scene contains several EM markers in the annotation column, Storyboard Pro will create multiple panels within the scene.

Displays the Open Project dialog box where you can browse for a project file. You can open a new project from the current one and the previous project will close.

Displays a list of the most recently opened projects.

Clear

Clears the list of recently opened projects.

Close

Closes the currently opened project, but does not close the Storyboard Pro application.

Saves all changes made to the opened project, drawings, palettes, and palette lists. If you are working on an unpacked project, your changes are saved to the local cache.

Saves the current file with a different name and at a different location.

Saves the current state of a project as another project. The Save As window prompts you for a new name and a different location for this project before saving it. This will create a complete project directory for the new project.

You can also save a project as a single file by saving it as an .sbpz file—Saving Projects as a Single File.

Save and Pack

Saves an unpacked project and rezips it to the original zipped project file—see Saving Projects as a Single File.

Project Management

Split

Divides a storyboard into two parts. Each part can be saved as a different file. You can save the first half of the project, the last half of the project, or both. You can also preserve the original project intact or remove the panels from the original project. The selected panel determines the point of division.

Extract

Dvides a storyboard into several parts. Each export will be saved as a different file. You can save an intact copy of the entire storyboard or you can divide the project into separate files.

Merge

After dividing a storyboard project by splitting or extracting it, you can reassemble all the files into a single project file. Using the Merge command, you can bring several projects into one final Storyboard Pro project.

Insert

After splitting a storyboard project, you can reintegrate the scenes from a separate project file.

Merge and Replace

Once the various parts of your project are complete and you are ready to bring it all back into the master project, you can easily merge and replace the changed scenes. To merge and replace scenes, you must keep a copy of your master project intact.

What is the difference between merging and merging/replacing? When merging a project, two projects are combined into one; each project appears sequentially in the Thumbnails and Timeline views. A merge and replace integrates scene changes back into the master project; any scenes that were changed are replaced with the new one. As an option, you can keep a copy of the original files for verification purposes.

Restore and Open Backup

Lets you locate a previously backed up version of a project and opens it.

Creates a compressed version of your project. Backing up your work provides a safety net against corrupted files and allows you to have several versions of your project at different stages, in case you ever want to go back and work from an earlier point in the production.

Optimize Project

Opens the Optimize Project dialog box from which can remove unused elements, flatten all drawings and reduce the texture resolution in the project. This will reduce the file size of a project and increase the speed at which you can work on a project.

Create Optimized Drawings

When using any of the playback options in Storyboard Pro, the software has to calculate the positioning of all the *.tvgs (Toon Boom vector graphics), the file format that is created from all your drawing strokes. This calculation tends to slow down the rate of playback. There is, however, a way to circumvent this problem.

There is a a second file format, the *.tvgo (Toon Boom vector graphic optimized) that has all the pixel position information precalculated. Using these drawings should significantly speed up playback—see Advanced Preferences

Regenerate All Thumbnails

Lets you get the most up-to-date thumbnails in the Thumbnails view. As you draw, a series of small images (thumbnails) is generated. These thumbnails are automatically refreshed based on the refresh duration you set in the Preferences dialog box (Advanced tab, Delay Before Updating Thumbnails parameter).

You can update thumbnails immediately. This removes all cached thumbnails in the Thumbnails and Timeline views, and forces new thumbnails to be regenerated.

Images as Scenes

Let you import one or several images and automatically create a new scene for each. This is useful if you have a series of bitmap images that you need to include, such as backgrounds or scanned storyboards.

The supported image formats include: .bmp, .jpg, .omf, .opt, .pal, .png, .psd, .scan, .sgi, .tga, .tif, .tvg, and .yuv.

Images as Layers

As you build a scene, you may want to use bitmap images for backgrounds and overlays. You may also want to import an image as a reference for a vector drawing you want to create.

With Storyboard Pro, you can import a variety of bitmap formats (.jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .opt, .pal, .png, .psd, .omf, .scan, .sgi, .tga, .tvg, .yuv) which you can combine with vector-animated content to create rich and unique graphic styles.

You can import a single image (or multiple images located in the same folder) into a new layer.

Sound Files

Lets you import sound clips (.aif, .aiff, mp3, and .wav) into an audio track at the first frame or at the current frame. If the sound clip does not already exist in your project, Storyboard Pro copies the file from its present location to the audio folder in your storyboard project folder. You must work in the Timeline view.

Record Sound

Lets you record sound directly from Storyboard Pro and insert it in the Timeline view.

Export

Bitmap

Lets you export a storyboard project to bitmap files in PSD with independent layers, TGA, or JPG format. Your exported data includes a separate bitmap file for each panel in the storyboard.In the case of a .psd file, transform and transition animations are not exported. However, camera moves are rendered into an independent layer.In the case of a .psd file, transform and transition animations are not exported. However, camera moves are rendered into an independent layer.

Layout

Current Image

Lets you export the current visible frame to a .jpeg, .psd, or .tga image. Note that a .psd file will keep each layer separated and named as in the panel.

CSV

Lets you the data in a storyboard project in comma separated value (.csv) file format. You can view this data in any application that supports comma separated value files, such as Microsoft Excel. If you do not have Microsoft Excel installed, you can save the .csv file to your computer and open the file in another application.

EDL/AAF/XML

Once a storyboard is complete, you can send it to a Non-linear Editing (NLE) system to complete the animatic in a real editing suite with a direct return on TV or use it as a pre-editing map to replace the storyboard scenes with the final materials (shot in live action or rendered from a 2D or 3D software).

You can export your storyboard project, and preserve the timing, motions and sounds edited with Storyboard Pro, directly to Apple Final Cut Pro using EDL or XML formats or to Adobe Premiere, Avid Xpress, or Sony Vegas using AAF format.

Movie

Lets you export your storyboard and animatic as a movie file to share and play back easily for an efficient timing reference. You can export your movie file in three different formats: QuickTime, SWF Movie (Flash), and as image sequences.

PDF

Lets you export your storyboard project as a .pdf file which you can later print or share electronically. This is where you will find the way to set up your visuals to represent a classic storyboard on paper. An extensive number of options, settings and customizing is possible while exporting to PDF.

Soundtrack

Exports a sound file as a merged soundtrack or series of individual files. The exported soundtracks are generated as *.wav files—see Exporting a Sound File on page 1.

To Toon Boom

Lets you export your animatic as Harmony, Animate 2 and Animate Pro 2 scene files. You can export the entire storyboard project or a selection of scenes. Once the export is ready, you can open it in the destination software. When you first save this new scene, the exported file will be converted in the proper format depending on the software you used.

The following elements of your storyboard will be exported to the Toon Boom project:

Before exporting to Toon Boom, you can use the Layers view to deselect specific layers. In the Layers view, deselect the Toon Boom option from the Export To section. Note that this layer will still be exported to Toon Boom, but it will be disabled. You can enter the symbol and re-enable it at anytime.

FBX

Lets you export your storyboard project in FBX format, which allows you to store any motion data (from element motion or Camera angles/zooms), as well as the 2D and 3D elements in your scene. Once exported to FBX, you can open the storyboard elements in a third-party 3D application and continue to work on them.

These elements should only be exported to FBX when you are finished with them in Storyboard Pro. Normally, you would not bring the elements back into Storyboard Pro.

Conformation

Export Project

Lets you export your storyboard project to Final Cut Pro 6 (an Apple third party editing software), edit it and then import the changes back into your Storyboard Pro project using the conformation feature. The conformation export will produce an XML file containing your entire animatic project structure, as well as images of your panels. You can then import it into Final Cut Pro to recreate the animatic.

Export Selected Panels

Lets you export selected panels only.

Export Tracked Panels

Lets you track changes in your panels and export tracked panels only.

Import Animatic Project

Once you have imported your project’s conformation XML into Final Cut Pro 6 and completed editing, you will need to export it once again as an XML file to bring it back into your Storyboard Pro project.

Update Captions from CSV

Lets you update the captions in your project. If you generate a .csv sheet (comma separated values) from your project, you can update the file, then import it into Storyboard Pro. Doing so will update all caption fields automatically. You must first generate the CSV from your current project.

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