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The Storyboard Artist - USING “TOON BOOM STORYBOARD PRO ” SOFTWARE

September 30, 2008

Well, let’s see now.

I went to a private party within a club, Saturday night. It was there that I met Mr. Robert Lee, younger brother of my absolute, all time hero, Bruce Lee. Robert is a very warm and intelligent man, who had no problems discussing his legendary brother, even though Robert is his own person and a gifted (though “retired”) musician.

I also met a great stunt/fight coordinator named Andy Cheng, who to martial arts geeks like me is way up the ladder for having been a former member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team. Since then, Andy has coordinated and directed second unit on THE RUNDOWN, the first hit movie for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Back to storyboards, I am starting work with my friend John Singleton. This has given me the chance to start using (with scant knowledge) a new software I’ve had for months called STORYBOARD PRO from the Canadian company TOON BOOM, which is well known for animation software.

Once I learn how to use it properly, STORYBOARD PRO will allow me to not only continue to do storyboards digitally without paper, but I will also be able to do my own animatics, doing camera moves such as PANS, TILTS and BOOMS.

Tradition storyboards can be done as well, certainly. What I am excited about is the ability to add to certain scenes where the director needs to get a sense of pacing and motion.

Once the boards are done, they be loaded, shown or sent to a client in various ways, such as a PDF or a QUICKTIME MOVIE. The latter is great, because in STORYBOARD PRO, you can add sound effects, music and voices.

If you still work on paper, that’s fine. The program will allow you to import storyboard files. You just have to make sure the individual frames are on separate documents and not three or four to a page.

For a direct link, check it out here.

http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboardpro

It’s worth a look.